Rifle Scopes Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

Smokin

Sergeant
Supporter
Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 20, 2007
545
11
Houston, Texas
This is for my rimfire, but Im not really on a "strict budget". I know a S&B 5-25 PMII will do it, but I cant really justify putting that on a rimfire. Will a Loopy MK4 4-14x40 do it? The premiers wont, NF wont, what else?
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

Leupolds won't at the higher powers for sure. I've read you can have leupold adjust at least some of their scopes so they focus at much shorter distances through the custom shop, but I don't know the specifics of it. I think the air rifle guys would know a lot more on that. The burris and nikon models I've tried won't. It's actually interesting that more scopes with adjustable parallax will not focus to at least 25 yards. It takes a lot of good scopes out of the quality rimfire scope choice and even for a rifle that might see short range use it would be nice, though most of them will focus at shorter ranges if you dial the power down.

If you just want a duplex non-target turrets the 3-9x33 leupold rimfire is a nice optic, focuses down to 10 meters, but frankly i think it's overpriced for a VXII glass. Great compact light hunting scope though.

Falcon 4-14 will, in fact I'd say it will push 10 yards or less, and it has the most adjustment range.

Clearidge XP scopes will go down to 15 yards.

Millet tactical scopes go down to 10 yards.

Meopta R1 4-16 tactical will go down to 10 yards I believe, and the glass is flat out amazing on these scopes.

Bushnell 3200/4200/6500 will focus down to at least 25 yards, depends on the model and power range. The larger power ranges are 25 yards the smaller ones are 10 yards.

I believe the 4-14 conquest Zeiss scopes are marked to go to 30 yards but in looking through some of them on the higher powers I think they are being optimistic. The 6-20 scopes are 50 yards.

I actually like the bushnell 3200 mildot without the tactical knobs for 22's, it's good quality, good glass, and right around $300. 5-15 is a good power range, the optics are good, none of the bushnell scopes have enough range to dial a 22 to 300 yards, so the tac knobs are a waste for long ranges, and the mildot reticule is a little thick, but for use on a .22 and shooting under 200-300 yards it's not a real problem.

If you want to dial in adjustments to long ranges I'd say the falcon is a great choice it has the most adjustment by far of those listed.
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

The best glass(clarity,resolution) period for the money of any scope on the market is the Bushnell 6-24 or 8-32 x40 4200 series.

They are very popular with Field Target airrifle shooters because they are very clear,range well,have repeatable adjustments that are durable,focus down to 10 yards,have low profile target knobs and are light and inexpensive for such a good scope.

They are the older style 1 inch scopes.The new 30mm/side focus style 4200 and 6500 series scopes may be more desirable in some respects but after doing side by side comparisons they are very noticably less clear.So much so that an acquaintance wanted to trade me strait across for his brand new Bushnell 6-24 side focus!

There's one for sale in the optics for sale section.Not mine,don't know the guy.

Steve
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

Interesting you bring up the side focus bushnell's being less clear than their objective lens adjustable versions. I believe USO has said the same thing. The side focus is easier to run behind the rifle so it's convenient, but it seems to be at the cost of clarity/light transmission.
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

My 4.5X14 Leopold vx-III focues down to 25 yards on 14x and then some. I would guess it goes down to about 23. The 6.5X20 EFR will focus way down very close even on 20 power. Like ten yards. I've got no experiance with the side-focus 4.5X14 and I don't think they focus as close as the objective focus 4.5X14 one inch tube Leupolds. I think the 4.5X14 one inche tube objective focus Leupolds are the the cat's meow for .22 rimfire.
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Smokin</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This is for my rimfire, but Im not really on a "strict budget". I know a S&B 5-25 PMII will do it, but I cant really justify putting that on a rimfire. Will a Loopy MK4 4-14x40 do it? The premiers wont, NF wont, what else? </div></div>
I don't know about the Mark 4 4.5-14X 40mm, but I know that the Vari-X III 4.5-14X 40mm A.O. will. I've used said scope on a couple of different hunting air rifles because of this. My particular scopes focus down to about 20 yards <span style="font-style: italic">at full power (14X)</span>. Each scope is different, so YMMV (could be slightly higher or lower). The Vari-X IIIs' are, of course, 1" tubes. As such they won't have as much adjustment range as a 30mm or larger tube, and the Leupold Mildot reticle only has 5 MILs' in each direction for holds.

The VX III 4.5-14X 40mm A.O., which replaced the Vari-X III in 2004, should have the same focusing range, but I can't verify as I don't have any VX-series scopes.

Keith
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ToddM</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Interesting you bring up the side focus bushnell's being less clear than their objective lens adjustable versions. I believe USO has said the same thing. The side focus is easier to run behind the rifle so it's convenient, but it seems to be at the cost of clarity/light transmission. </div></div>

There's more than that. I swear that the adjustable objective vs. side parallax is easier on your eyes, gives better depth of field. Makes focusing on the internal reticle easier. Also, I find that my side parallax scopes NEED the parallax knob to be adjusted in order to focus on the target. For the adjustable objective scopes I have, I only need to adjust the objective in order to focus on something inside 100yds. Otherwise it's just purely parallax adjustment. Most of the time, I'll just set it to 300 and forget it. In a way it's easier than side parallax. (for me)

It would be nice if an optics expert could step in and tell me why this is the case.
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

Sounds like its a Falcom Menace. My only complaint about this optic is that the reticle seems a bit thick, probably because its FFP. Im not too keen on the VXIII option since it must have a mil dot or "tactical" reticle and it must have target turrets. I would also like the scope to have enough elevation to take me out to 300 yards.
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

The leupold vari-X III 6.5-20x40 EFR will focus down to 10 yards. The EFR means Extended Focus Range. 25 yards is easy even at 20x. I have one of these scopes and it is clear and bright at close range and high power. Mine has the target dot reticle and the thin croddhairs and small 1/8 moa dot are useful at short range.

Jim
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

Going from 25yd zero to 300 yards on a .22 is a lot of elevation adjustment. Just doing some quick math from the federal ballistics stuff with a 1080 fps load you are looking at around 176" of drop from zero at sea level. So if my math is right you'd want at least 60 MOA of usable free elevation adjustment from 25 yard zero.

Since the Falcon has 75 moa stated adjustment (not sure if anyone has tested it, usually it's a bit less than spec for most scopes) you are going to want at the very minimum a +20 MOA mount and that is really cutting it close and preferably closer to +30 MOA, maybe even a +40 if you can then still get down to a 25 yard zero.

If you went with a 1200fps round that would drop to about 133" drop at 300 from zero. Which would mean you could get there with ~43 MOA in that case a +20 MOA mount should be good enough. All of the above is simply based on federal's ballistic program at sea level so they should be taken with a grain of salt. Actual drops out of your setup could vary significantly. I know someone posted awhile back their dope to 300 and it was approximately 52 MOA drop from a 50 yard zero. Which is within a couple MOA of what the software gives for a 50 yard zero.

For reference the Meopta R1 has only 42 MOA adjustment, the bushnell 3200 is about 45 MOA for the 5-15 tactical, 4200 6-24 is only listed at 50 (bushnell's are less in practice than spec from my experience) 6500 is 75 for the 2.5-16 and 50 for the 4.5-30. Clearidge is 90" for their tactical 2.5-12, but less than 50" for everything else. None of the typical burris/nikon/leupold options are going to give you 75+ MOA adjustment and focus down to 25 yards that I know of. Same is true of the zeiss scopes.
 
Re: Best glass that will focus down to 25yds?

ToddM thanks for the detailed response. Sounds like its a Falcon then. I have a 20 MOA base (its one of the Sako MCS-T4 Trainers) so I still cant get the required drop, I'll have to hold over for the last bit.