Get a Shepherd P22LR.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9576580_ITM
COPYRIGHT 2005 Publishers' Development Corporation
When the little Ruger .22 hit the I" paster at 100 yards, no one even noticed. When chickens on the silhouette range at 200 meters began rattling, a few eyebrows began to rise. When the tiny .22 slugs began pinging the metal javelina at 300 meters like Oklahoma hail in April, the doubting Thomases drifted over to see how I was doing it.
And if I told you that a few minutes later I was consistently hitting the turkey silhouette at 410 yards, you probably wouldn't believe me. However, when the wind is still, you can indeed fire up to 400 yards accurately with a .22 rimfire. The secret at the time was a trajectory-compensating scope that's been floating around for a number of years--the Shepherd.
Range Finding
I have never been very impressed with the various range-finding and trajectory compensating scopes commonly available. The designs I have tested seemed to have been engineered around a mythical animal that would stand broadside for an indefinite period while one bracketed the critter with the horizontal stadia or cranked in the elevation with a moveable trajectory cam. Not so with the Shepherd.
Dan Shepherd, the scope's designer, had a different idea. In simple terms, the Shepherd scope line is designed around various commonly used rifle trajectories--basically the .22 rimfire, the .30-06 class of cartridges and the high velocity numbers.
When looking through the scope, one sees a vertical string of circles with various range designations noted beside them extending from the center of the reticle to the six o'clock position. Shepherd's .22 scope, Model 310-P22LR, incorporates a series of 9" circles calibrated in 50-yard increments from 50 to 500 yards. Because the reticle is in the first focal plane, the diameters of the circles are a constant 9" at all ranges and powers.
A prairie dog stands about 9" tall. The depth of a coyote from shoulder to brisket is 9" to 10". Beginning to get the idea?
Fast And Accurate
After you have zeroed the scope and know the approximate size of the game being pursued, you match the height or depth of the critter in an appropriate circle and pull the trigger. It's that fast and that accurate a system.
There is a great deal of sophistication built into the Shepherd scope adjustments so that one can adjust the aiming reticle for windage or elevation and return it to zero. This is a useful adjustment for static-type hunting, such as targets or prairie dogs. I'm not advocating that one should be shooting at a prairie dog at 400 yards or even at 200 yards with a .22 RF, but a scope like the Shepherd is fun to play with and certainly brings out all the ballistics a rimfire has to offer.
When I look at the scopes on some of my .22s, they are a diverse lot. The first scope I ever bought was a little Bushnell Banner 4X subsequently mounted on a Winchester Model 69. The Bushnell cost $9.95. It's been mounted on a Feinwerkbau air rifle since 1971. It is still clear. The adjustment turrets are still precise. What more could one ask for?
Another of the little 3/4" tube .22 scopes still rides my old Marlin M39. It's an ancient Ted Williams "Signature" 4X scope bought from Sears for $11.95. It, too, still offers rock-solid performance over rimfire ranges.
A recent .22 rimfire scope I bought is a Bushnell Sportsman 3-9x32 with target-style windage and elevation dials and an adjustable objective for parallax settings from 0 to infinity in yards. It's mounted on a super accurate Anschutz Model 54 Sporter, and it's proved to be a dilly since I've recorded the elevation adjustments for ranges from 50 to 150 yards.
Don't overlook the possibility of mounting a true big-game scope on your rimfire, particularly the compact and straight-tube models that are proportional in size to rimfire rifles. My old Steyr Mannlicher carries a Leopold 3X, and with its wide field-of-view, it is a superb scope for bouncing bunnies.
Since most rimfire work is at distances less than 100 yards, manufactures typically set-up their rimfire scopes to be parallax free at 50 yards. Having an adjustable objective to fine tune for parallax and variable power selection are real pluses in .22 scopes, since we're usually shooting at very small targets and often well out to 100 yards and beyond.
Recently, scope manufactures have introduced a variety of high-end .22 scopes. I've hunted quite a bit with Kahles 2-7x36 American Hunter rimfire scope mounted on a Remington Model 504. It is optically outstanding and well worth the price tag if you're more than a casual plinker.
Within the last year, there has been an outpouring of scopes designed around the ballistics of the. 17 HMR and. 17 Mach 2. BSA offers their Sweet 17 and Mach 2 models featuring drop-compensating elevation drums to track the trajectory of these wee rounds precisely from 100 to 300 yards.
Among the most sophisticated of the new rimfire scope designs is the Sako Quad Scope from Burris permitting the user to instantly adjust the scope for the ballistics of either the .17 Mach 2, .17 HMR, .22 LR, or .22 Mag. That's quite a scope full.
The best part of the story is that scope makers are paying more attention today to the rimfire market than ever before. In optics, you may pay for what you get, but even the low-end .22 scopes can give you years of plinking pleasure.
BURRIS
(970) 356-1670
WWW.BURRISOPTICS.COM
BSA
(954) 581-2144
WWW.BSAOPTICS.COM
BUSHNELL
(800) 221-9035
WWW.BUSHNELL.COM
KAHLES
(866) 606-8779
WWW.KAHLESOPTIK.COM
LEUPOLD
(503) 526-1400
WWW.LEUPOLD.COM
SHEPHERD ENTERPRISES
(402) 779-2424
WWW.SHEPARDSCOPES.COM
WEAVER
(800) 285-0689
WWW.WEAVEROPTICS.COM
