Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Rimfire scopes

My 452 wears a 6x Leupold Compact AO. My Bergara BMRs wear Athlon Argos HMR 2-12x42, AO. Have both the illumination and BDC and prefer the illumination.

Mostly El Paso Weaver K2.5X, parallax adjusted to 50 yards. Have a couple of Leupy M8 Compacts that are also 2.5X. They are cheap, durable and perfectly functional here in the swamps. And yes, they can aim very precisely. Also use them with my .30-30 T/C Carbine and a few others

I picked up a minty Unertl 6x Small Game scope with the thought of mounting it on a Springfield M2 .22. Now that it's in hand I can't bring myself to drill and tap the old girl, even though the Armory would do it for a civilian customer for a nominal fee if requested and nobody today would ever know it wasn't done as such. I guess I'll just continue on punching paper and killing stuff with the Lyman 48 receiver sight that it came with.

I am a fan of the now discontinued Weaver 2-7X28 rimfire scope. I bought a number of them when they were being discontinued on sale at Natchez. I owned a couple prior to that that made me jump on the sale.

This older Leupold Vari-X II, 2-7x28 RF ain’t bad, neither:

Pretty much this for me as well. But what kind of rimfire are we talking about? I think there is more than one answer to your question.

I use .17 HMR AND WSM for hunting ground squirrels. I have S&B 2.5-10x56 scopes for hunting with my Anschutz firearms.

Targets? What kind? I'm experimenting with my Vudoo .22LR using a Kahles 5-25x56 with adjustable parallax. That’s for long range. But it also works for short as well. Parallax goes down 10 meters.

For hunting with .22LR and WMR (which I have not done for a long time) I used Leupold Vari X3 1.5-5x20 for these. Plenty of scope out to 100 yards, which is the practical range for this caliber when used for varmint hunting. Because of the low power, there is no need for parallax adjustments.

For my T/C pistols I use EER scopes. I have a .22 LR and another barrel in .17 HMR. Leupold 4x for the .22 and a T/C 2-7 for the HMR.

Lots of answers.

I heard those Leupold 6X compact AO's were outstanding. Never had the pleasure of using one, only the FX II 6X.

Like these too and have a few. Also a fan of its larger cousin the 3-9x32 AO especially for 22wmr and 17HMR. Sadly they were discontinued also.

I just put a Leopold VariXII 3x9x40 on a Cooper Custom Classic 17 HMR.

You are going to get so many answers, and they will all probably work well. I know no one is going to suggest the scopes I use, but that is fine. I like to keep the power range to around a 4.5-14x42 or 4-16x. Those power ranges are quite usable. I also use second focal plane scopes, as the reticle getting smaller (to the point you can't see it), and larger, where it's huge and useless for way out there, when you crank it up is pointless: I just stick with a SFP scope. The main rifles I use right now, wear discontinued Burris AR rifle scopes. These scopes get used on all of my AR's as well, except for my 6.5 Creedmoor, that uses a NF. The beaty in this scope is it can be used on just about every type of rifle in the inventory. They weigh 18 oz's, and are not extremely huge, like some newer scopes are (no offense Arken).


One scope I have to show, is a LOW made Weaver v16 4-16x42, and it is also a great simple scope that works very well. The parallax adjusts down to 30 feet, or something like that, and the glass is pretty good. However, the Burris AR scopes shown in the pic are better...






Weaver on the model 52:



Burris on the cheap azzed Savage MK2:



Old faithful with a Burris:



I've always liked a little more magnification, even on a "squirrel" hunting rifle. Here, that is ground squirrels and jackrabbits. So trust me, I have a little experience at shooting at running targets too. A lot of the times, I'll head shoot squirrels, and the higher magnification helps with that. Shot the head off a ground squirrel yesterday, at 508 yards away. Using a 308 and a Nightforce though, so that doesn't count in the rimfire section..

Okay - you guys convinced me.

A like new LEUPOLD M8-6X COMPACT in original box and papers, front parallax, duplex reticles is coming over to play on my 22RF rifle.





I don't recall these scopes in a Compact with AO. Must have been manufactured in the early 80s.

That is a sweet scope! I'll bet it works great.

I’m having a RimX built right now for NLR22 and PRS rimfire shooting. I’m planning on running a Vortex Razor Gen 3 6-36x56. Parallax adjusts down real close to about 12 yards. Erector provides 36 mils of elevation which should be enough to get a .22 out past 400 with a 30 MOA rail.

Some brands and models of scope are mentioned often, but there still are a lot of different scopes and sizes being used.
I was never a fan of the hubble telescopes. With modern technology I've noticed they are getting shorter which is a plus in my book, but they are sure gaining weight. Trying to keep up with society? LOL
A 20+ oz. scope isn't something I would put on my light weight Squirrel rifles, but again, that's just me.
A few years back I tested 2 of my rifles I knew would shoot the same ammo very accurately. The ammo was Wolf Target Match. The distance was 50yds. and one rifle had a 24X scope on it and the other a 6X. Both rifle bores were cleaned before I started shooting. The results verified what I was saying concerning me and my shooting. I could match the group size at 50yds with a 6X scope versus a 24X.
Nothing against the higher magnification scopes, only that my needs for a Squirrel hunting scope aren't the same as others. Most of my Squirrel shooting occurred in trees much lower than 50yds. and a good clear 6X was more than enough scope. In fact, I used to zero my 22lr. rimfires at 100ft. as that was close to the maximum ft. I ever had to shoot. Add to that I was shooting uphill so a scope set to hit approx. 1/8" above center always worked for me. The rifle I used back then, a KDF K22, is still zeroed to hit 1/8" high at 100ft. That setup never failed me.
Below is the target I shot with the 2 different scopes.




This is a couple of targets I shot many years ago with the KDF K22 @100ft. The larger target at the top was shot by the owner of KDF at 50yds using my rifle and Win. Super X. The guarantee from KDF was 5rds. of Win. Super X @50yds into a 1/2" group or better.

K22 - IMO it is hard to beat the Burris you already have, I had one of them years ago and was really fond of it. I do seem to remember that it was a bit dark and the eyebox was critical, if my memory is correct I can see why you are thinking of something else, particuarly for a dark woods hunting scope.
Of the ones you listed in you original post I would go with the Leupold 6x36, it has good glass and the eyebox is not critical, and they look nice on a trim 22 rifle. The Tract may be a good scope but I really despise the looks of the Euro style eyepiece, they ruin the lines of nice looking rifles.

Nice targets - I am of the same opinion as you regarding magnification. I do like higher power but a lower power is not as much of a handicap as they are made out to be.

drover

I agree that lower magnification can be very accurate. With a Leupold 3X I’ve taken African game at yardages of 100, 130, 150, 220, and 240.

Since Leupold moved their RF specials from the FX and VX II lines to the "Freedom" series I've had nothing but bad luck with them. I can't recommend them anymore. My next RF scope is probably going to be a Simmons ".22 magnum", either 4X or the 3-9X. It's been a long time but I had one on a boat paddle 77/22 mag and it was good enough for turning live squirrels into dead ones at 100 yards or a bit more. The only other seemingly viable option is to get an adjustable objective centerfire scope. I recently moved an old 4-12X Vari X II AO from my .17 HMR to my .22 long rifle. With the fine duplex, I like it. I had a 4.5-14X FD/AO Vx 3 from the custom shop sitting homeless so I put it on the 17 HMR. Seems pretty good there. That .17 is a 77/17 HMR VT, pretty heavy rifle, and I might put a 6-18X vari x II AO on it. Going to try it as-is and decide if more X-s would be better for shooting between grass blades 'n' so on.

My preferred scopes on .22RF's are Leupold Rimfire Special 4x and Baby Redfield 3/4" 4x. I have a Lyman Alaskan with a dot reticle on my Springfield 1922 M2 Custom Sporter, I agree that low powered scopes are capable of producing small groups. That set-up will consistantly put 50 rounds of CCI Std. Velocity into one ragged hole @ 50 yds, frequently doing better than my Winchester 52 Sporter.

Your Leupold 6X36 choice is an excellent one. Back when Leupold had great customer service, they set the parallax to 40yds. on 4 6X36 for our shop. I bought all 4 of them. They also replaced the standard duplex with a fine duplex and those scopes are awesome. One of the features I really like about the Burris 6X I have is that 5" eye relief. I shoot with both eyes open and that much eye relief helps a bunch.
The Tract optics are very clear, super clear may be a better description, but the scope is a 3-9X40 which is more than I need on a Squirrel rifle. I'll probably mount on the 22mag.

Wow! That is outstanding.