Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Rimfire Scope for Squirrels

El Paso Weaver K2.5 or perhaps a Leupold Compact 2.5 is all you need. Cheap and durable.

Weaver 2 x 7 Rimfire if you can find one.. they are out of production..

or the old 4 X Rimfire Weaver... out of production also..

I use both, each one on a 30/30.... One a Win Legend.. and the other is Stainless Marlin..

My go to squirrel rifles are a Ruger 77/22 RSI with a Leupold VX-2 3-9x33 EFR Rimfire and a Winchester m61 with a soon to be arriving Leupold VX-1 2-7x28 that I found in the classified. I do like being able to turn that EFR down to ten meters to eliminate all parallax at close range when I have the time to be deliberate, but that 2-7x28 Rimfire should be good for running and gunning.

The 2x7x33 Leupold is the biggest piece of junk I own. Bought it new and the gray haze was horrible. Sent it back on my dime and its better but still worse than some of the cheap junk out there. Come to find out I'm not alone in my dislike for them.

tagged.

Leupold’s discontinued 6X AO compact is my absolute favorite squirrel rifle scope. There are many others that work great too - the rimfire series from Leupold, the EFR 3-9X compact, weaver’s rimfire series, the Nikon EFR, the Kahles rimfire scope (rarer than hens teeth) and many others mentioned here all work well.

PennDog

I’m currently using and am very much satisfied with the 3x9x40 rimfire scope made for Tract optics. The glass is excellent, adjustments are crisp and accurate, and this model is parallax free @50Yds. Eye relief is very generous, an easy scope to get behind. Assembled in the Philippines with Japanese glass I think. They also offer a 4x12 rimfire scope. My previous rimfire scopes I’ve used are the Leupold 3x9x33EFR, and the Leupold vx 2 4x12 AO, ....nice scopes but I like the Tract much better for hunting squirrels and such. I have it mounted on a TC 22 classic with a 1pc Leupold base and low rings and there is 1/8” clearance at the objective. I have the bdc reticle and it’s very nice and clean, with a finer crosshair and grad marks than depicted on the website info page. It cost 174$ shipped. This is a lot of scope for the $$. Any questions give Jon a call @Tract, a great guy to deal with.

Another vote for the 2-7x33 Leupold and I'd probably leave it on 2 for most shots till the leaves are off the trees.

Just mounted a SWFA 3-9 on a Tikka T1X. Built to be a trainer for a T3 (with same scope) that I use for big game. Hope to put it to use on some late season squirrels this year. Early season I prefer to use a 20ga.

Id like to find another Leupold 4x compact.

That 6X Compact AO was a sweet scope. I had one on my Clackamas Kimber 82 Custom Classic. Pains me to think about how many nice rifles have passed through my hands.

I guess mine are much better than yours..........my go to rimfire scope, dropped many squirrels. Used 4x and 6x and even 2.5x also with success. Never needed more.

I've had good luck with a couple of Leupold EFR 3-9x33 rimfire scopes. ER is a bit short, but who cares on a .22LR...

As you can see, this one is set back a good bit.

DF

I’ll have to try one of those - they look like nice sized scopes for a .22 hunting rifle. Thanks for the info I did not know about these scopes but your review has piqued my interest!

PennDog

NC Star 4x30 compact P4... if you can mount it right. Very light.

I’ll second that. The glass is surprisingly clear.

Years ago. I used a Redfield 2.75X Widefield on a Marlin 39A and killed a lot of squirrels. I used it to shoot gallery shorts for hand thrown targets. The my other rig was a Marlin tube fed 22 Mag. with a 16X LWBR scope. I did make some loooong shots with that rig. Then I let a friend in a gun shop trade me out of the scope. The 22 mag has sat forlorn in a corner since. I recently bought some CCI 22 mag ammo so maybe there is some hope. I think a 3-9X EFR might be a good scope for my tastes. And maybe look for an annie to put it on. Be Well and shoot squirrels, Rustyzipper.

I have an old Weaver 3X9 with AO. I have used this combo over thirty years. I usually have it set on four or five power. The scope may a bit over size for a 22, but it has served me well. The scope came on. Rem 700 30.06 that has been to harvest numerous deer.

dan is on to something here. i have two setups, one ancient and one modern. one of my fave hunting spots is a depression surrounded by oak trees. it's about 30 yards across and there in a stump about 2 feet high on one side. early season...leaves on trees. sit on stump wait for them to start moving. pop one with an old rem 552 with a weaver 1x4.5 shooting short hps. late season, no leaves rem 541t with burris 6x silouette scope. any of the setups described will work. just remember field of view is important for game that isn't posing for their picture to be taken

Burris 1.75x5 on my Remington pump 22, it's killed a lot of bunnys and spruce chickens. I shoot squirrel with my pellet pistol w/o a scope.