Okay, I have yet to own a rifle (let alone a scope, etc.), but have my sights set on a 15-22 MOE when it comes in. My birthday was yesterday, so please cut me some slack with my stupid question:

I'm an engineer (i.e. troublemaker), and tend to put everything in spreadsheets or CAD or sketches. I see that any sight, especially a high-mounted scope, has to point way down, in relationship to the barrel, to hit at any distance.

My question is: Do scopes have a built-in downward slope to allow for this? Or are they actually mounted parallel to the barrel, and all the downward scope is accomplished through adjustment?

I've read several articles on adjusting a scope, and they suggest bore-sighting to a location, then pointing the scope to that location. But the mounts I'm looking at (QD double mount) don't appear to have any adjustment. In fact, even separate rings don't seem to have any, do they? If that's the case, isn't the pointing location of the scope completely determined by the mount, and unless something is built in sloped, automatically parallel with the barrel?

Yeah, I know you're all probably rolling on the floor laughing; but I'm really trying to understand how this works.

Please be kind. ;-)