Thread: Scope for 22LR

Hi Guys
I have a CZ 452 with a cheap Kilwell Huntsman 4x scope on it. I like it in daylight and it has a couple of holdovers on the reticle which are really handy. From a rest the setup will reliably ping a rabbit head sized gong at 100 with subs. It’s not so flash as the light fails though. I’ve been doing some rabbit culling and I’m wondering about an upgrade. Any thoughts for a good rimfire parallaxed scope with a useful uncluttered holdover reticle? Could be fixed or variable. Also good with a rifle mounted torch. Cheers!

Leupold VX5 HD

I use a Burris Droptine scope in 3 x 9, it's a 22 lr dedicated scope with a simple recticle with a couple of marks for different ranges.
It's not to expensive , optics are good for my use ( ranges 10 mtrs to 130 mtrs plus )
It has proven reliable after 1000 s of rounds.
Low light performance is fine but there's probably better.
Over all it's doing a good job.

Cheers that’s the sort of thing. They look to be easy to find too, which is another plus.

I find AO or side focus very handy for a 22 for close ranges.

What's your budget?

Just a few suggestions:

Sightron S2 4-16x42 AO
https://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/hun...befb00af92-005

Weaver V16 4-16x42 AO
https://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/hun...befb00af92-005

Nikon Monarch 4-16x50 SF
https://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/hun...befb00af92-005

Bushnell Elite 2.5-10x50 SF
https://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/hun...befb00af92-005

I was hitting pine cones at 100m the other day and made me think my CZ452 really deserves a better scope. My criteria would be 16x or greater magnification, BDC reticle and SF/AO. Ideally, 1 inch tube, but could live with 30mm and new mounts.

@Synthetic thank you heaps for that, that is really useful. I like the look of the Monarch. Those suggestions are in the price range I have in mind. Somewhere round that 500 dollar mark.

I know this is completely different from what I said, but does anyone have an opinion of the Leupold FX-1 4x ? It would just look so good on the CZ! And would be very light and handy. I have actually found that fixed 4x seems to fine for what I'm doing. I can easily see a rabbit at 80 metres which is about as far as I'd want to shoot one. But the Monarch would probably be more versatile.

Just be aware that the Monarch 3 whilst a nice scope will not focus below 50 yds so if shooting at 25 yds your image will be fuzzy and there will be some paralax.
You can get a better picture by winding back to 4x but what's the point.

I also steer clear of 50 mm scopes on my 22s. 42 mm is good, you can mount the scope nice and low.

My favourite 22 scope is Weaver 4-16x44 Grand Slam Varmint. It is a very short scope with excellent glass and reticle. Unfortunately Weaver has now ceased to exist. I wish I had bought a couple of them.

Some will argue that you don't need high mag on a 22. This is true to a point but depending upon what you are doing. I shoot every week concentrating on 100 yd groups and would lIke even more magnifiction on that particular rifle. I do however have other 22s scoped with 1-4, 2-7 power and 3-9 powe scopes. All are more than adequate for the type of use that they get. In fact 4x is more than adequate for general hunting.

One further point. I have 3 Sightron Japanese manufactured scopes already and needed a 4-16 (this was before I bought the Grand Slam). My current Sightrons are excellent so on the basis of that I bought an SII 4-16 Philippines origin. It was rubbish. I couldn't clearly see 22 holes at 50 yds. I returned it for a refund. I may have caught a dud but wasn't willing to try another one. I would want to have a good squiz though one before buying.

The Weaver V series has always been good with underrated optics. In fact the better Weaver scopes have always been underrated. I am not sure what the 4-16 focuses down too though.

Originally Posted by zimmer

Just be aware that the Monarch 3 whilst a nice scope will not fus below 50 yds so if shooting at 25 yds your image will be fuzzy and there will be some paralax.
You can get a better picture by winding back to 4x but what's the point.
I also steer clear of 50 mm scopes on my 22s. 42 mm is good, you can mount the scope nice and low.

My favourite 22 scope is weaver 4-16x44 Grand Slam Varmint. It is a very short scope with excellent glass and reticle. Unfortunately Weaver has now ceased to exist. I wish I had bought a couple of them.

Some will argue that you don't need high mag on a 22. This is true to a point but depending upon what you are doing. I shoot every week concentrating on 100 yd groups and would lIke even more magnifiction on that particular rifle. I do however have other 22s scoped with 1-4, 2-7 power and 3-9 powe scopes. All are more than adequate for the type of use that they get. In fact 4x is more than adequate for general hunting.

One further point. I have 3 Sightron Japanese manufactured scopes already and needed a 4-16 (this was before I bought the Grand Slam). My current Sightrons are excellent so on the basis of that I bought an SII 4-16 Philippines origin. It was rubbish. I couldn't clearly see 22 holes at 50 yds. I returned it for a refund. I may have caught a dud but wasn't willing to try another one. I would want to have a good squiz though one before buying.

The Weaver V series has always been good with underrated optics. In fact the better Weaver scopes have always been underrated. I am not sure what the 4-16 focuses down too though.

Was going to say the same thing about the Monarch that it only focuses down to 50 yards. I have the same model, the ocular housing is on the large side, and with a high bolt throw like the CZ452, the bolt handle may just be clear using medium height rings.

Not sure about the previous generation Weaver Grand Slams, I just bought a new generation one in 3-12x42 that side focuses down to 25 yards. The entire ocular housing turns as you change magnification. They can be expensive and rare to find in NZ. I imported mine from Brownells USA for about $550 NZD landed.

Brightness and resolution will be very similar between the Monarch and Grand Slam. But the tunnel vision effect is definitely worse with the Monarch, just like all Nikon scopes I've tried.

The Weaver Classics and Grand Slams are perhaps the best value for money scopes out there in my opinion.

This is gold, thanks very much gentlemen. I'm learning a lot. There's a 4x Weaver Classic K4 on Trademe which caught my eye.

Hmmmm - Good topic and great suggestions.

I recently squaded with "Jake" who won the 22 Jungle Lane shoot down here (and he's won it previously and always seems close to the top of the leaderboard at the Sparrowhawk shoots) . His gear was very basic, a Norinco 22 and a Ranger 3-9 scope with mil-dots.

We had a detailed chat about parallax and he was of the opinion that it wasn't required on a 22 with up to 9x. I took from our discussion that as good technique is critical to shooting a 22 well and if you have that then parallax was less important, as consistent cheek placement etc means its not going to punish you much. His scope was set to 50M (most scopes can be user adjusted, its not complicated, but you can't do it on the fly).

Previously I'd been an AO advocate on everything for target shooting but now I'd be happy to go without (up to 9x anyway)!

Well that is very interesting. So that means that as long as you aren't going overboard with the magnification you can look at centrefire scopes or rimfire specific, doesn't matter. Although I think a scope with parallax set at 100m is noticeably out of focus at 20m. Maybe more an aesthetic than a practical issue though - you can still hit a rabbit at 25 m, whether it's slightly fuzzy or not!

Parallax isn't about focus, it about the relative movement of the reticle to the target due to position of the eye. When parallax is set at the same distance as the target, there will be no movement of the reticle against the target, even while moving your eye/head around. The opposite is also true, when parallax is significantly different the reticle will roam all over the show (if your head/eye moves) and could cause a miss.
A good cheek weld negates the worst of the effect.

I have a weaver K4 on my 22, I have adjusted parallax to about 60m, easy to do and no tools needed.

Some great feed back and probably shows it's horses for courses. I personally think a rimfire scope should focus well below 50mtrs and be parallex free at 25.

I shoot around 600 rabbits a month and the scope 95% of the time is left at 4 x power. I don't have time for side focus bullshit , adjustable AO etc. In my humble opinion and it is only my opinion , nothing over 9 -10 x power, half decent glass will out perform a fuzzy 16 - 24 power piece of shit scope every time.
Learn your rifle, learn your scope and learn your ammo....be consistent and you will get great results.