Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Rimfire scopes

Interesting topic and great discussion here guys. I know, sometimes I suggest things that may be different than some of you here, but that is what has worked for me. And I shoot a lot. I also tinker with all of my rifles, until they shoot lights out. That means from the first shot till the last shot. As for the 10/22 that is freefloated, sometimes that doesn't work. I mean, a lot of times that does not work. 10/22's are a weird beast and react to a different type of bedding process, and generally shoot best with a barrel that is in full contact with the stock. This is something a lot of guys can't wrap their head around, because generally a freefloated barrel is what you do with your centerfire rifles. Just sayin.

Now, for scoping a rimfire. Back in my younger years, I used to use a lot of 3-9x40's. Those being Bushnell, Tasco, Leupold, Simmons and Burris. As we know, the parallax is generally set at around 100 yards, for use on a centerfire rifle. Most of my 10/22's, when I was younger wore cheap 3-9x40's though. This was before I worked for a living, and many (if not 1,000's) of jackrabbits and yotes died from the wrath of a 10/22 wearing a regular ol 3-9x40. That's the lowest power rifle scope I will use. My eyed don't do well with low power scopes.

I recently bought an older Winchester 22lr bolt action, and said screw it, I'm going to run a good ol 3-9x40 on this rifle. For a couple reasons.
1. It keeps the package nice and light.
2. Keeps the rifle well balanced and handy.
3. I had one laying around, with the cellophane wrapping on the box. It needed to go on something!!

The only downfall to this type of scope is not being able to see a 1/4" dot very well at 50-100 yards. I would have shot an online match with this new rifle, had it had my usual 4.5-14x42 Burris on top. But as it is, this little scope and rifle are working out great!! I like light and handy too, as that definitely has a place in the hunting fields.

Winchester model 320, wearing a now discontinued Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex reticle:






All interesting conversation and some great choices being thrown out there, but like I've said before (right or wrong), most rimfires are not too picky about what you scope them with. We all know that an adjustable objective, or side focus is great to minimize parallax error, but is it needed 100%? No, absolutely not.