Not For Everyone

Just those looking for perfection.

- John Haviland

With a rimfire rifle in hand, a rifleman can thin out summer rodents infesting farm fields, plink away a pleasant afternoon or brush up for the coming big game season. Choosing a scope for a rimfire rifle to cover all that shooting, though, requires a hunter to consider proper magnification(s), matching its size to a rifle, reticles and parallax setting.

My dad bought me a Marlin Model 81 bolt-action .22 LR when I was a boy. I shot the rifle with its open sights for years with no complaints. A straight 4x scope was finally clamped on the rifle when I was in college, mostly because everyone on my dormitory floor looked down their collective noses at my backwater rifle. I literally never saw any need for more magnification to shoot gophers and grouse and cans.

My youngest son looked at it differently. Thomas thought the 4x scope mounted on his Ruger 10/22 was woefully underpowered. There was a smidgen of truth to his complaint. With the 4x scope on the 10/22, CCI Mini Mag .22 LR loads shot an average group size of 1.88 inches for three, five-shot groups at 50 yards. With a straight 10x scope on the rifle, group size averaged 1.81 inches. Still, I relented and a Redfield Revenge Hunter 4-12x 42mm scope now sits on the rifle.

However, I do prefer more magnification for the longer-range shooting normally performed with the .22 WMR and .17 HMR. A Volquartsen 22 MAG is outfitted with a Weaver 2-10x scope. While shooting at the tiny ground squirrels at 150 yards, I occasionally glance at the scope, and it’s usually set on 8x or 10x. The .17 HMR stretches the range out to 200 yards. The scopes on the various .17 rimfire rifles I’ve shot are usually set on 10x when shooting with a solid rest over a tree branch or on a bipod shooting prone.