AR-15 accessories lessons

Long story short, I have an AR-15, and I am proud of it. It shoots good. I recently started reloading my own ammunition, to have when the retail shelves get low in quantity, and I can shoot my factory ammo and turn it around right into reloaded ammo. Well, I wanted to make sure they shoot consistant, so I put a fairly nice scope on it. One slight problem was that the fixed front right might get in the way of the scope being mounted directly on the flat-top upper reciever, so I bought a raised picatinny base to mount the scope. I got it for like $30, checked it twice, everything seemed to be right, and the left dial adjustment pegged out about an inch and a half to the right of the center of the target, AND I WAS 10 YARDS IN FRONT OF THE TARGET STAND!! It was so bad that I couldn't do it at the normal 25 yards, I had to get closer. I took the mount off, put the scope right on the flat base of the reciever, and found that the scope, even at 3X magnification, was more than powerful enough to look beyond the front sight. Your eyes kind of do the same thing, if you close one eye, then the other and focus in and out at an object well before a wall, it can move and change a bit of perspective. I can take my glasses off, and all of a sudden the fuzzy view of my nose is now bugging me, and it's not like I'm pinnocio. Anyway, I found that the scope lower, worked well, and it sighted in flawless, and the next week when I had more time, it shot 1" to 1-1/8" groups at 100 yards. I am Mr. try out the cheapest and hopefully get lucky. This was not one of those. So it sometimes is worth paying the extra dough, so that the scope base isn't looking in a far right direction.