Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Help choosing scope for .22-250 Rem 788

Hello - I'm new to the forum and wondering if I could get some qualified advice on which of my existing scopes you'd recommend installing on a .22-250 varmint rifle that I inherited.

I haven't yet taken this rifle to the range or hunted varmints with it, so I'm unfamiliar with this cartridge and rifle's capabilities. I have 2 unmounted scopes that are candidates. The first scope is a used japanese-made Charles Daly 4-12x40mm with a duplex reticle and an adjustable objective lens and a 1" tube. I'd rate this scope's optics in very good condition. The second is a new in box Burris Signature 3-9x40 with a ballistic plex reticle and a 1" tube. I had Burris replace the original duplex reticle on this scope. When this scope was built in the late 90's, it was Burris' top of the line model.

So there's the question - would you rather have lower magnification, if you gain higher quality optics? Or is having an adjustable objective plus higher magnification more beneficial?

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

ctom99

IMHO varmint rifles should have AO.

I have that exact gun and I had to mount the scope rotated 90-degrees to the left on mine or else the brass hits the windage turret upon ejection.

Yours may not have that issue but mine does even with an extremely low-profile capped windage turret. This prevents me from using any type of reticle other than a plain duplex.

What size varmints and at what ranges?

4200 bushnell 6x24x40 would be my choice.

Growing up, my family farmed a large pecan orchard. Crows would wreck havoc on the crop at harvest time, so what I'm thinking of doing is contacting the local pecan growers and offering to help them out in dealing with these pests. Just guessing, I'd anticipate shots on these roughly 10" tall targets at distances from 200 to 250 yards. Hope that helps, and thanks.

That's really helpful info. So what was originally the elevation adjustment turret now adjusts for windage? What scope is mounted on your .22-250 Rem 788? Thanks.

it really depends on what you are doing with the gun. colony varmints such as pdogs etc. very small targets. I do like some higher scope power. I personally don't feel the need for more than about 16x. so a 4-16 would be a great scope in that situation. with a 22-250 your still pretty much going to be shooting 400 yards and less. if you plan on shooting coyotes and jackrabbits, ie moving varmints. I like a scope that has lower power, 2.5x or 3x etc on the low end because the scope will most likely sit on its lowest power most of the time in that use.

I'd mount the Burris scope if your rifle is lie a standard hunting rifle. If it's heavy barreled with a heavy fuller stock I'd use the 4x12.

The Bushell 3200 10x40 with turrets, but no AO, or the Weaver V16, 4-16x42AO, but no turrets, might be worth considering.

Correct!

Sightron SII 3-9x42

3.5 x10 x40 Leupold VX3i’ CDS.

Wesley & Hanco - do you all regularly feel under-scoped with the 3-9x42 / 3.5-10x42 on your varmint rifles? Like I mentioned previously, I don't anticipate needing more magnification than what's needed for 5" targets (the width of a crow's body) at 250 yards. Thanks for the feedback.

Cummins - I can see your point about needing the larger FOV for moving, closer targets. As far as I can tell, the Charles Daly has a FOV around 21' at 100 yds at the lowest setting whereas the Burris' low power FOV at 100 yds is roughly 65% larger (36'). Thanks.

RemGuy - both you and Chuck Hawks recommend a fixed 10x scope for a varmint rifle. Thanks to everyone for the advice. I decided today to sell the Charles Daly 4-12x40 and mount the Burris Signature 3-9x40mm on the .22-250. The Burris' optics are much better plus it has the advantage of having the same BDC reticle as my other scopes.

I think you'll need more power for crows, honestly. And that BDC probably won't help much. But it's not that big a deal to at least TRY it and see if it works. It might.
If not, and the rifle shoots well enough, top power of 20-24 with SIDE parallax (if your brass doesn't ding the scope and require the turn) would be a good fit. I've settled on 20 power for varminting from field positions, most of the time you're shaking too much or there's too much mirage for more power to be useful. Benchrested without mirage is another story.

Dave - thanks for the post. I set up an alert if the price of a 3-15x42 AO scope I'm interested in ever drops enough on Amazon for me to jump on it. The scope I'm interested in has a turret mounted parallax adjustment knob, and is one that Ilya Koskin (aka Dark Lord of Optics) recommends for a 'walking varminter rifle'. For me, too much magnification leads to really bad image shake, due to a genetic hand tremor that's constant, regardless of how much coffee I drink! :-)

for my Varmint guns i am eye balling the new Meoptas. called the Optika 6 they have some pretty sweet choices. the 3-18x50 is a good one and i like the looks of the 4.5x27 and 5x30. I was looking and they have all the features i was looking for where others seemed to be missing 1 or 2 features or blow my budget.

For a 22-250 i wouldn’t put anything less than 20x on it. To me anything less is way under scoped unless you are just planning on close shots.