Well I have bad news and good news. Bad news is we'll never know what was up with it and the good news is I have a new rifle! Well I guess not being able to shoot around corners is bad news as well...lol.

Brought the new one home then installed the same rail and scope after re-centering it. Everything looked good, top of a 200 yard distant power pole in the bore sight and the crosshairs actually lined up!
Only had a few minutes to shoot it and used 50 yards again to make sure it was on paper. This was better than I was expecting, needs 1 click right windage to zero and it shoots just under an inch high. I got a "straight" one this time! Talk about one extreme to the other. I easily could have gone gopher hunting with no scope adjustments with this one, also a new first for me. Looking forward to putting a few longer distance shots through it to see how it is.
So everything is normal again in my little firearm world and thanks to those who replied