Rimfire with SIMRAD scope choice

[ohnomrbillk]

I’m putting together a dedicated bolt action 22 LR night rifle.

It will incorporate a simrad for night vision.

Interested on opinions on benefit of first focal plane.

I was looking at both the vortex razor and the vortex viper PST. Similar powers of 3-15x with 42 mm objective lenses.

Razor should have better glass, but it’s only available in second focal plane.

Piper is available in First focal plane, but might give up some to the glass quality.

Both have adjustable parallax down to 20 yards, which would seem to be a benefit for rimfire application.

 

[Glassaholic]

The PST II 3-15x44 is an excellent scope for the price. Burris XTR IIIi 3.3-18x50 would be an even better choice but about double the cost ($1100ish), NF NX8 2.5-20x50 is another solid choice but about triple the cost ($1700ish). I do prefer FFP for the same reasons I prefer it in daytime scopes, the reticle is always calibrated regardless of magnification. I miss my SIMRAD, it had an amazingly bright and detailed image...

I am assuming you'd like to stay around 3x on the low end as Vortex does make a FFP Razor LHT, but it is 4.5-22x50

 

[stefan73]

I have to ask, why a simrad? Why not thermal?

 

[ohnomrbillk]

I have to ask, why a simrad? Why not thermal?

The biggest piece is because I already have a SIMRAD, and I’d like to do some thing with it.

 

[ohnomrbillk]

The PST II 3-15x44 is an excellent scope for the price. Burris XTR IIIi 3.3-18x50 would be an even better choice but about double the cost ($1100ish), NF NX8 2.5-20x50 is another solid choice but about triple the cost ($1700ish). I do prefer FFP for the same reasons I prefer it in daytime scopes, the reticle is always calibrated regardless of magnification. I miss my SIMRAD, it had an amazingly bright and detailed image...

I am assuming you'd like to stay around 3x on the low end as Vortex does make a FFP Razor LHT, but it is 4.5-22x50

View attachment 7966321

I was thinking the 40 to 44 mm lens was a better mounting option with a simrad.

Parallax adjustable to 20 yards or less with side parallax adjustment is a requirement.

 

[stefan73]

The biggest piece is because I already have a SIMRAD, and I’d like to do some thing with it.

That makes sense.

 

[cake5150]

I’m putting together a dedicated bolt action 22 LR night rifle.

It will incorporate a simrad for night vision.

Interested on opinions on benefit of first focal plane.

I was looking at both the vortex razor and the vortex viper PST. Similar powers of 3-15x with 42 mm objective lenses.

Razor should have better glass, but it’s only available in second focal plane.

Piper is available in First focal plane, but might give up some to the glass quality.

Both have adjustable parallax down to 20 yards, which would seem to be a benefit for rimfire application.

I used SIMRADs, specifically KN203FABs, for quite a while before switching to the PVS-27 a few years ago. One of them was on my AR22, so I got to do basically exactly what you are talking about. My favorite optic to have it mounted to was the gen 2 PST 3-15 FFP. I would ABSOLUTELY go FFP for this application, no question about it. I loved the living shit out of my SIMRADs, but the height over bore, especially at closeish distance, was something that you had to account for to hit small targets. A FFP optic takes a lot of the guesswork out of accounting for your height over bore at close distances by allowing you to consistently hold over regardless of what magnification you are at. I am an unashamed FFP fan in all optics except for 1-6/8 LPVOs, but this is one of those applications where there isn't much of an argument against it, IMHO. When using an NV optic of any sort in front of a day optic on a precisionish gun, the scope you are putting it in front of should ideally have a FFP Christmas tree style reticle (dialing at night sucks), adjustable parallax (because reasons), and be able to work in the 3-10ish range of magnification. In a perfect world, the scope would also be relatively short, but that usually comes with penalties when it comes to parallax sensitivity. The gen 2 PST 3-15 FFP is a hell of a scope for the money, and it also plays extremely well w/ NV and thermal clip-ons. The Burris XTR 3 3.3-18 is supposedly a great optic as well (haven't used it myself), but I passed on it primarily because the extremely fine reticle would not be conducive to NV/thermal clip-on use or general day use at the lower end of the magnification range. The argument could be made that they are now offered with illumination, but I'd rather have a reticle that doesn't require the illumination to be functional at lower magnification. Of course, YMMV. Suppressed rimfire shooting at night is a hoot, good luck!

 

[Gasgun]

I used SIMRADs, specifically KN203FABs, for quite a while before switching to the PVS-27 a few years ago. One of them was on my AR22, so I got to do basically exactly what you are talking about. My favorite optic to have it mounted to was the gen 2 PST 3-15 FFP. I would ABSOLUTELY go FFP for this application, no question about it. I loved the living shit out of my SIMRADs, but the height over bore, especially at closeish distance, was something that you had to account for to hit small targets. A FFP optic takes a lot of the guesswork out of accounting for your height over bore at close distances by allowing you to consistently hold over regardless of what magnification you are at. I am an unashamed FFP fan in all optics except for 1-6/8 LPVOs, but this is one of those applications where there isn't much of an argument against it, IMHO. When using an NV optic of any sort in front of a day optic on a precisionish gun, the scope you are putting it in front of should ideally have a FFP Christmas tree style reticle (dialing at night sucks), adjustable parallax (because reasons), and be able to work in the 3-10ish range of magnification. In a perfect world, the scope would also be relatively short, but that usually comes with penalties when it comes to parallax sensitivity. The gen 2 PST 3-15 FFP is a hell of a scope for the money, and it also plays extremely well w/ NV and thermal clip-ons. The Burris XTR 3 3.3-18 is supposedly a great optic as well (haven't used it myself), but I passed on it primarily because the extremely fine reticle would not be conducive to NV/thermal clip-on use or general day use at the lower end of the magnification range. The argument could be made that they are now offered with illumination, but I'd rather have a reticle that doesn't require the illumination to be functional at lower magnification. Of course, YMMV. Suppressed rimfire shooting at night is a hoot, good luck!

Lots of good info here. Thanks.
I’ve got a suppressed 77/22 with the Gen II PST on it and a KN253.
Never even occurred to me to put them together.
Going to get some Badger rings ordered. Can’t wait to try it.