Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Rimfire scopes

Of course high powered scopes aren't needed for producing tight groups on paper. I do that with irons, so have others I know. Where the higher powered scopes shine is in being able to see real small targets. If that makes any sense. Where I shoot rimfire competitions in Washington, everyone uses some sort of higher magnification scope, even on their Ruger 10/22s. We do a lot of head to head speed matches too, but the targets are smaller. Golf balls hanging from strings, paint balls, KYL targets. Etc. etc. With some of these targets, it's a benefit to see what you are shooting at. Especially when you are needing to get on that target quick.

You are asking about rimfires, but also with squirrel hunting in mind. Just about any scope will work, as has been shown. Like my first post said, you are going to get so many suggestions, it's not even going to be funny. Scopes are always highly subjective. Eyesight needs to be considered, and also what the quarry/prey is going to be. I grew up using 3-9x40 rifle scopes, and shot many many running jackrabbits and ground squirrels, but now I prefer a good 4.5-14x42 or there abouts, as a good all around scope. Yet, on my big game rifles, I always us a 3-9x40 with the appropriate LR reticle. This gets me out to 500 yards easily with all of my big game rifles. Like anything, there's always going to be a multitude of choices, you just have to figure out what works best for you..

How much do you want for it🤔😄!! Yep that’s my favorite .22 scope - IMO perfect size and enough power - this is for squirrel hunting and informal target work. Like BSA says though this is a personal preference thing and many would work well!

Yes they were an 80’s product!

PennDog

An 80's product? Your age is showing PennDog.
Notice how I've never mentioned the year of the Burris Mini's.

I agree with BSA, the higher power scopes work quite well for many folks.
I do remember when a 6x scope was referred to as a Western scope because of its high magnification.

I do own many variable X scopes and the vast majority are in the 2-7 range, a few 2.8-36, a few 3-9, and a few 4.5-14.
Several years ago I was Predator hunting, one of my favorite things to do, and was using a new to me 204. At that time I had a 2-8 Nikon on it and was calling from a fence row over looking a rather large field for this area. After 20 min. or so a Bobcat came out of some pine trees and sat down facing me at the edge of the field. I set the crosshairs on it's chest, but because there was a slight breeze blowing left to right I held to the left of center of his chest and fired. Flipped the Cat over backwards and when I got to it you could see it never even twitched, usual for a Cat, and the shot hit exactly where I had held. So much for wind drift. LOL Anyway, the scope had been set on 3X, where I set all of my variables, and I didn't even think about turning up the scope power to 8X. Of course I didn't realize I hadn't until after I shot the Cat. I have done that so many times while Deer hunting you would think I would remember to up the scope power.


I was sitting by the fence post on the right side in the photo. The Bobcat came out and sat down at the edge of those pine trees which is 225yds. plus some.



And the Cat.

Yes! In a previous post I mentioned taking African game with a Leupold 3X. (The 375 H&H was set up for a buffalo hunt.). In particular, a Kudu was taken at 240 yards. The PH was reading the distance with a rangefinder. The Kudu was quartering away fairly significantly. It was almost certain that if he took two steps we would never see him again. My mind was racing with a lot of thoughts. But one thing that never entered my mind was, “Oh I wish I had more magnification.”

Yeah, pretty impressive for a 22RF

K22,

Yes I started accumulating the Leupolds in the 80s - I was born in 1998😜. For hunting I rarely go above 6X (even though I have a few scopes with 14-18X high end settings). Most of my shots on squirrels are 30 yards and less and big game rarely exceeds 250 yards. I shoot targets out to 1000 yards where I appreciate the magnification - although most of my competition now-a-days is lever action silhouette so I don’t “need” any magnification😁

Impressive country you shot that bobcat in and even more impressive shooting. Beautiful animals those bobcats!!

PennDog

Cool story and neat pics, K22.

I've got a Vari-X III 4.5-14×40 AO and a VX3 4.5-14×40 AO I'm considering switching over onto my Tony Kidd 10/22 that shoots little bugholes with just about anything I feed it. Not very impressed with the scope I've got on there right now. Eye relief isn't great and I catch myself crawling up or down the buttstock.

I have 2 Muellers on my 457s. They are 8.5-25 x 44, I got them from MidWay a few years ago.

Thanks local dirt.
I've always wanted a Kidd 10/22 but have failed to buy one.
Great photo of yours and I like the looks of that stock.
Eye relief is so critical to me these days. The Burris mini scopes and Leupold 6X36 have ruint me. The Tract scopes have good eye relief but at the expense of a large eye piece.

K22, the stock is a Hogue Overmolded. My gunsmith removed some material to bed the action and floated the barrel. It's funny. It sounds like a tuning fork when it goes off with your head up against the buttstock.

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.

I've been using a 3-12X40 SF Athlon Talos Mil-Dot on my Bergara BMR .22 LR, and Savage 93 .22 WMR. It has parallax adjustment dow to 15 yds, and the reticle works well for wind holds. It has also been accurate on adjustments out to 300 yards and back down to my 50 yard zero.

My Bergara BMR.



50 yard 10 shot groups testing ammunition.

BSA, it looks like you’ve got that 320 shooting extremely well👍🏼

Man, I'm very happy with that rifle.

Looks great!! Nice shooting too. I've been keeping my eye on those Bergara B14's very recently. I know everyone always says buy a CZ, or maybe even a Tikka, but those Bergara's are putting on a good showing on the st Patricks day challenge seen on Youtube. I started a thread about that challenge here on the fire. It may be something you should consider shooting. IF you get your rifle dialed right in there, it it may do very well. The 10/22 I used shoots in the .3's with the ammo I used, and it's still a pretty challenging shoot.

Me too. Bought several of these and the 3x9 AO when they were closing them out. Like them better than my Leupold rimfire

I swapped out a Burris for a 3-9x32 Sightron with a fine crosshair on a Marlin M-60.

I zeroed with Federal Bulk and then proceeded to drop 10 shots of CCI SV into a 1" diamond at 50yrds.

My dad's old Marlin 60 (bought in the early 80's) shoots better than that, with it's old 4x scope that was on the rifle when he bought it new. Wondering what it was about the Burris that degraded the precision of the rifle, and the Sightron worked better? Just about any Burris would suffice, as some guys use the 6x Burris or the rimfire versions with great success. Hell, even the FFII I posted works well enough.

My around the house dispatch rifle

Ruger 77/17M2 w/Lilja barrel

Vortex 2-8x32 Diamondback HP

First 6 p/dogs of the year with it this week