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Old April 5, 2018, 09:23 PM   #1
ks_wayward_son
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rimfire/10-22 optics

I have been doing some research on a new potential 10/22 scope. I have read numerous reviews on the Nikons i.e. Prostaff 3-9X Rimfire II and P-Rimfire; mostly with the BDC reticle not the plex. There are others I have read about such as the Vortex Crossfire and Leupold VX I, along with a few Bushnells and the Mueller APV.

I am wanting to spend no more than 150.00 or so and the primary usage would be casual plinking/target shooting. Not necessarily hunting or competition. Anyone confirm the Nikon's performance, perhaps any others?

Additionally the glass will go on top of a build with a .920 heavy bull barrel, so can anyone recommend a good setup for mounts and rings?

Thanks.
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Old April 6, 2018, 07:20 AM   #2
Mobuck
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The highest magnification scope I have in use on a rim fire is 2-7X and the ones most used are 2.5X. The 2.5 is a bit course for accuracy at 100 yards but is quite adequate for plinking.
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Old April 6, 2018, 08:04 AM   #3
bobn
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I have a prostaff with the little circles on the reticle. on three power mine calibrated well. optics much better than the crossfire ii. sold that sucker.
...zeroed at 50m, first circle dead on at 100m, next one down zeros with 150m...bob
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Old April 6, 2018, 08:16 AM   #4
9x19
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I have a couple of Nikon's rimfire scopes, and have been quite happy with them.

The 10/22 recoil is so mild there really isn't a need for heavy steel mounts.

I use Weaver brand bases and their Quad-Lock rings.

Both are inexpensive but work very well. Less than $25 for both on-line at places like

http://www.mountsplus.com/AR-15_Acce...QaAmisEALw_wcB
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Old April 6, 2018, 08:18 AM   #5
NoSecondBest
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I lost track of how many .22lr rifles I've owned over the years. It was a lot. I shot competition for many years and I've been hunting for well over fifty. Putting any "snob appeal" aside (yes, even I have some and have to fight that battle), I'd take a good look at what Bushnell has to offer. I'd suggest a 3-9x40 scope for what you're going to be using it for. Bushnell makes several decent scopes in your price range and they carry a lifetime guarantee. I had two rimfires with these scopes on them and they performed very, very well. Again, putting the snob appeal aside (I'm a Leupold junky) they performed as well as my Leupolds and at about a third of the cost. If you google around you can always get a good price on them. Look at what they call their Trophy series scopes. Natchez usually runs these on sale as well as other places. I'd steer away from Nikon's "little circle" reticle design. It's just too "busy" for casual plinking or even hunting. I think Nikon has some great glass but has lousy reticles. They make a great EFR (extended focal range) .22lr scope right now without the "little circle" reticles but it has a thin crosshair with a small dot in the center. It might be a bit hard to see in dim light but would work rather well for target shooting....and it's only $149. Another good choice. Good luck on which ever you choose.
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Old April 6, 2018, 10:49 AM   #6
pblanc
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I have two Nikon scopes. The optical clarity is very good and they work well. A scope with variable magnification either 2-7 or 3-9 should work well.

Brownell's has the Nikon Prostaff Rimfire 2 3-9x40 on sale right now for $89.95 which is quite a good deal.

The only potential disadvantage to the Prostaff Rimfire is that it has fixed parallax correction set at 50 yards as for most rimfire scopes. If you want to shoot at very short ranges, you might have to deal with some parallax error. If you want to avoid that, you would need a scope with an adjustable objective (AO) to allow parallax correction to be corrected for range. A fairly inexpensive AO 3-9x40 scope that I currently have mounted on my 10/22 is the Vantage 3-9x40 made by Hawke Sport Optics. It is currently available with a set of medium height Weaver rings on Amazon for $109.99. This scope has a mil-dot style reticle. The clarity of the Hawke scope is good but perhaps not quite as good as the Nikons, and the AO seems to work well.
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Old April 6, 2018, 12:29 PM   #7
Areoflyer09
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I have all three: Vortex Crossfire II, Nikon Rimfire II & Leupold VX-1. All three are 3-9. If I had to rank them, I’d give the edge to the VX-1, than the Rimfire II and last to Crossfire.

VX-1: The most expensive and it shows. Everything is just a bit sharper and clearer than the other two. It has the brightest image as well. It’s also the lightest. Very easy to pick up the recticle.

Rimfire II: The image is sharp/clear/bright.. To my eyes, it’s almost as good as the VX-1 on this part. Very easy to pick the recticle. It has the ability to use the Nikon SpotOn website and app, which is nifty but don’t know yet how useful it is.

Crossfire II: I’m at odds with this one. Having used it for a few months, I don’t love it. I do like the larger ocular lens. It makes it quick and easy to looser the target, but keeping the recticle in focus isn’t natural on this scope for me. The image is still sharp/clear/bright but not quite to he level of the other two for me. I just have to fight with this scope enough that I can love it. It’s currently on my wife’s CZ.

This is just how my eyes see them. I do wear glasses so that may effect things. None of them are bad or have a glaring fault. And all them are miles better than say a Simmons 3x9. It would be worth finding a store that has them and will let you look through them to help form an opinion.

The sale on the Nikon would make it a no brainer for me and I would have bought another but I wanted to try the VX-1.
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Old April 6, 2018, 12:59 PM   #8
riffraff
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I dont know what im doing really but every scope review i read, ie best scope for rifle xxxx, seems to mention a UTG model as a great budget contendor at around 100 bucks or less including rings.
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Old April 6, 2018, 02:15 PM   #9
JJ45
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IMO, you get what you pay for...I have a one and only 10/22, a basic carbine, that I added a KIDD trigger to.

The rifle is light and compact as you know and I almost mounted a peep sight before mounting a Burris 1-4X20 EER Compact in low Weaver rings, using the Weaver base that was included with the rifle.

This is an older USA Burris that's been mounted, in the past, on everything from a .177 pellet gun to a 30-06 and has always held it's zero. I have no idea what the parallax correction distance is for this scope but with the scope set on 3X, I can get sub 1" five shot groups at 50 yards with it's favored loads.

But it is mainly a small game and varmint gun that gets carried around and hiked with a lot, so that figures in the choice..
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Old April 6, 2018, 05:57 PM   #10
ks_wayward_son
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Thanks for the advice/replies.

I've looked further into the Bushnell AR 22. I like the idea of the focus adjustment to correct paralax. Only thing is the knob underneath the scope. I wonder if medium rings with a low profile picatinny mount would clear the scope sufficiently?
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Old April 6, 2018, 06:49 PM   #11
NoSecondBest
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There's a web site dedicated to just rimfire firearms. It has something like 30,000 viewers and it has many, many knowledgeable shooters on there. Give it a visit and ask your question(s) there. You'll get some replies from people who can answer the questions based on first hand experience. Rimfirecentral.com
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Old April 6, 2018, 08:55 PM   #12
ks_wayward_son
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Nosecond...good point. In my research I looked at many of their older posts and have used them as a reference point. Now...to add to my indecisiveness, I am reconsidering the Nikon Prostaffs in lieu of the Bushnells because I have read their glass is much better. I am in limbo to choose a reticle and the use of an adjustable objective.

I.e....the decision between the Prostaff 3-9X40 BDC or the Prostaff EFR that has the pinpoint dot and crosshair. I have already pretty much designated the 10/22 as a target/plinker and will include a heavy .920.

I realize that Nikon has the Spot On program for the BDC reticle which is a cool feature, but maybe the EFR would wring out a tad more accuracy precision wise?
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Old April 7, 2018, 05:43 AM   #13
NoSecondBest
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I don't want to tell anyone that they have an ugly baby or anything, but to me the Nikon BDC reticle is....well, an ugly baby. Some people like them and some hate them. To me, they're just "too busy" when I'm trying to do precision shooting. I find the circles obstruct more than they help. When I was shooting three gun Team Challenge matches I went through a lot of different guns, stocks, and scopes looking for the best optics to win with. I ended up using a Bausch & Lomb 4000 series scope with a dot in the center of the reticle. Personally, I'd either go with the dot reticle or use more power and go with a traditional plex style reticle. That's just my personal preference, but it's built on success for me. I think you need to visit a store and look through some. At least google them on the internet and look at the reticle choices.
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Old April 7, 2018, 11:14 AM   #14
Drm50
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I'm not sure how many 22 Rifles I got. I use them to plink, Varmit and small
game hunt. I am not a fan of varible scopes. I have 2-10/22s that have a K3
on one and K4 on the other. A Ruger 77/22 with Redfield 4x, Marlin 39 with
Burris Compact 6x and a Rem 513 with Lyman 10x. Most of my other 22s are
classics and have irons or peeps. The 77/22 I bought when first out and I bought
the Burris Compact 6x for it. I didn't like the field of view of Compact and swapped it out for Redfield 4x. This has become my serious 22, squirrel head
accuracy at 40yds, big field of view. I would think seriously why you need a
varible scope on a 22. For most things a plain old 4x is all you need. Things
are opposite of what they use to be. The choice of scopes have shifted from
straight powers to varibles. Now if you what a straight power bigger than 4x
they are big bucks.
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Old April 7, 2018, 03:39 PM   #15
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I have a Ruger 10/22 carbine that I bought 12 years ago to teach my daughters so shoot with. It STILL has the Barska 3-12 x 40 AO scope that I bought way back then, and it still works great. Was a cheap scope that I was sure was going to be junk and only last a year or two but...I sighted it in 12 years ago and haven't had to touch it since. I'm sure it's not as bright as a Nikon but...works for me, and has adjustable objective which has been a nice feature since distance to target varies at different ranges.
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Old April 7, 2018, 03:50 PM   #16
the possum
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Quote:
I would think seriously why you need a varible scope on a 22. For most things a plain old 4x is all you need.
Aaaand, there it is. I was wondering how long it was gonna take before someone chimed in about using anything above a "low power" type of scope. Though I'm a little disappointed that you didn't push iron sights as well.
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Old April 7, 2018, 04:11 PM   #17
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I put a Simmons 22MAG 3-9X on my Ruger 10-22 take down. Mounted in QD rings. On my first outing I put 10 rounds in a thumbnail sized hole at 50 yds. from a rest. To see how well things returned to zero I removed the scope, broke down tje rifle, reassembled everything, and put ten more in the same hole! Very happy with the Simmons scope.
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Old April 7, 2018, 10:12 PM   #18
Areoflyer09
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FWIW, I still have a Simmons 3-9 on Savage MKII. It functions perfectly, just not as nice as the other options I have. It’s a fantastic budget option.
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Old May 12, 2018, 07:42 AM   #19
ks_wayward_son
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Apologies for scrounging up an old-ish thread but I have been looking into a few other options.

Does anyone have any experience with the Burris Droptine or MSR scopes? They seem to have really good reviews and overall Burris appears to put out good quality optics. They're right in the middle road cost-wise, so I was considering them as a viable option.
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Old May 12, 2018, 08:08 AM   #20
NoSecondBest
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A friend of mine just got one of these. If I were looking right now, I'd get one of these.
Burris Fullfield 2 4.5-14x42.
https://ads.midwayusa.com/product/69...-reticle-matte
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Old May 12, 2018, 12:01 PM   #21
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My experience,

I can only comment on a couple of 22 scopes as that's all I've owned in the past few years, and anything beyond that would be conjecture on my part.

I have used the Nikon P-22 2X7 on two separate rifles, a S&W M&P 15-22 and a Dan Wesson Coyote Classic. The M&P had the BDC reticle the DW a standard Nikoplex. Both were very usable but I found the standard Nikoplex more to my liking. In terms of quality no complaints of any kind. Glass was decent and the mechanicals lived up to expectation. Very difficult scope to beat at the $130 price range they often sell at online. No issues recommending at all.

Stretching your $150 budget to $190 puts you into a Vortex Diamondback 2-7X35 rimfire. Have one on my Ruger American Rimfire. The extra money will buy you cleaner optics especially on the edges, and a much better tracking system. I'm a 22 ammo junkie, always looking to try different stuff to see how it shoots. As long as I mark my starting point, the Diamondback has always returned to original zero when through playing. Strong praise for a sub $200 scope. This scope is/was sighted for the 36 gr Mini-Mags used for removing squirrels from the birdfeeders. I really like this scope on a 22, but again it's a bit above your budget, so if you go Nikon P22, you won't be giving up enough to regret your choice.

Are you mounting to the receiver directly or installing a base? In either case I believe medium height rings should get your eye in proper position without any interference issues on the objective end. I have used Warne, Leupold, and Burris rings and have no problems recommending any of them. Warne are probably my favorites as I like the sleek lines but all work.

Take Care
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Old May 12, 2018, 12:09 PM   #22
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I know it's no where near top quality, but I've been using a Barska 3-12x40 AO scope on my 10/22 carbine for over 10 years... been very happy with it, never lost zero.
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