Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Squirrel Rifle Scopes

Of those you mentioned, probably the best and definitely the best bang for your buck, is that Weaver 2x7. That is a great little scope.

Totally agree, I think that the V16 is physically too large for most rimfire rifles with light/sporter contour barrels. On those, I prefer Leupold 2-7x28s and 3-9x33s or Weaver RV7s and RV9s. The only light(ish) contour barrel rifle that I have a V16 on is a Ruger 10/22 with a 24" medium contour fluted stainless barrel from Green Mountain. There is a guy on RFC who puts V16s and V24s on both light and heavy contour barreled rifles.

I had a Vortex Diamondback 2-7x35mm rimfire on my Ruger 77/22 until one day it fogged up and sent it in to Vortex. In the mean time I put a Bushnell Banner Dusk & Dawn 3.5-10x35 mm AO Multi-X on and it is still on.

Vortex returned the scope and I sold it.

One not mentioned is Clearidge. The 3-9 is a great Japanese made lifetime warranty scope with finger adjustable capped turrets.
https://www.clearidgeoptics.com/ultra-rm-s/1814.htm

I like my Leupold rimfire 4x scopes. I ordered one from the custom shop with their turkey plex reticle that works great for squirrel hunting.

I have a Bushnell Trophy XLT 4-12x40 AO I bought for a magnum springer airgun. It stayed there for 1000-1500 rounds, then went on a .243 for the deer season. Never box tested it, but have never had to chase the adjustments and once ran the elevation up a couple full turns while shooting the airgun, then back, and it landed right back where it started. Decent glass. It's going on my SS CZ 455 when that one lands. I paid about $130, but the current Amazon price is $176. Still a good deal. My son has had an earlier version on his .22 for about 20 years.

My Ruger RSI wears a Leupold 4x rimfire, but I like more Xs for longer shots these days.

My Remington 541T has a Burris 3-9x33 Compact with the parallax set at 50 yards. I would probably go with the Leupold 3-9x33 EER.

I like my leupold 4x rimfire on my abolt 22...

I just put a Sightron 3-9 X 32mm (or 33 cannot remember) on my 1422. It has a fine crosshair, not duplex. I have been using one on a CZ452 for 3 or 4 years and it has been the best scope I have used on a rimfire. Graf's had these on one of the tables at their "Tent Sale" for around $75 out the door. It is my favorite as it is light and compact with great optics for the money.

i have a pair of Anschutz 1415/1416's, one with the light sporter barrel, the other a medium heavy contour....the light one was wearing the 2X7 Rimfire compact; decent optics, but it was more more particular when it comes to
eye relief.....i pulled that scope off a a few weeks back, and replaced it with the Leupold 3x9EFR/AO rimfire scope, which was an upgrade to my eyes.

My other 1415/1416 is the medium heavy contour, and it wears a vari-x II 4-12xAO.....i like the scope, but on the slimmer & trimmer 1416 sporter weight gun i have, it was physically a tad larger than i wanted.... optically the 4-12xAO works well for a squirrel rifle and shots at any reasonable range. Have a 2.5-8x with adjusted parallax on my anschutz .22mag, and it works pretty well for close shots, and is very tolerant of eye relief.

as mentioned previously, the VX2/VX-II in 2x7 is pretty decent once parallax corrected, of decent brightness & physically not overly large on slim rifles. I do own a few of the others you mentioned; i found the weaver 2-7x also a bit finicky on eye relief, as is the weaver 3-9xAO. The nikon prostaff 2x7 which they market as a shotgun scope does work pretty well on rimfires for me though, have several of those on assorted RF rifles.

The Sightron that Crappie Killer mentioned is good glass, i tried one , but in very low light the fine crosshairs were a bit thin for my eyeballs to pick up easily in half-light at times.

The Leupold 3x9 EFR A/O rimfire is a good one; I have a couple.

Another one you don't see very often is the Kahles 2-7 Rimfire. If you see one, grab it. That may be the nicest rimfire scope of all. Mine is on a Cooper Classic .22LR.

DF

I have a 2-7X32 Nikon Pro-Staff shotgun scope {75 yd. parallax setting} on my favorite squirrel wacker. Over the years I've killed several hundred grey squirrels with it at distances from 10 ft. to 100 yards with no complaints.

I like a dedicated squirrel rifle scope to be mounted as close to the bore as possible and I like 9X or better top magnification. Here's why. I do most of my squirrel hunting slipping quietly through the woods. This means I often see the squirrel as it is moving to try to hide from me. Often when the hide they want to keep an eye on me, and that is literally just about all that is exposed. It takes some patient scanning on higher power to find them. The less distance from the bore line to the line of sight the better. Quarter inches can count in this game.

Just for conversation purposes, would you use a different scope if you were doing Squirrel head shots only. You might say, moa of Squirrel eye.
I would still use the scopes I mentioned, but wondered if everyone else would.

i'd probably stick with the same choices also....

I try for head shots only squirrel hunting. I definitely don't feel underpowered with 2.5-8. Like I said, I just need enough mag to place bullet in head, not enough to watch it going through the head.

the clearidge 3-9x RM is my favorite.

also theyre airgun-rated ...

Leupold 6X42 TARGET A/O is my choice. Of the recommended scopes sadly many are no longer made. (3X9 EFR is no longer made)
I can use the 12X A/O nearly as well, but your trees must be shorter than where I hunt, so the 6X may well be perfect for your use.
My 6X A/O has a 1/2 minute dot. I find it is an excellent scope for squirrels. (and Dragon Flys!)
I like the 17 HMR with a trajectory of only 3/8' high at 50 yards... it is then zero at 100 yards. I can not abide the drop of standard velocity .22s.

I used to run Leupold compact scopes on my rimfires but the eyebox on these scopes are too tight for my taste, I now run Weaver V9's on My rimfires, they have a decent eyebox are pretty sharp and brightness is good, for the money they are hard to beat.......Hb

The Leupold VX-1 2-7 Rimfire has been my go-to rimfire hunting scope. Cheap and tends to hold zero good enough, once you get done chasing the zero that is.