Rifle Scopes Parallax Question for .22

[Wildfire1550]

My son and I are looking to start shooting precision 22 competitions in Arizona. I bought a couple of the Bushnell scopes from GAP when they had the deal going and was going to use those for out 22s. I talked with a buddy who shoots NRL22 and he is insistent that the scopes have to be a 25 yard or less parallax. Would a 50 yard parallax be detrimental on 25 yard targets?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[spife7980]

If you have an adjustable comb on the stock to correctly position your head orif you can consistently get your head centered behind the optic then you will induce zero parallax. Its only when you are off center that parralax comes into effect.

That said, its much easier to adjust parallax than it is to get perfectly centered in positional shooting situations.

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

25y is ideal. NRL22 likes to throw some pretty tiny targets up at 25 yards, and as Spife said, being able to adjust parallax that low helps a good bit. Depending on what scopes you got, you might be better off keeping them on your centerfire rifles and looking at something else for 22. I've got a 3-18x Bushnell Forge on my CZ for NRL22, and I have been really happy with it.

 

[silentheart]

It would help if you mention which Bushnell model scope you got. I was testing my tikka t1x with my old Nikon scope that has 35 yd parallax free at a 25 yd. No side focus/parallax adjustment. When it go pass 3x magnification, the center start to get blurry. Pass 5x, I have to guess. Once I set the target at 50 yd, I was fine. If you are using bipod and rear bag, should not be an issue. if you have good fundamentals like other posts mentioned, should be ok.

 

[VP47PPC]

Just shot a NRL22 match at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club this last weekend. i have a Vortex Diamondback Tactical 4-16 that let me set parallax down to 25 yards for the KYL rack. I could clearly see the 1/4 rod. My GF was shooting with a scope that did not allow parallax adjustment that close. She said the 1/4 rod was a blur and she could not make it out clearly. So yes I think it matters to have a clear sight on the smallest target on the KYL rack.

 

[Diver160651]

^^^ I hate the second this but it isn’t just about parallax it’s about being able to clearly see the targets quickly and exactly where you are hitting as you roll down to the stick that is the size off the .22

Certainly with scope shading you can make sure your parallax free but that doesn’t help you focus

 

[littlepod]

You can lessen out the magnification. I have a scope with 50 yard mininum parallax, so at maximum magnification everything below 50 is goin to be blurry, but if I adjust to like half magnification everything is fine.

Good constant cheek weld is important.

I did a NRL22 with a cheapo 3-10x scope that could only be run @ 5x @ 25 yards, it was fine. If you have a 6-24, and you can only run it at 12x @ 25 yards, that's more than enough.

At least in the NRL22 I've done, it wasn't trying to shoot < 0.5moa, and having a .1" shift due to parallax at 25 yards isn't really that big of a deal either. The targets aren't that tiny.

 

[Wildfire1550]

I have the elite tactical hunter 4.5-18 x 44. I am appreciating the input

 

[spife7980]

Look from one corner of the kitchen to the far corner of the living room. Is it serviceable?

 

[OLD308]

Before variable parallex adjustments were the main stay, we did it the old fashion way. Pull your head back till you have equal shadowing all around the image. This will insure proper eye position. Not an optimal method today where scopes are easily available that eliminate this technique. It also failed to indues a super clear picture. It does provide a poor mans parallel free image. So in a pinch or till you get a better scope, try it out. Hope this helps.

FYI just because the dial reads 50 yards, does not mean thats the distance you can adjust to. I have a older Vortex that reads a 50 yard parallex. I works to much lower. I also have an old Leupold that won't adjust down lower than 150. Knob reads 75. Good luck hope this helps.

 

[silentheart]

I have the elite tactical hunter 4.5-18 x 44. I am appreciating the input

Yes. Just looked it up. The min parallax is 50 yard. My et3124fj is 10 yd. Please try and see if 6x workable. If not, call Bushnell, I believe you can get a refund if within 1 yr. good luck.

 

[Dthomas3523]

Here is what I have noticed after shooting a ton of .22..

1: you’ll hate shooting blurry targets. It’s not fun and sometimes target identification is t great

2: the better eyebox becomes with optics, the bigger deal parallax becomes. You used to be able to see scope shadowing without much movement off center needed. It let you know you weren’t behind the optic right and you either needed to adjust parallax or get behind the gun for no shadowing.

Now you can move your head a bit and not get much or any shadowing, but you can still see the parallax error if parallax hasn’t or can’t be adjusted out.

So, I’d recommend making sure you have an optic that can do at lest 25yds. Preferably 20m or less (25m is 27yds).

I was recently testing an optic with a 25m (27yd) parallax. It was parallax free at 27yds. But at 25yds, on a 1/4” target, there was enough parallax error to miss. And I was able to see there error without much, of any shadowing in the optic.

Long story short, get something that will parallax down to under 25yds, or you’ll find yourself doing extra work to check parallax or missing and you can’t figure out why.

 

[Dthomas3523]

Also, whatever parallax you end up with, make sure you are zero’ing at or beyond that point.

If you have a 25m (27yd) parallax free optic, zero at 27 or 30yds or more. Otherwise, if you’re not careful, your zero may have some error built into it.

 

[Wildfire1550]

Thank you for all the great information. Eurooptic’s having the pst II for $699 seems pretty tempting and has the 25 yard parallax

 

[frost1235]

It might not help, but Athlon states their new Midas tac 4-24x scope has parallax down to 10 yards.

 

[Near miss]

Here is a quick and dirty tip to get blurriness out of the image:

Take some aluminum foil or paper, you just need to get it wrapped around the scope objective.
According to lightning situations, make a hole the sized 0.2" to 0.5" (the brighter - the smaller hole)
You can now use your scope to see as close as 2 ft with a hole sized around 0.1". (The closer you need to see - the smaller hole)

This effect is caused by the foil blocking all the light except straight from the target. Your FOV will be less but your depth perception better.

I think that this will work for fixing those scopes which have parallax going down but the objective is too large to give a clear image.
No idea or guarantee if this will actually add precision but you can not go wrong by trying.
I have heard some shooters keep a hole around 2" for added depth perception. (You can see clearly both near and far, works for identifying mirage/wind down range)