Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Squirrel Rifle Scopes

I have a Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 rimfire edition on one rifle and a VX3 2.5-8x36 w/custom 50yd parallax on another.

I prefer and cannot say enough about the Zeiss.

I ONLY do headshots. That's why I asked specifically about performance within a pretty close-in sweet spot, about 15-40 yards. "A man's got to know his limitations."

OK.. Talk to me about it.

Bushnell AR-22 2-7x32. Has a side focus that goes down to 15 yards. Very nifty scope. Love mine.

Any input on the Bushnell Rimfire scopes that have side focus and 3 turrets?

First off welcome to the forum. We have a lot of fun on here. A few issues back of Field & Stream magazine David Petzal staff gun guru spelled out what he thought was the best of the best and for a .22 he picked the Ruger 10/22 take down with that Leupold 3-9x33 AO rimfire scope. I have always liked the clean lines of the Leupold scopes, so now that my M61 Winchester is getting a scope to replace the peep sight, I ordered that same scope through Midway USA. The duplex is really fine compared with my other Leupold scopes, but for head of squirrel I assume that finer is better. While I don't exactly think of a 10/22 as the best of the best, I figure that David Petzal looks through lots more scopes than I do so that Leupold seemed to be a good idea at the time.

I had a Leupold 3x9 AO rimfire scope. I sold it and went to the 4x rimfire. The AO feature was a PITA to me. YMMV

In what manner was it a PITA? Your 4x rimfire parallax is fixed at 50 yards. Why couldn't you have just set the 3X9 at 50 and left it there?

I have been killing squirrels for over 40 years with an old Remington 521t bolt rifle. Cheap Bushnell 4X scope. I don't miss. Squirrels don't know I'm shooting a piece of crap scope. Just saying............

That didn't work for me for some reason.

I've heard others say that too. I just never understood exactly why. I've used several higher power AO scopes and never fooled with the AO unless I wanted to use max power at less than 50 yards or max power at over 300. My big game AO's get set at 100 and my rimfire AO's get set at 50.

RH Clark, the technical term for it is depth of focus. If You take a normal 3-9 scope with no ao and it is set for 150 yard parralax and look at something 25 yards away it will still be fairly clear. Now set an ao scope to 150 and look at 25 yards, not even close to as clear. With ao there is less leeway from set parralax.

Maybe some are better or worse. I've had no problems in that way with any AO scope I've ever used. If I set a VX2 4-12 AO on 50 yards the only out of focus you will get is under about 20 yards and then only on 12X. You can adjust it and focus to about 15 yards using the AO on 12X but you could shoot using 4X up to about 8X or 10X at 20 yards with a 50 yards focus no problem.

Same deal on a Z5 Swaro. Set the SF on 100 yards and you don't have to adjust it to make a 10 yard shot or a 50 yard shot or whatever,because I won't be turning the power to 18X for a 50 yard shot. I could if I wanted to though,if I was using the scope on a rimfire and I wanted to shoot fly's at 50 yards. What it is good for though is to get rid of any parallax error if I want to try for a 400 or 500 yard shot. I could see to make the shot without adjusting the parallax, but it's there if I want to use it.

May be different peoples eyes, but it was noticable to me with efr 3-9 and vx2 4-12 set at 50. The 2.5 -8 with parallax change to 50 I just throw up to shoulder and have clear target from 20-100 yards. Not perfectly clear but much clearer than the others.

I would think that the lower power made less correction necessary. I've used a 4-12 VXII for about 10 years or more on a rimfire without any issues. The only time I adjust AO is shooting closer than 30 yards on 12X. I always thought the 2-7 VX2 or 2.5-8 VX3 with a parallax change would make a great rimfire hunting scope. I don't need the extra power of the 4-12 for hunting but I do enjoy it target shooting with the same rifle. For me half the fun of a 22 is having an extremely accurate one and shooting very small or difficult targets with it. I've spent lots of enjoyable evenings on the back deck with the Annie.

What are you shooting on 12x at less than 30 yds?

I hear You about lower power but it even distracted me with the 3-9. When I noticed it was when I would see a squirrel on a limb and throw the gun up to shoot. I would find limbs in background were perfectly clear and the target wasn't. Best I can describe it, but I put the efr 3-9 on a plinker, and gave the 4-12 to my son for sillouette. The difference isnt near as distracting without ao.

This....change the parallax yourself. An easy adjustment.

Just playing. Mostly wasps that land on the hedge that grows along the back yard fence. I live in the country.

It needs a squirrel plex reticle.