The OP said he was mainly looking at shooting at "targets" less than a 100 yards. I opined that he could hit a target "well past" 100 yards with a ranging reticle type .22 LR scope. I don't believe either of us suggested somebody should shoot a 22 LR at 300 yards. But that's a chance you take when you post in many of these forums--people take just a snippet of what you said and turn it into something you didn't intend.

So I guess I should have been far more explicit and descriptive. Here goes. When I wrote the offending post above, I should have just used the species descriptor "Beldings Ground Squirrels" which are a fairly tiny ground squirrel in CA. They are vermin, can carry the plague, disrupt farmers' alfalfa fields (a few litters can eat as much as a grown cow) and their burrows create havoc for farming equipment, livestock and other problems. In short, nobody is trying to eat them or save them. I would still like to kill them humanely but they are a pest, not some kind of game animal.

They are a tiny critter that are less than a foot long and average just over a 1/2 pound in weight. Many people shoot them with 22 rimfires, .17 caliber rimfires (principally the .17 HMR and sometimes 17-22 caliber centerfire rifles. TNT or some type of ballistic tip round is recommended as it reduces the possibility of ricochets and makes for more explosive kills.

Some of the guys who regularly hunt these critters (usually in Northeast CA) have used or recommend a 22 with a scope for shorter range shots (like under 150 yards). Here's a link to some BDC type 22 rimfire scopes made by Nikon. One is in the OP's price range and several are just over it but not by much.

http://www.nikonsportoptics.com/en/n...ire/index.page


I don't know if you've heard of John Pride or Mickey Fowler (they've won the Bianchi Cup a few times) but they have some really interesting scopes, both centerfire and rimfire. Their scopes have a ranging reticle called a "Rapid Reticle" that I have been drooling over for quite a while and would love to mount one of them on my Ruger 10-22. The scope costs way more than I paid for the gun back in the 70's but it looks like way too much fun. Their reticle is ranged to 220 yards but like I said in my original post, "You're still limited with the terminal ballistics."

https://rapidreticle.com/rre-22lr/

Since that statement is confusing, allow me to further illustrate. These types of scopes enable you to set your rifle and scope up to reasonably hit a target at these ranges even though your trajectory is basically "lobbing" the .22 rimfire bullet at the targets. Being limited to "terminal ballistics" means that just because you can hit a critter at an extended range doesn't mean you can humanely kill said critter at that extended range. Personally, I'm thinking one might kill a Beldings Ground Squirrel at 125 to maybe 150 yards but these squirrels are less than a foot long and average a little over a half pound of body weight. Who knows, maybe your ammo isn't going to do much past 25 yards. One never knows until you try.

But then I digress. Next time, I'll just PM the OP with this kind of info and then publicly post for him to use a deer rifle only and leave his 22 for tin cans at the 25-yard line or closer so he doesn't have to worry about the wind. Come to think of it, when I finally do get around to picking up one of those Rapid Reticle .22 LR scopes, I probably won't bother posting anything about it either. If anybody happens to pick up one of these Rapid Reticle scopes and test it on squirrels, please PM me so we can avoid what we meant when we posted instead of what they thought we must be thinking even though it wasn't posted that way or whatever else comes to somebody's mind.

Going back to the OP, check out those Nikon scopes. It's a good brand with some nice scopes that are in your price range.