To me tightening the screws on the rings comes down to a matter of experience and "feel", to much and you will mark the scope which in reality is no big deal as you will never know until you remove the scope. And if you never intend to remove the scope or sell it who cares. The issue in over tightening is causing tension or damage on the internal workings and components of the scope. Tighten to little and you will discover during the most inopportune moment that your scope is loose.
I have a torque driver and if I tighten my scope screws to the recommended settings the scope would have definitely come loose after a half doz or so rounds and a ride on the atv. I am convinced the folks that make the torque drivers purposely list low settings so no damage is ever done to a scope using there recommended settings to reduce there liability. So I do it by feel like I had done for all the years previously. There is many analogies that may be given. But for those of you who have ever set toilets, especially two piece, there is a distinct possibility of cracking the bowl when tightening the bowl to the floor and the tank when fastening it to the bowl. To tight you crack/ break the porcelain, to loose it leaks, or is just loose and wobbles about. There is no other way to gage the right torque or tightness except to say the feel is gained by intuition and experience. You screw up and you just broke Mrs. Murphy's
expensive new Kolher toilet. So you want to get it right when your mounting Mr. Murphy's new Leupold.
Lapping; I have one of the Wheeler scope mounting kits. It is a fine kit which does allow one to ensure the rings and bases of a two piece system is perfectly aligned before the scope is set in place. Bases and rings are not precision pieces hand crafted to within +- one thou. If the bases are on a different plane and the rings are out of alignment or canted in the base then you will mark the scope and put strain on the tube and the internals when tightened all down. How much and how bad is determined only by how bad it is out of kilter and if your feel is to heavy. So you can laugh all you like on the obsessive compulsiveness on lapping the rings but in my experience and observations it does help remove and reduce many irregularities which can cause pressure points on the tube of the scope, thus the rings have a much move even grip around the circumference of the tube.
Leveling; Yes please by all means level your gun in the cradle or vise before starting the final setting of the scope and then level the scope once set in the rings and watch it during the procedure of tightening all the screws down as it will turn the scope in the rings as you tighten them. The accuracy of your rifle is affected by your crosshairs being level and in alignment with the bore. Most fellas and some gun shops mount the scope loosely in the rings, mount the gun, turn the scope until it looks level, crank the screws down tight and head to the range.
First mistake was most folks cant a gun left or right off level when they mount it, second when they tighten the rings screws down the scope will turn on it's axis as this is being done. If the scope is level after this procedure it is pure dumb luck. I have mounted a lot of scopes for many fellas and many have said the crosshairs are crooked...! "wrong", your canting the rifle when mounted to your shoulder. And then I will set the gun and scope up with the levels and show them.
Will this affect you hitting a moose standing broad side at 40 yards probably not. But at longer ranges at smaller targets, yes it will. And if your like me you need all the help you can get when trying to hit what your aiming at so you might as well put as many odds in your favour as you can.
Hope this helps.
