brewer12345
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Never really thought about it before, but I picked up a 22 pistol with a rail so an optic would be easy. For small game at maybe 25 yards, what kind of optic makes sense?
Pistol optics
- Thread starter brewer12345
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My opinion, with which reasonable people might differ:
At 25 yards, you probably don't need or want magnification. So a simple red-dot makes sense.
For a .22 used for recreation shooting or small game hunting, size/concealment isn't a big issue. You also don't have to worry about "hard use" durability, as you would on a dot to be mounted on a reciprocating slide. So a wide variety of red-dot sights are viable.
I would tend to go towards a more open (non-tube) design with larger glass. If you're trying to shoot small game that isn't necessarily holding perfectly still for long periods, rapid acquisition of the dot will be important, and bigger, more open windows make that easier.
I'd go with a C-More Railway. You'll get a large window, good durability, reasonable battery life, and reasonable pricing. It has an interchangeable diode, so if you start with, say, a 6 moa dot and decide you want to go smaller (perhaps if you're mostly hunting/shooting in heavy shade or at dusk), you can buy a replacement diode at pretty cheap prices and try a 3 MOA, or whatever size you want. Downsides would be that it's larger than some of the more recently-developed optics that are intended to be mounted directly on reciprocating slides for tactical/carry use, and will be a touch taller in terms of height-over-bore than those types. And it will be more expensive than some of the cheaper red-dots that are probably adequate for that purpose... .22lr just doesn't put that much of a load on the optic.
I'll admit to some bias because that's what I personally use on my USPSA Open-division race gun, but that's still the default option in that game.
At 25 yards, you probably don't need or want magnification. So a simple red-dot makes sense.
For a .22 used for recreation shooting or small game hunting, size/concealment isn't a big issue. You also don't have to worry about "hard use" durability, as you would on a dot to be mounted on a reciprocating slide. So a wide variety of red-dot sights are viable.
I would tend to go towards a more open (non-tube) design with larger glass. If you're trying to shoot small game that isn't necessarily holding perfectly still for long periods, rapid acquisition of the dot will be important, and bigger, more open windows make that easier.
I'd go with a C-More Railway. You'll get a large window, good durability, reasonable battery life, and reasonable pricing. It has an interchangeable diode, so if you start with, say, a 6 moa dot and decide you want to go smaller (perhaps if you're mostly hunting/shooting in heavy shade or at dusk), you can buy a replacement diode at pretty cheap prices and try a 3 MOA, or whatever size you want. Downsides would be that it's larger than some of the more recently-developed optics that are intended to be mounted directly on reciprocating slides for tactical/carry use, and will be a touch taller in terms of height-over-bore than those types. And it will be more expensive than some of the cheaper red-dots that are probably adequate for that purpose... .22lr just doesn't put that much of a load on the optic.
I'll admit to some bias because that's what I personally use on my USPSA Open-division race gun, but that's still the default option in that game.
Varminterror
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- Jul 17, 2016
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If I want to shoot small, I use a scope - my preference being the Leupold VX3 2-8x, but at shorter ranges, a fixed 2 or 4x may meet your individual needs. Second behind that is an Ultradot Matchdot. Third, a Trijicon RMR or other open RDS.
Height over-bore is what it is - it’s just a component of trajectory, and shouldn’t significantly influence any decision making here. We don’t have cheek welds to manage here.
Height over-bore is what it is - it’s just a component of trajectory, and shouldn’t significantly influence any decision making here. We don’t have cheek welds to manage here.
My favorite squirrel hunting gun is a ruger mark II target with a 2 power pistol scope. 2 power is easy to pickup a close target and still accurate enough for head shots on tree rats out to 40 yards. If you are trying to hit running bunnies I would say a reddot with a 4 min dot.
bassjam
Member
On a budget I'd go with a Bushnell TRS 25. If you have more to spend, I'll let someone else answer.
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