Rimfire scopes for rimfire rifle

[Certaindeaf]

My favorite was an old skinny Weaver 4x with very fine crosshairs on my much older Marlin Glenfield model 60. O where art thou?
So get one a those.

 

[Spitpatch]

A recent acquisition for me was a Browning BL22, and it needed optics to match.
In my "Island of Misfit Optics" I had a Bushnell "Custom" 3x-7x rimfire scope ('70's vintage) new in the box: a gun show find.

It looked pretty good, fitted the little gun perfectly and I lived with it and shot it for about a week or so. But what I wanted was a tidy little "Baby Redfield" (there's one for sale right now in Classifieds), again '70's vintage, and a fully capable optic, even centerfire durable.

I have one on a little Browning SA 22, and again, it fits the little gun perfectly. Most sporting .22's need smaller scopes. Nice .22's need nice scopes.

Two weeks ago, I discovered GruBee, Inc. out of Oklahoma. They have researched and disassembled Baby Redfields, and are now producing them (China) in a perfect replica, but all the modern bells and whistles. Better glass, better coatings, better gas, click adjustments, etc.

I'm rarely happy with new crap. This ain't crap.

 

[Spitpatch]

I believe it was in the '70's when a gun-writer strapped a 1" tube centerfire riflescope on his .22 and sung the praises far and wide of his discovery.

The idea caught on with the virulence of a prairie fire (or the 6.5 Creedmoor).

In less than a decade, almost all the ".22 Scopes" (3/4 and 7/8" tube) vanished from the market. Some of them were VERY good scopes such as the Redfield, some were quite good for any .22 (Bushnell/Weaver), and some did the job just fine for those of us who were very young and very poor (KMart "All Pro" could be had for seven bucks. And it worked.).

But .22 rifles are by and large NOT large. A big scope on most hunting .22's looks like a scope with a rifle attached to the bottom of it.

The aftermath of the switchover was that some little-used (or brand-spanking-new) .22 Scopes showed up at gun shows, scattered on tables like bird seed. I started snagging them up some time ago, with special focus on the Bushnell/Bausch and Lomb "Scopechief", "Custom", etc. Crystal clear glass with quality coatings on these bright little scopes.

The bottom line is, nearly ALL sporting/hunting .22's are better served toward their purpose with a quality scope that is of a size and weight compatible with the gun. Most such guns do a BETTER job of being a fast-handling, easy to carry small game rifle with smaller, lighter optics.

Having said all that, here's some examples that show where big scopes on .22's make sense: (mostly because of the purpose of the gun).


Top to Bottom:
Harrington and Richardson Model 12 US Gov't Contract rifle, threaded and braked. Leupold 4x-12x AO. Sage Rats and long-range experimentation.

Ruger Model 77-22. Leupold 3x-9x Compact AO. Silhouette, Sage Rats and night hunts with dogs for 'coon and cat. (Tree-top shots in limited light and accuracy non-negotiable.)

Remington Model 512. A recent resto-mod on a 75 year-old rifle. Weaver K10 AO. Another tree-top gun, this one for daylight shots on Silver Grey Squirrels.

 

[monks]

I've run all types of scopes on my 22's over the years. I used to just install any old scope I got in trade such as the Bushnell Banner 3-9x40 I put on a 10-22 for my daughter. For a plinker they're fine and will serve the purpose if you're on a tight budget. Once I got a little older and got tired of missing game I invested money in better guns and better scopes. I had an extra Leupold VX-2 that I sent in and had the parallax adjusted down to sixty yards. It has great glass but it ended up on my old marlin model 60 due to the thick crosshairs. The next scope I bought was a vx-freedom rimfire in 3-9x40. It is a great scope and did the job well except it looked huge on the rifle I had it on. I've finally settled (I think) on Leupold vx-1 2-7x28 compact rimfires for my hunting rifle and my pack gun. Leupold quit making them but they're great scopes and no other company that I've found makes anything like them. I shopped around on eBay and got a couple of the later models with click adjust turrets. Click adjust is a must have IMO for rimfire hunting rifles so you can dial in for different loads. I had to pay more than new prices to get the ones I bought but they're just fantastic!

 

[Spitpatch]

And another laments the passing of the Compacts. Best hunting scope (for ANY rifle) Leupold ever made.

 

[monks]

And another laments the passing of the Compacts. Best hunting scope (for ANY rifle) Leupold ever made.

I agree!