Scope for a .22 LR ???

[Schattenjager]

I am building up my very first rifle - a 28 year old Ruger 10/22. It's getting a Volquartsen barrel and trigger group along with a picatinny rail. It has been years since I shot a .22 much, but with the threats against gun ownership and ammo availability, I thought I would build a fun 'shooter' that is reliable, fun, and cheap to shoot.

Any of you have experience with rim fire scopes? I doubt I will shoot more than 150 yards, but Volquartsen says the combo they put together consistently shoots 3" groups at 300 yards. That must be on the moon - I forgot to ask.

Any ideas are welcome!

[Scenic WonderRunner]

I have a Leupold Scope..........on my Remington 700 Heavy Barrel........ 22.250 .

http://www.leupold.com/

With that........I can hit a poor little woodchuck at 400+ Yards.........in da head in a cross wind!

4,000 feet per second! Shoots Flat........baby!


That's my choice! See if they have one!




.

[ntsqd]

I've hit Ojai Valley Gun Club's hanging 3" thick Ram at 278 yards with a .22 LR. Not once, but repeatedly with a 1920's era Stevens Favorite fitted with a Marbles Model 92 tang sight and a Lyman 17A. It took a while to walk them up there and I was aiming for nearly the top of the hill behind it.

I'll second the Leupold recommendation. They offer a rimfire focused scope.... well they used to. They now offer three different RF scopes. And I know that you can have their custom shop set up any or nearly any other scope in their line for use on a rimfire. The difference is the fixed focal plane and the parallax that develops from shooting at other distances.

IME cheap scopes change point of impact with change of power (if so equipped) and have poor light gathering ability. If you could find a used Weaver K4 or K6 it would likely be the same price as an inferior new cheapie and be a much better scope even factoring in the parallax issue (which isn't that big of a deal).

[DaveInDenver]

IME cheap scopes change point of impact with change of power (if so equipped) and have poor light gathering ability. If you could find a used Weaver K4 or K6 it would likely be the same price as an inferior new cheapie and be a much better scope even factoring in the parallax issue (which isn't that big of a deal).

Weaver M34 fixed 4X that I got used is what I have on my 10/22. It's a pretty low model and I think it might actually be an air rifle scope. Anyway, I like iron sights better. Guess it depends on use, mine just makes holes in paper. I just don't see the usefulness of anything beyond 4X on a 10/22. I happen to fully agree on fixed focal length. If you're getting a zoom scope, don't go cheap (should have said that). Same as camera optics, cheap zooms give up too much.

ntsqd, you're a better aim than me. I couldn't hit the range 200 yard target reliably, although I'm running a stock 18-1/2" barrel and a longer barrel (the Stevens has about 21" barrel, right, or is one of the really long barrels, 25" or whatever?) might make the difference.

[Willman]

A Leupold 3x9 Scope would do the trick!

seach ebay for a good used one!

Good luck!

[grouch]

If I were to do a 10/22 right now it would shoot arrows....really.

http://www.swivelmachine.com/html/rimfire.htm

Don, I had a Volquartsen carbon barrel with a cantalever scope mount and there was no way it would group at 300 yards. Not even bolted down! The gun was fun but expensive for a 50 yard plinker. The real problem with 22's was them ammo. I ended up shooting sub sonic Eleys that worked great! Good luck and post pics!!!

[762X39]

20 years ago (wow time flies) I bought a 1.75 to 5 power scope for my Ruger 10/22 that cost as much as the rifle did. Don't buy crap from Wally World or whatever if you are interested in accuracy and repeatability.A rimfire rifle can be accurate out to 100 metres with the right setup so settle for that. The only work I had done was to hone the trigger group and buy good ammo (for years I could get the good Russian stuff but now I settle for the European stuff and if I am desperate I will shoot Gold Medal from Federal.Rimfires are fussy about their ammo so when you find something that works buy the case (5000 rounds?) if you can.

[HarryT]

Get a Shepherd P22LR.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2...86-9576580_ITM

COPYRIGHT 2005 Publishers' Development Corporation

When the little Ruger .22 hit the I" paster at 100 yards, no one even noticed. When chickens on the silhouette range at 200 meters began rattling, a few eyebrows began to rise. When the tiny .22 slugs began pinging the metal javelina at 300 meters like Oklahoma hail in April, the doubting Thomases drifted over to see how I was doing it.

And if I told you that a few minutes later I was consistently hitting the turkey silhouette at 410 yards, you probably wouldn't believe me. However, when the wind is still, you can indeed fire up to 400 yards accurately with a .22 rimfire. The secret at the time was a trajectory-compensating scope that's been floating around for a number of years--the Shepherd.

Range Finding

I have never been very impressed with the various range-finding and trajectory compensating scopes commonly available. The designs I have tested seemed to have been engineered around a mythical animal that would stand broadside for an indefinite period while one bracketed the critter with the horizontal stadia or cranked in the elevation with a moveable trajectory cam. Not so with the Shepherd.

Dan Shepherd, the scope's designer, had a different idea. In simple terms, the Shepherd scope line is designed around various commonly used rifle trajectories--basically the .22 rimfire, the .30-06 class of cartridges and the high velocity numbers.

When looking through the scope, one sees a vertical string of circles with various range designations noted beside them extending from the center of the reticle to the six o'clock position. Shepherd's .22 scope, Model 310-P22LR, incorporates a series of 9" circles calibrated in 50-yard increments from 50 to 500 yards. Because the reticle is in the first focal plane, the diameters of the circles are a constant 9" at all ranges and powers.

A prairie dog stands about 9" tall. The depth of a coyote from shoulder to brisket is 9" to 10". Beginning to get the idea?

Fast And Accurate

After you have zeroed the scope and know the approximate size of the game being pursued, you match the height or depth of the critter in an appropriate circle and pull the trigger. It's that fast and that accurate a system.

There is a great deal of sophistication built into the Shepherd scope adjustments so that one can adjust the aiming reticle for windage or elevation and return it to zero. This is a useful adjustment for static-type hunting, such as targets or prairie dogs. I'm not advocating that one should be shooting at a prairie dog at 400 yards or even at 200 yards with a .22 RF, but a scope like the Shepherd is fun to play with and certainly brings out all the ballistics a rimfire has to offer.

When I look at the scopes on some of my .22s, they are a diverse lot. The first scope I ever bought was a little Bushnell Banner 4X subsequently mounted on a Winchester Model 69. The Bushnell cost $9.95. It's been mounted on a Feinwerkbau air rifle since 1971. It is still clear. The adjustment turrets are still precise. What more could one ask for?

Another of the little 3/4" tube .22 scopes still rides my old Marlin M39. It's an ancient Ted Williams "Signature" 4X scope bought from Sears for $11.95. It, too, still offers rock-solid performance over rimfire ranges.

A recent .22 rimfire scope I bought is a Bushnell Sportsman 3-9x32 with target-style windage and elevation dials and an adjustable objective for parallax settings from 0 to infinity in yards. It's mounted on a super accurate Anschutz Model 54 Sporter, and it's proved to be a dilly since I've recorded the elevation adjustments for ranges from 50 to 150 yards.

Don't overlook the possibility of mounting a true big-game scope on your rimfire, particularly the compact and straight-tube models that are proportional in size to rimfire rifles. My old Steyr Mannlicher carries a Leopold 3X, and with its wide field-of-view, it is a superb scope for bouncing bunnies.

Since most rimfire work is at distances less than 100 yards, manufactures typically set-up their rimfire scopes to be parallax free at 50 yards. Having an adjustable objective to fine tune for parallax and variable power selection are real pluses in .22 scopes, since we're usually shooting at very small targets and often well out to 100 yards and beyond.

Recently, scope manufactures have introduced a variety of high-end .22 scopes. I've hunted quite a bit with Kahles 2-7x36 American Hunter rimfire scope mounted on a Remington Model 504. It is optically outstanding and well worth the price tag if you're more than a casual plinker.

Within the last year, there has been an outpouring of scopes designed around the ballistics of the. 17 HMR and. 17 Mach 2. BSA offers their Sweet 17 and Mach 2 models featuring drop-compensating elevation drums to track the trajectory of these wee rounds precisely from 100 to 300 yards.

Among the most sophisticated of the new rimfire scope designs is the Sako Quad Scope from Burris permitting the user to instantly adjust the scope for the ballistics of either the .17 Mach 2, .17 HMR, .22 LR, or .22 Mag. That's quite a scope full.

The best part of the story is that scope makers are paying more attention today to the rimfire market than ever before. In optics, you may pay for what you get, but even the low-end .22 scopes can give you years of plinking pleasure.

BURRIS

(970) 356-1670

WWW.BURRISOPTICS.COM

BSA

(954) 581-2144

WWW.BSAOPTICS.COM

BUSHNELL

(800) 221-9035

WWW.BUSHNELL.COM

KAHLES

(866) 606-8779

WWW.KAHLESOPTIK.COM

LEUPOLD

(503) 526-1400

WWW.LEUPOLD.COM

SHEPHERD ENTERPRISES

(402) 779-2424

WWW.SHEPARDSCOPES.COM

WEAVER

(800) 285-0689

WWW.WEAVEROPTICS.COM

[Schattenjager]

Thanks Harry!

I had seen that article about the 300 METER shot but was afraid to mention it since I could not reference the source. The Shepherd is a compelling, spendy option. But how much fun would THAT be??? I really appreciate the time you took to compile the info - I'll be using it Monday AM!

I was going to go for a couple more guns, but the scuttle butt is that ammo is going to be banned / taxed 500% etc. before guns, so I am stocking up on .223, .10mm (reloading) 12ga shot and slugs, and I just got a 5K round case of .22 LR ball. I might get another 5K of hollow point, but first I need a ton more .223 Gun and ammo sales are through the roof because of fear. Wasn't it Palpatine that relied on fear? Hmmmm.... maybe Sith are leading the way! Anyway - I am sure to have the most expensive / least valuable .22 LR in the remaining free world.

[ntsqd]

Weaver M34 fixed 4X that I got used is what I have on my 10/22. It's a pretty low model and I think it might actually be an air rifle scope. Anyway, I like iron sights better. Guess it depends on use, mine just makes holes in paper. I just don't see the usefulness of anything beyond 4X on a 10/22. I happen to fully agree on fixed focal length. If you're getting a zoom scope, don't go cheap (should have said that). Same as camera optics, cheap zooms give up too much.

ntsqd, you're a better aim than me. I couldn't hit the range 200 yard target reliably, although I'm running a stock 18-1/2" barrel and a longer barrel (the Stevens has about 21" barrel, right, or is one of the really long barrels, 25" or whatever?) might make the difference.

20"-21" sounds about right for the Steven's barrel length. The Marble's M92 tang sight puts the rear sight back another couple of inches from the breach. With a .22 LR it's all about the sights and the sight radius AFAIC.

Good iron sights, those not found on very many rifles any more, are worth quite a bit in accuracy. I've never thought that the so-called "Buckhorn" or v-notch type of rear sight (ala' the OEM 10/22 sights) were worth a dang. I modified a Rem 740 iron sight base to fit the side of my 10/22's receiver and have an old Redfield target peepsight with matching globe front on my 10/22. Last I looked the sights were worth more than the rifle.
Barrel is a generic SS bull barrel, action job is all me. In our normal accuracy contest of knocking over stood-up shotgun hulls (shoot until you fail to knock one over, then the next guy/gal shoots) that rifle has been deemed forbidden in anyone's hands.