doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com .22 Lr Scope choice

I don’t know anything about CZ rifles or whether they possess sufficient inherent accuracy to be worth scoping properly. Nor, do I understand Mr. Postoak’s desire for precision in his endeavors. Certainly, any cheapie scope is enough to whack a squirrel at 20 yards. But, if the original poster is a bit of a gun nut and finds value in a superbly accurate rifle and his ability to place shots with great precision, then a good scope really is the only way to go.

My .22 is a 1930’s vintage military Springfield M-2 built into a “fine” classic sporter in English walnut, with express sights, skeleton butt and cap, three panel knob, etc, etc, by Clayton Nelson. It is a tight-chambered, full-sized rifle and is superbly accurate. It gets the most use of any of my rifles and often accompanies me on my daily rambles with the dogs around my property.

I learned when fooling around with high quality air rifles that with low-powered rifles (like air rifles and .22’s) shot placement is all. Assuming the rifle itself is accurate, assuming proper ammo choice, etc, the best way to insure proper shot placement is through the use of top-quality optics with adjustable parallax. Adjustable parallax is critical because with low powered rifles, you might be taking a shot at 15 yards or 100 yards – parallax makes a big difference. Magnification greater than 4x is also critical to accurate shot placement. This means, in my mind anyway, nothing less than a Leupold ERF scope. On a big, heavy pre-charged, suppressed, pneumatic air rifle, a 6.5-20 EFR is not out of place. However, on a hunting rifle that will be carried more than shot, such a large, heavy scope with protruding target knobs, etc, would be impractical despite its superb performance. Fortunately, Leupold comes to the rescue with its compact 3x9-33 EFR scope. Even better, that scope is offered in a matte finish that complements with rust blueing of a “fine” .22.

I went through various scopes on this .22 until I finally settled on a matte finish Leupold 3x9-33 EFR scope. It is small and light enough to field use and, while not up to the standards of the full-race Leupold ERF target scopes, gives me all I need in the field. The only downside (if you can call it that) is the need to adjust the parallax distance before taking a shot – but that in turn permits very, very precise placement.

Whatever scope is being used, the prime problem at the distances involved---more like minus-10-20 yards, in my experience--- is placing the crosshairs to allow for scopes mounted much higher than iron sights.

King - My eyes are also too far gone for open sights, but after purchasing a Merit aperature to stick on my glasses for pistol shooting, I tried a receiver (peep) sight on a rifle. If you use the target (small hole aperature), everything becomes crystal clear!

An excellent scope for a .22 squirrel rifle is an old Unertl small game scope. The big obnoxious modern scopes are way out of place on most rifles, and few small modern scopes are made with any quality.

The Fecker small game scope or Woodchucker would be another good one. But finding on is tough.

Brent

Where does one buy a Merit aperture, please? I never heard of it. My pistol shooting is switching focus back and forth and only long experience provides a barely satisfactory result. Thanks.

Sorry, I misread your message, Mr. Frech. The Merit didn't work, eh?

fnb nice gun and scope.

Some "old bOys" with cheap scopes and shOrt double barrels are making this post into a another "how to close your gun post"..lol.
L.F.

Halvey, the term "old boy," is something of an endearment. Think of it that way!

LG, old sock, old shoe, old cabbagehead, youse best stop with that Jay Gatsby impersonation before somebody takes more umbrage than you're givin. Remember, some peckerwoods are incredible shots (inchnahaf all day at treehunert and probably offhand in a hurricane to boot) and even if they aint, they'd all follow each other over a cliff if there was a Leupold at the bottom.

jack

I am now sorry I ever brought up the subject.