Buying guide
Best Rimfire Optics: Rimfire Scopes, LPVOs & Red Dots
Almost every buying guide for rimfire glass is a centerfire guide with the word rimfire pasted on top. The one specification that genuinely matters here barely gets mentioned, and it is the reason a $200 rimfire scope can outshoot a $700 centerfire scope on a 10/22.
The short version
- Parallax setting is the specification that matters. A general-purpose scope is usually parallax-free at 100 or 150 yards. A rimfire scope is set at 50. Use the wrong one up close and your head position becomes part of your group size.
- Adjustable objective or side focus solves it permanently. If you shoot anywhere from 25 to 100 yards, buy the adjustment rather than buying a second scope.
- Turret calibration is the second trap. Many rimfire scopes still use quarter-inch-at-fifty-yards clicks rather than true quarter-MOA, which means the dial value on the turret cap is not the value the reticle actually moves at 100.
- For the speed games, skip magnification entirely. Steel Challenge rimfire rifle optic shooters run red dots, and that is the one place a pistol-class dot is exactly the right answer.
What actually makes a scope a rimfire scope
Three things, and only one of them is universal.
The universal one is parallax. Every telescopic sight focuses the target image onto an internal plane, and the reticle sits on a plane of its own. When those two planes coincide, the reticle stays glued to the target no matter where your eye sits behind the scope. When they do not, moving your head shifts the crosshair across the target — and at 25 or 50 yards with a scope built for 100, that shift is large enough to open a group by a meaningful margin on its own.
The second is reticle subtension and drop compensation. A .22 LR round loses velocity fast and drops steeply past 75 yards, so reticles built for rimfire tend to carry more usable holdover marks compressed into a shorter span than a centerfire equivalent. The third is turret calibration, covered below, which is where a surprising number of otherwise good rimfire scopes still behave in a way that would be considered a defect on a centerfire optic.
Everything else — tube diameter, coatings, glass quality, illumination — works exactly as it does on any other rifle. There is no such thing as rimfire-specific glass. Recoil is not a factor either, which is why cheap optics survive on rimfires and die on magnums, and why a scope that has been retired from a centerfire rifle for tracking problems can still be perfectly serviceable on a plinker.
Parallax: fixed, adjustable objective or side focus
You have three mechanical options and they map cleanly onto three kinds of shooter.
| Mechanism | Typical setting | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed parallax | One distance, usually 50 yd on rimfire glass | Bench plinking and small game at a consistent distance | Committed for life. Shooting at 25 yd or 100 yd reintroduces the error you paid to avoid. |
| Adjustable objective (AO) | Front bell ring, often marked from around 10 yd to infinity | Benchrest, sorting sessions, anything shot from a stable position | You reach forward to adjust it, which is awkward prone and slow on a clock. |
| Side focus | Third turret on the left side of the tube | NRL22, positional shooting, any stage with mixed distances | Costs more, and cheap implementations have vague markings that do not correspond to real distances. |
If you own one rimfire and shoot it at one distance, fixed parallax at 50 yards is genuinely fine and you should spend the savings on glass quality instead. If you shoot a mix — and most people do, because a rimfire is the rifle you take to the 25-yard indoor range on a Tuesday and the 100-yard bay on a Saturday — buy the adjustment. Side focus is worth the premium the moment you start shooting from anything other than a bench, because reaching past the ejection port to twist an objective bell while you are wrapped around a barricade is a genuinely bad time.
Turret calibration and the quarter-inch problem
Here is the trap that costs people an afternoon. A great many rimfire scopes are marked in quarter-inch clicks at fifty yards rather than in true quarter-MOA. Because a minute of angle is roughly one inch at a hundred yards, a quarter-inch-at-fifty click is approximately a half-MOA click — twice the value you would assume if you read the turret cap the way you read a centerfire scope.
The practical consequence: you shoot a group two inches low at fifty, you count eight clicks the way you would on a centerfire rifle, and you overshoot the correction by double. Then you chase it back the other way and conclude the scope does not track.
Do a box test at your chosen zero distance before you believe any turret marking. Fire a group, dial a known number of clicks up, fire again, dial right, fire again, then return to the original setting and fire a final group. Measure the actual movement on paper and work out what one click is worth on your rifle at your distance. Write that number on a strip of tape inside the scope cap. It takes twenty rounds of cheap ammunition and it removes the single most common source of zeroing frustration in rimfire.
Rimfire scopes by job
These are product classes rather than single models, because the right answer changes with what is in stock and what is discounted in any given week. Search the class, then check the parallax specification on the individual listing before you buy — it is the one number that is routinely buried or omitted.
Fixed-parallax rimfire scopes, 3–9×40 class
- ParallaxFixed, typically 50 yd
- Tube1 inch
- ReticleDuplex or simple BDC
- Mounting3/8 in dovetail or Picatinny
The default rimfire scope and, for a large number of shooters, the correct one. A 3–9×40 with parallax set at fifty yards covers backyard plinking, squirrel and rabbit distances and casual paper without asking you to think about anything. Because there is no recoil to survive, the internals in this class hold up far better than the equivalent price point does on a centerfire rifle.
Buy on glass clarity at the top of the magnification range rather than on features. Check the listing explicitly states a rimfire parallax setting — many otherwise identical-looking scopes in this size are set at 100 yards.
Bottom lineIf you shoot one rifle at one distance, this is the whole answer and everything above it is a refinement.
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Adjustable-objective rimfire scopes, 4–12×40 class
- ParallaxAdjustable at the objective
- Range markingClose range to infinity
- ReticleFine duplex, mil-dot or rimfire BDC
- Best positionBench and prone
The upgrade that actually changes results rather than just changing the spec sheet. Being able to dial parallax out at whatever distance you are shooting removes head position from the accuracy equation entirely, which matters far more at rimfire distances than most shooters expect.
The extra magnification is genuinely useful here too, because rimfire targets are small and close and you are frequently trying to see a .22 hole in paper at fifty yards without walking downrange. Watch for parallax rings that only start at 25 or 30 yards if you shoot air-rifle-style close range.
Bottom lineThe best value upgrade in rimfire optics, and the one most people should make first.
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Side-focus first-focal-plane precision scopes
- ParallaxSide focus turret
- Focal planeFirst, so holds stay true at any power
- TurretsExposed, zero-stop where available
- ReticleMil or MOA tree
For NRL22 and any positional precision game, the requirements invert. You need to change parallax without breaking position, you need holdover marks that stay correct when you change magnification mid-stage, and you need turrets you can return to zero reliably under time pressure. That combination means side focus and a first-focal-plane reticle.
This is also where the NRL22 Base division ceiling starts to bite, because the scope counts toward the combined MSRP limit alongside the rifle. Check the division rules and the league's published MSRP database before you commit, not after.
Bottom lineOnly buy into this tier if you are actually shooting a positional discipline. On a bench it is money that would do more good in match ammunition.
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Red dots for Steel Challenge and close-range work
Steel Challenge is scored purely on time against plates that are large and close, and the rimfire rifle optic and rimfire pistol optic divisions exist precisely so you can run a dot. There is no magnification requirement to satisfy and no parallax problem to solve, because a red dot is parallax-free for practical purposes across the distances involved. This is the one part of rimfire optics where the mainstream pistol and carbine dot market is exactly the right shelf to shop from.
The same applies to a threaded .22 pistol, a takedown rifle living in a pack, or any rimfire whose job is fast hits inside fifty yards. Magnification actively slows you down there.
Holosun HS507C X2
- TypeOpen reflex
- ReticleMulti-reticle system
- PowerSolar failsafe plus battery
- FootprintRMR pattern
The multi-reticle system is the reason this one shows up on so many competition guns: you can run a small dot alone for precision, a large circle alone for speed, or both together, and switch between them without changing hardware. On a rimfire that will shoot both a speed game and casual paper, that flexibility is worth more than it sounds.
The RMR footprint is the most widely supported mounting pattern in existence, which matters if you plan to move the optic between a .22 pistol and a rifle mount.
Bottom lineThe default competition dot for a reason. If you are buying one optic to move around a rimfire collection, buy this pattern.
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Holosun HS407C X2
- TypeOpen reflex
- Reticle2 MOA red dot
- PowerSolar failsafe plus battery
- FootprintRMR pattern
The same chassis and the same footprint as the 507C, without the circle reticle. If you know you want a plain dot — and for pure paper work and small game a plain dot is arguably cleaner — this is the cheaper, less cluttered version of the same optic.
A 2 MOA dot subtends two inches at a hundred yards, which is fine on steel plates and starts to feel coarse on small paper targets. That is the trade you are making against a magnified optic.
Bottom lineBuy this instead of the 507C if you have never once wanted a circle reticle.
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Holosun EPS Red 2
- TypeEnclosed emitter
- Reticle2 MOA red dot
- Debris resistanceSealed window
- Best useField and foul weather
An open reflex sight has an exposed emitter, and rain, snow, lint and powder residue on the wrong surface will dim or kill the dot. An enclosed emitter puts glass on both sides and removes that failure mode entirely. For a rimfire that lives in a truck, gets carried through wet brush after squirrels or spends time in a pack, that is a real durability upgrade rather than a marketing one.
Bottom lineThe right pick if your rimfire works outdoors rather than on a range bench.
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Sig Sauer Romeo5 Gen II
- TypeTube red dot
- Objective20 mm
- MountIncludes riser and low mount
- Best useCarbine-style rimfires
The value benchmark for a rifle-mounted dot, and the natural fit on an AR-pattern rimfire trainer or a Kel-Tec-style carbine where you want a co-witness height above a flat-top rail. It ships with both a riser and a low mount, which saves you a separate purchase and a second guess about height.
A tube dot gives a slightly more forgiving sight picture than an open reflex for shooters who are new to dots, at the cost of a narrower field of view.
Bottom lineThe cheapest way to put a competent dot on a rimfire carbine without regretting it in six months.
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Where an LPVO fits on a rimfire
Honestly? Usually it does not. A low-power variable optic is built around the problem of a centerfire carbine that must work at both room distance and three hundred yards, and it is heavy and expensive because solving that range demands it. A rimfire almost never has that problem.
There is one real exception, and it is training. If you run an AR-pattern rimfire as an understudy gun for a centerfire carbine, the entire point is that the controls, the weight, the sight picture and the optic all match. In that case you want the same class of optic on the trainer as on the duty or competition rifle, and the cost is justified as training fidelity rather than as rimfire performance. Check the parallax specification even here: most LPVOs are parallax-free somewhere between 100 and 150 yards, which is why a trainer set up this way should be shot at realistic distances rather than at 25.
Mounts, rail height and the dovetail question
More rimfire optics are ruined at the mounting stage than at the buying stage.
- Know which rail you have. A great many rimfire receivers use a 3/8-inch dovetail groove, not a Picatinny rail. Rings for one do not fit the other, and adapters exist but add height you may not want. Check before ordering.
- Buy the lowest rings that clear the objective. Every millimetre of extra height increases the offset between the bore and the line of sight, which matters disproportionately at rimfire distances where a 50-yard zero and a 25-yard shot can differ by more than an inch of holdover purely from mount height.
- Watch for barrel contact. A 40 mm objective in low rings on a rifle with a heavy or bull barrel will touch. Test with the rings finger-tight and a strip of paper under the bell before you torque anything.
- Torque properly, in a pattern. Ring screws want even, moderate torque applied diagonally in stages, not one screw run down solid. Overtightening dents tubes; undertightening lets the scope creep, which reads exactly like a scope that cannot hold zero.
- Level the reticle to the rifle, not to the world. Cant is a minor problem at fifty yards and a genuine one by the time you are shooting a rimfire at two hundred.
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NRL22 Base and the MSRP ceiling
If there is any chance you will shoot NRL22 in the Base division, check your optic against the rules before you buy it rather than after. Base eligibility is assessed on the combined manufacturer MSRP of the rifle and the scope, and for the current ruleset that threshold is $1,650. It is measured against the manufacturer's listed MSRP on the season's effective date, not against what you actually paid — so a heavily discounted scope still counts at full sticker.
The league publishes an official MSRP database and an eligible-combination filter specifically so you can check a build in advance, with a stated caveat that the tool does not override the written rules. Rules are reviewed between seasons and the 2027 Base division survey results published in August 2026 put aftermarket triggers, barrel tuners and the MSRP threshold itself back on the table, so confirm against the current ruleset rather than against anything written a year ago.
Ammunition shipping is restricted or banned outright in several states and many municipalities, and some jurisdictions require a licensed FFL or a permit as the delivery point. Rules change often and retailers enforce them at checkout, not before. Confirm your own state and city requirements with the retailer and your state attorney general's office before you place an order.
What to buy
Reduced to four sentences:
- One rifle, one distance, casual use: a fixed-parallax rimfire scope in the 3–9×40 class. Spend the savings on glass, not features.
- Mixed distances, bench or prone: adjustable objective. This is the upgrade that actually changes group sizes.
- Positional precision or NRL22: side focus, first focal plane, and check the MSRP ceiling before you commit.
- Steel Challenge, close-range speed, or a packable .22: a red dot, and buy the RMR footprint so the optic can move between guns.
Whatever you choose, do the box test before you trust the turrets, and check the parallax specification on the actual listing rather than assuming it from the product name. Those two habits will save you more frustration than any amount of money spent on glass.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a regular centerfire scope on a .22?
Mechanically, yes — there is no recoil problem and nothing will break. The issue is parallax. A typical centerfire scope is parallax-free at 100 or 150 yards, so at the 25 to 50 yards where most rimfire shooting happens, moving your head shifts the reticle across the target. If the scope has an adjustable objective or side focus that reaches down to rimfire distances, it works perfectly well. If it has fixed 100-yard parallax, you will be fighting your own cheek weld.
What magnification do I need for a .22?
Less than most people buy. For plinking and small game inside 50 yards, anything from 4x to 9x is plenty and lower is faster. For paper at 50 to 100 yards where you want to see individual holes, 12x is useful. Above that you are mostly magnifying mirage and your own wobble. In the speed disciplines the correct magnification is 1x — a red dot.
Is a first-focal-plane reticle worth it on a rimfire?
Only if you use holdover marks at more than one magnification setting, which in practice means positional precision shooting. In a first-focal-plane scope the reticle grows and shrinks with the image so subtensions stay correct at any power. In second focal plane they are only correct at one specified magnification, usually maximum. For bench work at a fixed power setting, second focal plane is fine and gives you a finer reticle at low magnification.
What does 1/4 inch at 50 yards mean on a turret?
It means one click moves the point of impact a quarter of an inch measured at fifty yards, which is roughly half a minute of angle rather than the quarter-MOA a centerfire shooter would assume. Read that way, standard corrections come out double what you intended. Do a box test, work out what a click is actually worth on your rifle at your zero distance, and write the number down.
Do I need a rimfire-specific reticle with drop marks?
It helps but it is not essential, and the marks are only meaningful if they match your ammunition. A .22 LR round's trajectory changes noticeably between standard velocity, high velocity and subsonic loads, so a BDC calibrated for one will be wrong for another. Many shooters get more out of a plain reticle plus a dope card taped to the stock, built from their own results with the ammunition they actually shoot.
Will a red dot work for small game hunting?
Inside about 50 yards, yes, provided the dot is small enough to sit precisely on the target. A 2 MOA dot covers roughly one inch at fifty yards, which is workable but coarse for the precise shot placement small game hunting demands. Many hunters prefer low magnification for exactly that reason. If you hunt in thick cover at close range, a dot's speed and unlimited eye relief are genuine advantages.
Does my rifle have a Picatinny rail or a dovetail?
Look at the receiver. A 3/8-inch dovetail is a smooth angled groove with no cross slots; Picatinny has evenly spaced transverse slots along its length. Many rimfires ship with the dovetail and take a bolt-on Picatinny adapter, which is the usual route if you want to mount modern rings or a red dot. Adapters add height, so account for that when choosing ring height.