Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters potential paralax problem

I recently bought cz 457 22lr and 17hmr combo set. I have a good 3-10x leupold scope. Can i use it on the rimfire or will paralax be problem? I really don't want buy a expensive rimfire scope if I can help it.

Centex Bill

If you take a moment to center your eye in the middle of the eye box, it won't be a problem. It's more convenient to have a scope with parallax that matches your range, but not necessary.

I use a centerfire VX 2 3-9x40 on my rimfire 22 LR and on my 17 HMR and any misses were on me not on parallax being an issue. But I use mine for gopher shooting, if you are going to shoot it for paper groups there may be an issue unless you follow Denton's advice.

You might want to do a little google foo though - there was a post on the 'fire about how to reset the parallax yourself. I got a set of $4.99 rubber strap wrenches from Harbor Freight and reset a couple of scopes. Just remember at any distance besides the specific distance that the parallax is set for there will still be parallax.

Short story - for varmints no need for adjustable parallax, for paper adjustable parallax is a good thing.

drover

Parallax is something we worry about way too much. As long as you get your eye centered behind the scope it is a non-factor. At most your bullet will impact about 1/4" off at 100 yards. Few rifles, ammo, and shooters are good enough for that to be a problem. I've always used big game scopes on my 22's and shoot them from 25-250 yards.

Don't confuse parallax and focus. If you have a scope designed for big game with the parallax set for 100-150 yards you may have trouble getting it to focus at only 50 yards. Especially on high magnification. I have a 4.5-14X scope on one of my 22's. I can't use it above 7X at close range because it won't focus. At 7X or less it is fine and 7X is enough for 50 yard shots. I only go to 14X at 100 yards or more.

The ones with adjustable parallax will focus at closer range once you set the parallax for that range. They are nice to have but not necessary. But we're talking about 2 different things. Parallax is what causes the bullet to impact somewhere other than the aiming point if your eye isn't directly behind the scope.

I'd just buy a rimfire scope with parallax adjustment on it, if you think it will be a concern. A weaver classic would suffice, or any other cheap rimfire scope. Bushnell, Nikon, or even tasco.. It's a rimfire. Or use a scope with parallax adjustment like the other guys are suggesting. I run a Burris AR 556 4.5-14x42 scope on my 10-22, and it works just fine. An older Weaver V16 4-16x42 works excellent on my 17HMR, as it adjusts down to something like 25 feet, if need be. The nice thing about these scopes is they can be made crystal clear on max power. I run and have ran a lot of 18x scopes at 50 yards. As do a lot of my club members. We do a lot of fun shoots, where the higher magnification helps. For hunting, a good ol 3-9x40 or 4-12 would work out just fine.

Just to add a bit to my post - I am primarily a gopher (ground squirrel) shooter with my rimfires and they do not stay still very long. If you are taking time to tweak parallax they will likely have moved by the time you get it tweaked. As mentioned above parallax is usually not a big factor in misses.

I can shoot as tight a group at 50 yards with a centerfire parallax adjusted scope as I can with a rimfire parallax adjusted scope - I just have to pay a little more attention to head placement with the centerfire adjusted scope, which is not an issue when shooting paper.

drover

My rule of thumb is on a scope above 9 power a method of parallax adjustment is necessary. On scopes 9 power and below parallax error is minimal.
For hunting the parallax error is insignificant until you go over 9 power.