Rimfire Scopes - Where to start?

B

Brendon292

CGN Regular
Rating - 98.6%
71   1   0
Location
Kingston, ON
I have no idea where to start when it comes to mounting a scope on my rimfire rifle.

The rifle is a CZ457. I'm looking to get a Leupold VX Rimfire or Vortex Rimfire scope. I shoot primarily at 50 yards, but would like the option to shoot at 25 and 100.

Do people seriously just buy different height scope rings and experiment? That seems expensive. How do I know what a good eye relief is? I've read the Vortex Diamond back sucks for eye relief and that the Crossfire (despite its low price) is better.

Leupold rimfire scopes look nice but the options are 2-7X33MM and 3-9X40MM. What the heck is the difference?

I've went down the youtube rabbit hole and I feel like nobody can succinctly answer any of my questions.

I'm not a new shooter, but my experience with optics is sighting in red dots on shotguns and PCCs at 25m. Scopes seem like a completely different beast.
 
Scope ring height must be larger than half the width of the front bell less have the width of the tube, so a 50mm front on a 30mm tube, 25-15 = 10mm ring height from rail to tube. Suggest you check out scopes by other quality scope manufacturers like Athlon, Sightron etc. as they have adjustable range focus (parallax) to shorter distances than typical 'rimfire' scopes, which are often fixed at 50 or 60 yards.
 
Tikkaman said:
Scope ring height must be larger than half the width of the front bell less have the width of the tube, so a 50mm front on a 30mm tube, 25-15 = 10mm ring height from rail to tube.
Click to expand...

I'm sure what you wrote makes perfect sense to some people, but for me, it may as well have been written in Chinese. I have no idea what any of that means. It feels like you need a physics degree to shoot with scopes.

Maybe I should look for a rifle with irons. That's much more straight forward for my dumbass.
 
Brendon292 said:
I'm sure what you wrote makes perfect sense to some people, but for me, it may as well have been written in Chinese. I have no idea what any of that means. It feels like you need a physics degree to shoot with scopes.

Maybe I should look for a rifle with irons. That's much more straight forward for my dumbass.
Click to expand...
YouTube has a ton of informational videos on this. If you're not wanting to invest the time into it, your local gun shop is next stop.
 
I have a Cz 457 Lux with iron sights and a dovetail receiver top. The height of the rings in most cases should always be as low as possible. I usually reccomend medium height rings for simplicity. If you take the measurements and do the math on low rings you will find out if they will be too low based on the objective diameter of your scope (50mm vs 40mm as an example).
Whatever scope you are shopping for should be listed as an example 3-9 (magnification) x 40 (this would be the objective diameter of the front lens) and the tube diameter is either 1” or 30mm. In my setup I required high rings to accommodate the irons sights.
For your purposes most of the scopes should have very similar eye relief ( approx 4”).

I chose a Bushnell banner II 4-12 magnification x 40mm objective with a 1” tube. It suited me and fit my budget. I don’t think the difference between vortex and most Bushnell products will have much quality difference in their respective price points. That’s just my personal experience. Leupold is a step up and So is Burris but at a cost in most cases. Based on what I’m reading, something like an Arken may be a bit complicated for you right now.

At 50 yards zero anything within the 2-7, 3-9, or 4-12 magnification should suit you fine.
 
Take your gun into a gun shop and play. Asking questions like this on the web is pointless. You need to actually look through some scopes and the differences will become apparent. As for ring height there is no formula. It depends on how tall you are for one thing. A person with no neck will need different rings than someone with a giraffe neck with the same scope. That's one reason they make chassi systems with adjustable combs. TC
 
hawkmp9 said:
I have a Cz 457 Lux with iron sights and a dovetail receiver top. The height of the rings in most cases should always be as low as possible. I usually reccomend medium height rings for simplicity. If you take the measurements and do the math on low rings you will find out if they will be too low based on the objective diameter of your scope (50mm vs 40mm as an example).
Whatever scope you are shopping for should be listed as an example 3-9 (magnification) x 40 (this would be the objective diameter of the front lens) and the tube diameter is either 1” or 30mm. In my setup I required high rings to accommodate the irons sights.
For your purposes most of the scopes should have very similar eye relief ( approx 4”).

I chose a Bushnell banner II 4-12 magnification x 40mm objective with a 1” tube. It suited me and fit my budget. I don’t think the difference between vortex and most Bushnell products will have much quality difference in their respective price points. That’s just my personal experience. Leupold is a step up and So is Burris but at a cost in most cases. Based on what I’m reading, something like an Arken may be a bit complicated for you right now.

At 50 yards zero anything within the 2-7, 3-9, or 4-12 magnification should suit you fine.
Click to expand...
I have a Leupold 2-7 x 33 on my CZ457 American. It’s not the rimfire version, so the parallax is factory set to about 125yds, rather than 60yds for the rimfire version. I’m guessing you’re not really familiar with the “parallax” thing, so don’t worry too much about that. You’ll be fine either way.

What is most important is that the ring height gives sufficient clearance for the objective bell end of the scope above the barrel. If your rifle doesn’t have iron sights, as is the case with many of CZ’s rimfires, measure the outside diameter of the bell end and divide it by two (this will always be slightly larger than the actual lens diameter ( the “x 40mm”, “x 33mm”, etc, part of the scope’s specs, depending on the scope you’re considering). You need to ensure that the rings you get are tall enough that the center point of them, plus the height of your rail or mounts is at least as high as the earlier figure you calculated so that the bell can clear the barrel when the scope is mounted. If you use rings that have a horizontal split for mounting the scope in the rings, determining the centre point of them is really straightforward. If you are mounting the rings directly to the dovetail slots cut into the receiver all you need to know is the height from the top surface of the dovetail mount to the centre of your rings.

If your rifle has a straight comb on the stock, like the Americans, Varmints, etc, you want to get the lowest rings you can that will allow the bell to clear the barrel, and this is all pretty straightforward. If your rifle has a high, target-type comb, ie At-One model, you’ll probably need higher rings to accommodate your elevated sight level with that type of comb. I have less experience with these, but my sense is that in this case it’ll be more of a trial and error experiment, or advice from someone who has already selected rings for this kind of set up.

The bottom line is that your rings need to provide sufficient clearance for the bell end of the scope above the barrel while also providing sufficient height for your natural line of sight through the scope when your cheek is at rest on the comb of the stock. You don’t want to have lift your cheek off of the comb to get a full sight window through the scope. I use CZ low mount rings on my CZ American, BTW.

Re power, anything between 7x and 9x magnification is more than adequate for 100yd targets with a rimefire in my opinion. Divide 100yds by the highest power of the scope to get a sense of what the equivalent image size would be if you were shooting with irons (ie equivant to about 14yds with a 7x scope or a 1x red dot).

Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
Brendon,
When a scope is labelled as being 2-7x33, it means that the least magnification is 2x, and the highest magnification is 7x. The 33 refers to the diameter of the objective - that's the part of the scope farthest away from you as you look through the eyepiece (AKA "the ocular"). In a 2-7x33 scope, the objective is 33mm in diameter. Similarly, 3-9x40 means the least magnification is 3x, and the most is 9x. The 40 means that the objective diameter is 40mm in diameter. You can check out this video for a more detailed explanation, with a focus on rimfire scopes.

In my opinion, 2-7x33, or 4x28. or something similar are all good choices for a general purpose rimfire scope.

For the height of the rings. I think the CZ457 has a dovetail. On the manufacturer's website, it suggests to use 30mm high rings. I think manufacturers would generally list these as "high" rings, as opposed to "medium" or "low". But be careful with the terms the manufacturer uses - the exact height of "high rings" etc, depend on who makes them.

Trky gave the best advice to go into a shop and ask them to help you figure out the best ring height. If you can't do that, you can try to buy some scope rings online - note that they will need to fit an 11mm dovetail (that's how wide the CZ457 rail is), and they should be at least 20mm high, in my opinion.

As for brands, I really like the 2 Leupolds I have. I had to save up for them, and I'm glad I did. On my Savage Mk2, I'm using a compact Leupold 4x28. On the Savage 110, I'm using a Leupold 2-7x33. I have never used a Vortex, but lots of people seem to really like them. Then again, a good number of people also report having to use the warranty due to some defect or breakage.

Last thing: keep in mind that it's not just the objective being high enough to clear the barrel that is the issue. There is also the fact that the ocular (the part you look through) must be high enough so the bolt does not contact or rub against the scope. So you will want to mount the scope as low as you can, while making sure there is enough clearance for the objective, and to clear the bolt as you cycle the action.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Marlin989
 
Last edited:
The first thing YOU need to clarify is WHAT your use will be. Your 457 is capable of 'Accurate target shooting" at 50 & 100, OR beer cans at those distances. Higher accuracy needs higher magnification; cans need Less. A 'cheap' 3-9 x 40 will be a good 'starter' and may be sufficient to your needs, but I'd recommend 14-16 magnification for the high-end strength. 9x is NOT sufficient at 100 yds unless you're shooting 'cans, IMO. A squirrel would be laffin' with that scope, OR a 1" bullseye. The lower range of say a 4-16x40, ie 4x or so, will be good for 'close shots' or larger targets at longer distances. The higher mag will allow you to shoot accurately at 50-100 yds - IF your rifle is 'capable' of such accuracy.
As guntech and others have said, a scope should be mounted as low as possible to eliminate the variable of 'uncomfortable head position'.
PS - on my 457 VMTR I have an 8-34x56 scope and on 'good days' get sub-one inch at 100 yds, more often 1.5-ish groups of 5-shots. At 100-yds, ammo quality and wind are both important variables.
 
PSS - I need to comment on the "gun shop advice" recommended. I've heard of, And experienced, gun shop advice which goes towards a SALE - NOT promoting a returning customer. And many 'gun shop Pros' are Not such an animal - NOT competent. Many I've spoken to are 'ill-informed' and repeat 'proven fallacies'.
My Advice is to find a 'mentor' at your gun club . . . or a friend or 'friend of a friend' who can advise you w/o fiduciary interest. Again, JMO, IME.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom