Best all around scope for a bolt action 22

Glockenspiel

Glockenspiel

Regular
Rating - 100%
266   0   1
Location
Area 51
Looking at a good quality scope for a bolt action 22 to be used for target mostly 25 m, 50m, maybe out to 100m. Possibly for hunting grouse and wabbits, but have my 20ga O/U for that. Looking for optical quality (resolution and light gathering), 4 to max 12 zoom range, ease of adjustable focus, good eye relief, and preferably target type turrets. And of course ballistic type reticle for hold over or windage hold due to wind. And not too large to be impractical. That is asking a lot. Nothing expensive so max $350 range. Let me know your thoughts. Lots of reviews out there as well, but personal experience from fellow nutters is helpful.

Thanks,

Glockenspiel
 
Agreed with gunrunner100 if you have the coin...

My Ruger 10/22 Target wears a 6-18x40AO Leupold that a friend scooped for me in clearance at Bass Pro for ~$250... It's honestly too much scope for hunting as most shots are too close even at 6x...

Outside of that ONE exception, I am a fan of the Bushnell Banner 4-12x40AO for 22 LR rimfire.

Cheers
Jay
 
Look for a decent scope, on sale or used. Make sure it has an Adjustable Objective lens so that you can dial out the paralax, which is the movement of your reticle as you move your eye.

This will cause larger groups.

Target scopes and hunting scopes have different requirements. You need to look up focal planes, as in first focal plane and second focal plane as its reticle location will have a big difference and may not be suitable for both purposes.

Burris/Leupold/Swarovski/Leica and even a few lesser grade scopes can be good value and be fine for your purposes, in your price range.

Used scopes can be picked up for very decent prices and both Leupold/Burris have lifetime guarantees, as long as parts are available.

One scope type, often overlooked but expensive are the IOR Valdada offerings. Not all of their models are suitable for your purposes and out of your price range.

Even mid to high end scopes can be dogs.

You have to know what to look for.

Such as will the reticle still have sharp definition at the ranges you're going to use it.

10 meters to Eternity is a huge variance. Most scopes, without AO are set up to be paralax free at appx 100 meters.

The focal plane is quite tight. You have appx a ten meter band at that range where your reticle will stay dead center.

Many scopes, even high end models, will not be able to focus the target and reticle at very close or at a distant range.

Don't purchase sight unseen. That's mostly just the luck of the draw as to what you actually get.

It's getting a bit late in the season to be looking for a ''good deal'' on any scope.
 
Newer Bushnell stuff is actually really good. It seems upscaling their high end has trickled down plus their AO goes down to 10yds.
Or spend a bit more on a Sightron S-tac.
 
For something with exposed target turrets, adjustable parallax and a good MIL/MOA reticle, I'm not sure $350 is going to get you anything...
 
sk8snwmx said:
For something with exposed target turrets, adjustable parallax and a good MIL/MOA reticle, I'm not sure $350 is going to get you anything...
Click to expand...

The one thing I can think of is the Cabelas covenant 4-16x, but even that is only that cheap if its on sale.
 
Last edited:
Souther's right about the Covenant, I have the 6-24x50 FFP. It was only $450+ tx and has an MOA-tree with numbers on each 4th bar. I have it on my Savage B22, relaceing a Bushnell Engage 6-24x50 SFP that cost $330 +. I wanted the FFP and the numbered tree to make hold-overs simpler. The 6x might be hard for quick 'close-up' shots so I guess the bunnies are safe ;-)
 
For the features and functions you want, including "optical quality" and "good quality" as you have stated, I think you are asking too much for a max $350 price. For what you want, a <= $350 will likely be a huge disappointment with dark cloudy fuzzy glass, and likely to self-destruct with normal use, or have major consistency in POI issues, and faulty ability to track consistently when using turrets. I would expect at that max price the turrets will be mushy and fail in repeatability.

For hunting, you might be able to find good quality for "set and forget" capped turrets (which are fine for hunting) where you learn your holds high/low for distance, and no parallax adjustment, for $500 to $1000. I use one of these types of scopes (a Leupold 3-9x rimfire scope with duplex reticle) for grouse hunting, and it works fine with bright glass. However with the fixed parallax, I have to compromise focus. It is not a crisp focus at all distances that I shoot grouse. Even worse, for close up focus on the grouse for a shot say at 10-20 yards, I need to turn the eyepiece to have a slightly fuzzy reticle. With the duplex reticle, I work out my holds based on the grouse body proportions. But it still costs more than $350. For hunting you do not want dark cloudy fuzzy glass when peering for a head shot in the dark forest understory. You want high quality, light gathering, crisp focus glass with a heavy dark reticle, and that you have to pay for. Add the side parallax focus which is really beneficial, and you have to pay for that.

But when you add the target shooting purpose of use, I think you are needing the better quality glass and turrets closer to > $1000 and more if you are thinking about competition. You want a thinner reticle for target shooting than for hunting. If just plinking targets for fun, then yes you can get by for < $1000.

It is tough to find what you are looking for, for rimfire, that meets both hunting and target purposes. One thing to consider if using one rifle, is to mount a picatinny rail on the receiver for easy swapping out of two scopes with picatinny rings: buy one scope for hunting, one for target. If the rings and rail are good quality, the return to zero is fairly close.

I know, I know, I just inflated your price cap by about 5-10 times! :)
 
Last edited:
Try a Leupold Freedom VX Rimfire 3-9x40 Tri MOA reticle. Parallax set at 60 yds, excellent glass for the price, BDC reticle so no need for target turrets, no hassle lifetime warranty ( IF you ever should need it?), excellent resale value if you choose to sell it.
 
The Leupold runs about $450+tx with No Adj-para and SFP and 3-9 instead of 6-24x50 for Covenant. Points for 'Name Brand' and I don't know who makes the Covenants.
I found this 'info' about Cabelas scopes - http s://riflescope-review.com/who-makes-cabelas-scopes/#:~:text=Cabela%E2%80%99s%20is%20owned%20and%20operated%20by%20Bass%20Pro,rule%20is%20the%20clearly%20marked%2C%20co-branded%20scope%20models. - waaayy down the page the Covenant is listed.
"This series also featured a side focus that would focus down to 15 yards and came equipped with Cabela’s FFP reticle option.
Both the SFP and FFP versions of this series were made in China and appear to be from the same facility that makes the Vortex Diamondback series of scopes and use to make the Diamondback HD scope models. "
Like they say - " You pays your money . . . " Prob not Vortex warranty but BassPro will still be in business if it fails like I hear V- does.
 
I hear better things about the 4-16x than the 6-24x Covenant, the glass quality these scopes offer just isn't good enough at 24x from what I was told when asking about scope options for a RPRS style rifle I was looking (still looking, but funds dried up temporarily) to build.

Bad Bob said:
One can not really discuss Leupold and Covenant scopes in the same light. Vortex either for that matter. JMO.
Click to expand...

I agree. You'll get better glass and build quality with a Leupold, but all the features one might want like FFP, christmas tree reticle, and target turrets are not available at the OPs price point from Leupold.

Simply put, if you're comparing similarly priced optics these brands are two entirely different beasts that fill very different roles.
 
Suther said:
I hear better things about the 4-16x than the 6-24x Covenant, the glass quality these scopes offer just isn't good enough at 24x from what I was told when asking about scope options for a RPRS style rifle I was looking (still looking, but funds dried up temporarily) to build.



I agree. You'll get better glass and build quality with a Leupold, but all the features one might want like FFP, christmas tree reticle, and target turrets are not available at the OPs price point from Leupold.

Simply put, if you're comparing similarly priced optics these brands are two entirely different beasts that fill very different roles.
Click to expand...

Yeah, $350 just doesn`t buy much these days.
 
Bad Bob said:
Yeah, $350 just doesn`t buy much these days.
Click to expand...

I dunno about that. Could you get a FFP scope with a christmas tree reticle for $350 10 or 20 years ago? I haven't been into guns that long, so I can't specifically say, but it seems things like affordable FFP scopes with christmas tree reticles is a relatively new thing...?
 
If the glass sucks, nothing else such as, FFP, side parallax, 24 power, x-mas tree, target turrets ,etc. matters much. The lower quality scopes that offer a host of features are basically for those who have never used better. You just will not get a decent scope with a bunch of "Features" for much less than $1000 and that is on the low side.
 
Suther said:
I dunno about that. Could you get a FFP scope with a christmas tree reticle for $350 10 or 20 years ago? I haven't been into guns that long, so I can't specifically say, but it seems things like affordable FFP scopes with christmas tree reticles is a relatively new thing...?
Click to expand...

No, FFP scopes have really only been on the market with some sub-1k$ quality options for only a few years now due to the demand of PRS style shooting...

Bad Bob said:
If the glass sucks, nothing else such as, FFP, side parallax, 24 power, x-mas tree, target turrets ,etc. matters much. The lower quality scopes that offer a host of features are basically for those who have never used better. You just will not get a decent scope with a bunch of "Features" for much less than $1000 and that is on the low side.
Click to expand...

I agree $350 doesn't get you anything worth while in this area. But honestly the glass on a 'rimfire scope' can be far less quality with better features that you need in some cases. The most I have shot is 300M with my .22 and I can see .22lr holes at 100m and hits on a gong to 300m with my pop-bottle glass Vortex that is 5-25, but NOT with my Nikon that is 3-9... because I can't see sh!t on paper at 9x power! Target shooting with low power scopes just plain sucks... Take a look at the optics that people are bench shooting 50m or rimfire PRS.
 
Last edited:
Bad Bob said:
If the glass sucks, nothing else such as, FFP, side parallax, 24 power, x-mas tree, target turrets ,etc. matters much. The lower quality scopes that offer a host of features are basically for those who have never used better. You just will not get a decent scope with a bunch of "Features" for much less than $1000 and that is on the low side.
Click to expand...

If you wanna be a glass snob that's your choice, but some of us have budgets. It doesn't take a nightforce to be able to hit a gong at 300yds, let alone punch paper at 100 like the OP asked about.

The Cabelas covenant scopes are quite popular with RPRS shooters, particularly in production class where there are price limits. If it's good enough for them, it's probably good enough for the OP.
 
I'm fond of Vortex and Burris scopes but as mentioned it will be hard to find what you're looking for in that price range. Even a basic Vortex Crossfire will be over $350 with tax. TC
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom