advice on scope selection for hunting.

[phishroy]

Up until now ive used some of my plinking or range 22 rifles for squirrel hunting.
Not so satisfied with it.
So im putting together dedicated squirrel hunting rig.

I could use some advice on scope selection.
The rifle would be a bolt action 22.
Need a scope that would be able to deliver head shots accurately between 10 to about 70 yards.
The problem that I’ve been having is the rainbow effect of the 22 ballistics and shot placement at the varying ranges.
I see that Nikon and a few other sell BDC reticles for 22 rimfire but they all start from 50 yards.
Any way to make these BDC reticles work for shorter distances?
Would love to hear experience with these reticles? Pros’ cons

 

[dugasgunner]

Have a look at the Vortex Diamondback HP 2-8X32 with side focus. Love mine. Compact, fully multi-coated, not to heavy and parallax goes down to 20yds. Reticule is duplex not some kind of bdc. IMO an honest scope.

 

[Canadiankeeper]

Are you stuck on 22lr? I use my Cz452 22lr and love it, but if you are buying a new rifle why not consider other calibers?

17hmr I found awesome for them, I used it last season. A nice CZ 455 in 17hmr would be more then capable of head shots out to 100 (assuming you are! LOL) not to mention the ballistic trajectory is MUCH flatter. Sight it at 50, still on at 100 basically lol.

I like to use "fine" cross hair reticles for rim fire hunting. I find the BDC reticle much more useful for medium game that pop out at random distances (coyotes)

Get a rifle in 17 hmr, mount that optic as low as you can. Use a small obj lensed optic. Bushnell Legend Ultra HD Rifle Scope, 1.75-5x 32mm would be nice.

Sight in for 50, take 2 shots at 10,20,30,60,80,90,100 Write down how high or low you are at each... Tape that dope chart onto you're rifle...

BAM, one hell of a dedicated tree rat rig!

 

[phishroy]

Are you stuck on 22lr? I use my Cz452 22lr and love it, but if you are buying a new rifle why not consider other calibers?

17hmr I found awesome for them, I used it last season. A nice CZ 455 in 17hmr would be more then capable of head shots out to 100 (assuming you are! LOL) not to mention the ballistic trajectory is MUCH flatter. Sight it at 50, still on at 100 basically lol.

I like to use "fine" cross hair reticles for rim fire hunting. I find the BDC reticle much more useful for medium game that pop out at random distances (coyotes)

Get a rifle in 17 hmr, mount that optic as low as you can. Use a small obj lensed optic. Bushnell Legend Ultra HD Rifle Scope, 1.75-5x 32mm would be nice.

Sight in for 50, take 2 shots at 10,20,30,60,80,90,100 Write down how high or low you are at each... Tape that dope chart onto you're rifle...

BAM, one hell of a dedicated tree rat rig!

I find the 17 hmr a bit to destructive on the meat ...now if only the 17 hm2 was as cheap and available as it used to be.....

 

[Kody]

A dedicated squirrel gun....that sounds exciting! I find the BDC150 reticle on my Nikon far too busy for hunting squirrels. I put it on my WMR that I use for hunting rabbits but I don't use the BDC dots at all.
My dedicated squirrel gun has a Leupold Rimfire VX2 3-9x32 AO. Its an excellent all around scope with a fine duplex reticle.

 

[ronnie01]

Yup x 2 ^^^ I have same scope on my scout.

R

 

[Cbf123]

Have a look at the Vortex Diamondback HP 2-8X32 with side focus. Love mine. Compact, fully multi-coated, not to heavy and parallax goes down to 20yds. Reticule is duplex not some kind of bdc. IMO an honest scope.

I think it would be more honest to call it a 2.4-8 scope, since below 2.4x the image gets smaller but the field of view doesn't increase, which makes it sort of pointless. And on mine at least the edges of the image are blurry at 2x and don't get decent till I crank it up to 3x.

 

[Cbf123]

The balistic reticles apply to near distances in the same way they do to far distances, but depending on what sort of kill zone you can allow it might not be necessary to worry about it for shorter distances.

As an example, with 1260fps ammo if you set the near zero to 20 yds the far zero will be around 59 yds. If you allow a 1" kill zone (ie +/- 0.5"), then you'll hit the kill zone from about 13yds out to about 65 yds. You'll be about half an inch low at the near/far extremes, and half an inch high at around 40yds.

If you want more accuracy than that, then a bit of field time (possibly combined with a ballistic app) would let you map your reticle points for near distances as well as far.

 

[.22LRGUY]

Up until now ive used some of my plinking or range 22 rifles for squirrel hunting.
Not so satisfied with it.
So im putting together dedicated squirrel hunting rig.

I could use some advice on scope selection.
The rifle would be a bolt action 22.
Need a scope that would be able to deliver head shots accurately between 10 to about 70 yards.
The problem that I’ve been having is the rainbow effect of the 22 ballistics and shot placement at the varying ranges.
I see that Nikon and a few other sell BDC reticles for 22 rimfire but they all start from 50 yards.
Any way to make these BDC reticles work for shorter distances?
Would love to hear experience with these reticles? Pros’ cons

I think suggesting a scope is one thing, but any set-up that is dedicated to one application is a bit more fun to think about. For starters, looking at the 70 yard goal and the target size...a bigger concern (in my opinion) would be what gun/ammo combination can even achieve that kind of accuracy at that distance. I've had a fair number of 22s come and go over the years, and I wouldn't bet $1 that even 1/2 of them could pull that off. If someone were asking me today what they should consider getting for this role, I'd probably suggest finding a CZ452 American (not varmint barrel) for the modest weight, and accuracy potential. Buy a sample of every type of 22 ammo you can (focussing on high velocity) see what it can do off a steady rest first.

For scope/reticle choice~the only 22 I hunt with (ground squirrels-o-plenty ) is a Sightron S1 4-12 AO, BDC reticle. With those silly things, you have time to mess with the AO but honestly, most of those are in the 15-50 yard range and it isn't even necessary. Nor were "head" shots. You are right though, most "rimfire" scopes have a parallax setting of 50 yards and beyond, so I wouldn't consider them an ideal choice if you're seeing allot of squirrels inside of that distance. Back to the BDC reticle~I find it useful, but their effectiveness only comes with practice, and knowing the gun/ammo is doing it's part too. Forget the hashmarks being specific to .22LR, it doesn't matter. I pick my zero, then through trial and error...figure out @ what distance the next hashmark down hits home. I then set-up a few targets in between at pre-determined intervals and practice practice practice.

I think I should also touch on the 17M2 topic. I've personally never used mine for more than target shooting because I'm stingy...but in a squirrel-hunting role...ammo cost/availability really isn't as big a factor. 99% of my rimfire shooting is with a 22 and I know my 452 Varmint well. However, I've read lots of reports of 17M2 being the king of squirrel calibers and I have zero hesitation believing that. So fast/flat out to 100 yards and the same level of noise as a .22. Honestly, if the thing you're genuinely putting together IS a dedicated squirrel gun, a 17M2 should be part of the discussion. The 10 yard-70 yard "drop" issue really wouldn't be an issue any more.

 

[phishroy]

I think I should also touch on the 17M2 topic. I've personally never used mine for more than target shooting because I'm stingy...but in a squirrel-hunting role...ammo cost/availability really isn't as big a factor. 99% of my rimfire shooting is with a 22 and I know my 452 Varmint well. However, I've read lots of reports of 17M2 being the king of squirrel calibers and I have zero hesitation believing that. So fast/flat out to 100 yards and the same level of noise as a .22. Honestly, if the thing you're genuinely putting together IS a dedicated squirrel gun, a 17M2 should be part of the discussion. The 10 yard-70 yard "drop" issue really wouldn't be an issue any more.

Used to have a cz 452 American in HM2 and sold it about 5 years ago when ammo prices started to go over 7$ a box of 50, regretting it now. In hind sight that was the perfect squirrel gun… but hind sight…..
I believe I actually sold you the reminder of my HM2 ammo.
I would love to go back to the HM2 but the availability is not like the 22.

So I would either convert one of my 452’s 22 into a squirrel gun or pick up a marlin xt 22 that I wouldn’t mind using for hunting.

 

[brybenn]

I solved this problem by switching to the 17 mach 2. It is without a doubt the king of the tree rat killers. I use a cheap fixed 4x32 on mine but the glass is surprisingly clear. I'll be upgrading to a sightron or ziess after Xmas

I do hunt squirrels with cci quiet ammo as well. Squirrels are numerous where I deer hunt so I just slowly stalk them to 20-25 yards and use a bipod and wait for a head shot.