Hello Canbow,
There is no “one correct way only” = “my way”
Both examples stated do work, assuming the base was mounted correctly, the rings mounted correctly, and the scope mounted in the rings correctly.
I assisted a new hunter on Saturday morning sight in his brand new Browning X-Bolt Speed .30-06 with a Leupold VX-Freedom 4X-12X-50mm riflescope. He used a riflescope mounting kit from his stepdad and watched tutorial videos on Midway or Brownells website.
We taped white butcher paper over a large target board, placed a Redfield brand blaze orange sight-in target with 1 inch square grid in the center. Determined his scope “claims” adjustments are 1/4” clicks. Despite that designation, it ain’t always so, just saying.
Bore-sighted at 25 yards, very easy to do with the target setup. Fired 1 shot, 1/2 inch low, 1/2 inch left. Fired round 2 to verify shooter (remember, he is new and it’s a new to him firearm), cut same hole. Made adjustment of 8 clicks UP, 8 click RIGHT. Shot #3, a bullseye.
Took target to 100 yards, shot #4, 2-1/2 high, 2-1/2 left. The young fella is learning his trigger, learning the cheek weld, adjusting to recoil, says he, “may have pushed aim to left at the shot”. Fires round #5, 2-1/2 high, 1 inch left. Adjust 2 clicks up, 4 clicks RIGHT. He fires round #6, 3.25 high, dead center windage. We mark the target. Young man settling down, feels confident, this isn’t so hard, etc. Returns to the rifle, loads 4 cartridges in the magazine and proceeds to shoot a 1-3/8 inch 4 shot group with 180 gr factory loads from an outfit called Prvi Partizen PPU out of Serbia, forgive me, but I had never heard of them prior, but the only 180 grain loading he can find in our area.
Now he needed to loosen the cap to adjust the turret hash marks to “0”…ah, no Allen wrench, “it’s at home in a file cabinet”. Fortunately, old-school shooters happen to have things like Allen wrenches in a satchel at the range. You know, really old guys who read Jack O’Connor, and might still sight-in a rifle 3” high at a 100 yards, those types.
Results: 10 rounds fired, rifle sighted in for an elk hunt that starts Friday, some concept of his trigger press and a pathway to re-sight his rifle should he have an issue in the field. He can take the time in the off-season to learn the dialer on his rifle scope.
So, to answer your hypothetical question first posed in your post, and with a request for forbearance for a far too long reply, say you were 1 inch high and 1 inch to the right and you were at 100 yards and had a riflescope that adjusted, in theory, 1/4 MOA at that distance, you might try 4 clicks DOWN (opposite of the U with a arrow) and 4 clicks LEFT (opposite of the R with an arrow), that ought to get you pretty close.
Good luck and remember to have FUN!
