Varmint shooting: Riflescopes for Varmint Shooting: Aim Small, Miss Small

For center-punching small targets, you need top-quality glass. But what makes a riflescope suitable for varmint hunting? A scope that isn’t made for shooting varmints will do. To understand what’s next, you need to have a small interest in serious burrowing rodent hunting. I’m not talking casually playing with your favorite deer rifle or sniping the occasional prairie dogs, ground squirrel, or farmland woodchuck from boredom. But serious small-varmint shooting is something you should have an interest in. You might find it chambered in.204 Ruger or.223 Remington, or.22-250 Remington. A box that weighs 10 to 12 pounds. A gun capable of firing at least 1/2-MOA five shot groups at 100 yards on an almost constant basis. Shooting regularly can result in the burning of hundreds of rounds per day. This is serious. My two.22 LRs are built on Ruger 10/22 action rifles and hold between $750 and $850 worth aftermarket parts. This is where I am coming from when I say serious burrowing rodent hunting. My two.22 LRs, built on Ruger 10/22 actions, hold $750 to $850 worth of aftermarket parts. I shot 750 rounds of ammo in just two and a half days last week at small eastern Oregon Belding ground squirrels. I can rattle off my most recent impressive shot in a flash: rock chuck, 403 yard, 10- to 11.-mph crosswind,.22 Creedmoor and Berger 85.5-grain hybrid Target (G1 BC.445) sent at 3,202 FPS, 300-yard zero at 3.9 MOA, 3.4 MOA wind adjustment, 300-yard zero. Cold-shot kill. I also hiked all the way through that canyon to take a photo. I believe you can’t hit anything you don’t see. Small varmints can grow to be quite small with a few hundred yards of additional distance. A single precision kill is more satisfying to me than any number or lucky hits from a sufficient number of bullets downrange. Your every heartbeat will be telegraphed into wiggling and excessive weight. My experience shows that the heat-shimmer argument is exaggerated. I don’t seem like I have the same problems with print. However, my varmint rifles usually hold glass with MSRPs much higher than the rifles that contain them. It is often a surprise to me that my high-end variables seldom come off the highest magnification even on the hottest days. Unsteady crosshairs? I don’t shoot varmints unsupported. There’s usually a portable bench involved or a cradle or bags tossed onto the roof of the truck (to gain some vegetation-penetrating elevation) or situated over the hood of a truck. I use a quality bipod when I go on a hike, as I do often while hunting rock chucks in rough-and-tumble public terrain. It is possible to get on target quickly even with high magnification. Or, you can twist the magnification rings between shots to adjust weight. This is varmint hunting, not mountain hunting. Weight is your friend when sniping small, distant targets. The majority of modern rifles can achieve very good accuracy. Top-notch optics, and good shooting techniques, are what ultimately make the difference.Centerfire GlassA dedicated varmint rifle, one used exclusively to target burrowing rodents, deserves serious glass. This does not include predator calling, which is something that most big-game scopes cover very well. My requirements are very strict when choosing a serious scope for varmint hunting. I want a side-parallax knob, not a front bell. Exposed turrets are what I want. I will accept ballistic holdover marks if they don’t become clutter. I want a second focal plane. I prefer a 50mm objective lens or larger and top-quality optics coatings. A 50mm or larger objective lens and top-quality optics coatings are preferred. At 300 yards, hit-to miss ratios begin to diminish quickly. This is where turrets come in. Kentucky windage is not consistent at long ranges. Turrets shift the program from luck to decisive aim. Larger, more aggressive varmints like rock and woodchucks offer a greater margin of error. Prepared ballistic charts are often able to get the job done, even for longer shots. Sometimes, dialing for wind is required for smaller burrowing rodents such as ground squirrels. This is not unusual, as you will often receive multiple shots of a single critter or one of his friends volunteering at a similar range. It is difficult to understand why dedicated varmint shooters, or big-game hunters, would choose a first focal plan scope (FFP). FFP is consistent with the target across its entire magnification range, which allows for more accurate yardage and moving target lead estimations via MOA or MIL marks. This could be useful for military snipers who are engaged in fluid battlefield scenarios. However, FFP crosshairs can appear coarser relative to the target at higher magnifications and can obscure targets at longer ranges when such magnification is most helpful. We also have laser rangefinders so we don’t need crosshair relations to determine range. I prefer the frog hair-fine crosshairs that come with a high-quality SFP reticle. They remain thin at all magnification settings. I prefer the frog-hair-fine crosshairs of a quality SFP reticle, which remain thin at all magnification settings. Other current favorites include a Trijicon 5–20x50mm AccuPoint and Leupold VX-3i 8.5-25x50mm, and Meopta Optika6 MeoPro 4.5-25×50.Rimfire glassMy two tricked-out Ruger 10-22s, one with a match-chamber Volquartsen Bull barrel and the other with a Benz-chambered Adaptive Tactical Tac Hammer tensioned barrel. Both include Little Crow Gunworks’ GRX GRX recoil jobs, professional bedding, and Little Crow Gunworks’ GRX GRX recoil jobs. Ruger’s American Rimfire Long Range Target rifle and Bergara’s B-14 rifles were two other recent.22LR experiences. All have a much greater accuracy potential than any high-velocity hollow point ammo that could be used to anchor tenacious burrowing creatures. Some areas, such as eastern Oregon and southern Idaho, require bulk packs of.22 LR shells per day. I also shot an Anschutz 1761 chambered with.17 HMR despite owning a laminated, heavy-barreled Marlin XT-17 chambered in the same chambering. It will hold its own against the more expensive German rifle. I am a rimfire person in some places (eastern Oregon’s Beldings’s, Southern Idaho’s Richardson’s) when I am wandering through the vast clear-cuts of northern Idaho or cruising private ranch roads between centerfire portable bench setups. This does not mean that I take centerfire sniping less seriously than this shooting. A rimfire scope should have parallax adjustment. If it doesn’t, even if it’s given a rimfire label, I’ve zero interest. This is less due to parallax corrections than it is due to focus. A rimfire is usually used in high-volume arenas. This means that a “rat”, for example, might be engaged at 150 yards (the point at the fastest.22LR energy drops off exponentially), or pop out of a burrow at 15, 20 or 15 yards. Even though I am only 15 yards away, I prefer to shoot at sharp targets. Rimfire scopes don’t have to be expensive in order to be functional. I beat my own up quite a bit. Two Bushnell Rimfire Optics, which I have with me on my 10/22s, are some of my favorite examples. The A22 has a 3.5-10x36mm configuration and the other a 3-12x40mm. The A22 is centered at 50 yards and has lower hash marks to correspond to 75-, 100, and 125 yard impacts. The 3-12x40mm turrets are pre-etched and offer options for marking 75, 100, 150, 150, 175 and 175 yards. The A22 has an objective-bell paraallax (not my favourite, but acceptable for a rimfire), and the other, a sideparallax adjustment. I think neither one cost me more than $150 to $175. A rimfire scope does not need to have a rimfire designation to be viable. For example, the Ruger American Rimfire long range is outfitted with a Bushnell Engage 2.5-10x44mm big game scope. It has side parallax focus and Deploy MOA holdover marks as well as exposed turrets. I’ve taken some very long.22 LR shots with both systems. Anschutz 1761 wore a Burris RT-15 3–15x50mm all spring. This scope was a serious centerfire scope, with side parallax adjustment, exposed turrets, and side parallax adjustment. My Marlin XT-17 is now paired up with a Vortex 6-18x44mm Crossfire II, which has objective-bell focus and ballistic compens marks. I have used all of them to snipe ground squirrels at distances that are well beyond what would be considered normal rimfire ranges. I would say anything beyond 400 yards (when the wind stirs) or 500 yards (on calm day) is acceptable. We are talking about burrowing rodents, not man-sized steel gongs. I’ve certainly made such shots with standard varmint cartridges in a pinch, but when I know I’ll be going long–or when seeking such scenarios–my varmint rifles become a little more specialized.Traditionally, this has involved my custom 6mm Remington with a fast-twist barrel or Ruger Precision Rifle in 6mm Creedmoor (both fed sleek, ballistically talented 105- to 110-grain bullets), more recently my Little Crow Gunworks-built, 1:7-twist .22 Creedmoor sending 85.5- to 90-grain bullets with BCs in the .500s at around 3,200 fps. Unlike rounds such as the .22-250 Remington or .220 Swift launching 50- to 55-grain bullets with BCs in the high .200s, these cartridge/bullet/rifle combos trim 10-mph/400-yard wind-drift margins from feet to inches. EOTech Vudu 5-25x50mmFFP. I use a little more magnification to see my target clearly. A Trijicon AccuPower 4.5-30x56mm tops my .22 Creedmoor. Hawke’s Frontier 30 SF 5–30x56mm SF mil Pro graces my 6mm Creedmoor. My 6mm Remington currently holds an EOTech Vudu compact 5-25x50mm compact. This is my go-to rockchuck rifle. All have exposed, zero-stop track turrets which track reliably and return to zero easily after making substantial vertical corrections. Hawke and Trijicon have a 56mm objective lens that reduces heat shimmer in longer shots on rocky terrain. All of them feature exceptional optics that allow for the separation of chameleon-like rockchucks and cluttered backgrounds. They also have nearly microscopic crosshairs that allow for precise shot placement. Alarmingly high prices are included in all except the Hawke. I don’t care much about the optics that are added to my big-game rifles. I will happily accept a decent straight-6. Big game is, well, big. I’m not as fascinated by burrowing rodents. I tend to shoot small varmints at greater distances than I think is prudent for big game. A gut-shot varmint can still be a good varmint, even if it is shot at a greater distance than I consider prudent with large game. Target grids and bullseye sizes can be downloaded in MOA. This is a great option for long-range shooting. Enter your email address below.