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Scope advice for NRL22 competition rifle

R

Roslyn

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Minuteman
Jul 25, 2013
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#1
I don't shoot NRL22 matches, so need some advice for a friend who is building a rifle for his son. He has a Vudoo barreled action, Triggertech Diamond trigger, believe it is mounted in an American Rifle Company Xylo chassis, -- so a nice rig. Plan is for the boy, now 14, to grow into it, and start by getting involved in NRL22 matches.

So which scope to mount? Price not particularly a concern, but relevance to NRL22 stages for sure is. I am guessing that targets from 25 yards out to 250 yards is the sweet spot, but would appreciate any recommendations you all may have that take advantage of your direct experience in these match formats.

Thanks in advance.
 
#7
I’ve shot NRL22 for a number of years now. Plenty of good options across all price points for sure.

The first few years I ran a Vortex Diamondback FFP on my 1st rig and it worked pretty dang well until I started to grow past it.

My 2nd rig has an Athlon Cronus G2 on it and I don’t have any complaints or apprehensions that the glass is holding back my scores.

As others have said- your question needs a bit more detail/refinement to help narrow down the answers you’ll receive to what is beneficial for your purposes.

With NRL22 in particular & without looking it up- I believe it boils down to option 1 (limited to 100 yards) or option 2 (limited to 200 yards) all of which can be covered using the diamondback reticle without any dialing needed.

If funds allow- by all means throw alpha glass on the rifle but I personally have some internal apprehension on putting a scope over a certain price point on rimfire myself and the Cronus is doing everything I need it to for matches exceeding the NRL22 limits.

Put another way- I’d love to have the NL Pures in my stable, and I have some pretty dang good binos & spotters now, but I keep grabbing my Bushnell match pros because they just seem to work exceedingly well for the given application
 
#8
best scope ive tried so far is the 7-35 tangent

most forgiving parallax ive found so far.
I've shot an entire NRL22 100yd monthly match without touching parallax

also shot a few NRL22X matches from 75-250yds and barely needed to touch parallax as well

this combined with the great turrets, glass, and reticle make it one of the best imo
 
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#9
Thank you all.

As to price, I told him a high end scope for PRS might run $6000, but that I couldn't speak to what might be sufficient for NRL22. His goal is to buy once and not worry about upgrading later. He can afford something at that level.

My question probably should have been more specific. Are there scopes you all recommend that work for very short range targets and still have enough magnification or field of view at whatever the NRL uses for longer distances.

His son does pheasant and duck hunting with his father, has shot a .308 out to 200 yards at their local range, so has some time behind firearms. Thought here was to get him set up with a rig he could shoot for several years as he makes his way into competitions and not be frustrated because the glass wasn't keeping up.
 
#11
Well if he can afford a $6000 scope then have him go buy one. lol The rest of us poor will get by with our welfare scopes. lol

Seriously, at this point and even in the future he won’t need a $6000 scope to shoot .22 matches. There are plenty of scopes below that that people use that will let him shoot and learn over the next few years but if he can swing a TT 7-35 then have him buy him one. I am sure he will be happy with it.
 
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#12
Roslyn said:
Thank you all.

As to price, I told him a high end scope for PRS might run $6000, but that I couldn't speak to what might be sufficient for NRL22. His goal is to buy once and not worry about upgrading later. He can afford something at that level.

My question probably should have been more specific. Are there scopes you all recommend that work for very short range targets and still have enough magnification or field of view at whatever the NRL uses for longer distances.

His son does pheasant and duck hunting with his father, has shot a .308 out to 200 yards at their local range, so has some time behind firearms. Thought here was to get him set up with a rig he could shoot for several years as he makes his way into competitions and not be frustrated because the glass wasn't keeping up.
Click to expand...

you dont need more magnification for longer distances

you can shoot 400 yards with a rimfire at 12-15x no problem
it's all about spacial resolution, which more or less increases with a more expensive scope
- kind of like a 75" 1080p vs. 65" 4K, even with the smaller size, you'll see more detail with a higher resolution
 
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#13
Roslyn said:
Thank you all.

As to price, I told him a high end scope for PRS might run $6000, but that I couldn't speak to what might be sufficient for NRL22. His goal is to buy once and not worry about upgrading later. He can afford something at that level.

My question probably should have been more specific. Are there scopes you all recommend that work for very short range targets and still have enough magnification or field of view at whatever the NRL uses for longer distances.

His son does pheasant and duck hunting with his father, has shot a .308 out to 200 yards at their local range, so has some time behind firearms. Thought here was to get him set up with a rig he could shoot for several years as he makes his way into competitions and not be frustrated because the glass wasn't keeping up.
Click to expand...
A 14 year old can afford a $6,000 rifle scope? Is he cutting grass for Elon Musk? 🤷🏼

When I was 16, I didn’t even have a $6,000 truck…
 
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#14
I totally get the vibe about a kid owning a multi thousand dollar rig. At that age I was still trying to get the best out of my Daisy BB gun.

Ok, I am getting the drift here, really appreciate the advice and suggestions. It occurs to me his next step ought to be attending an actual match, looking through some scopes to get a sense of the reticles, and going from there.

Thanks again.
 
#15
Here’s my criteria for a rimfire scope (not in any particular order):
Scope that parallaxes down to 25 yds
12-16x magnification is the sweet spot for most stages, but I having 25-30x on the top end is handy
300 yd shots calls for approx 12-13 mils of elevation, 400 yds is something like 22 mils of up. So you want a scope with enough internal travel to be able to dial out that far
I hold on a lot of NRL22 stages, so a reticle that allows elevation and wind holds is key. I would avoid a reticle that is in .5 mils, .25 is better, .2 works best for my brain
At least 10 mils per rotation on the turret

So all that being said there’s quite a few scopes out there that fit the above criteria that folks here have given good reviews on in a wide price range. Just off top of my head that I’ve played with (from low $ to high):

Bushnell Match Pro ED 5-30x56
Burris XTR Pro 5.5-30x56
Leupold Mk5 HD 5-25x56
Zeiss S3 6-36x56
 
#16
Roslyn said:
I totally get the vibe about a kid owning a multi thousand dollar rig. At that age I was still trying to get the best out of my Daisy BB gun.

Ok, I am getting the drift here, really appreciate the advice and suggestions. It occurs to me his next step ought to be attending an actual match, looking through some scopes to get a sense of the reticles, and going from there.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Some good advice already given above. For NRL22 he'll want a "close" focusing scope. All three of the LOW designed 6-36x56 scopes (Vortex, Zeiss, Element) are excellent options. The NF ATACR 7-35, the TT 7-35 and the ZCO 8-40 all excellent options as well. Possibly the new Kahle 5-40x56 with extreme FOV might work, but listed bottom parallax at 20m might be "too far" for some. Since your friends son is just getting started I don't think any of the $3k plus options are really necessary (unless his dad is using this to justify getting a nice scope that he will also use).
 
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