The Gun Counter

I'm thinking of picking up a scope to put on my Marlin .22. I'm not really looking for anything fancy. This will be almost purely for plinking at the range, so I don't I don't need glass hand ground by some craftsman in the Swiss alps. As such, the absolute maximum budget is $100, and the further I can stay below that, the better. I've read some good things about the Simmons .22 Mag, which they claim is America's most popular rimfire scope. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with it. I will probably go with the 3-9 power model, but I was looking at the model with adjustable parallax. Is that a feature I really want? It nearly doubles the price.

If anyone else has any recommendations on other models, I'd love to hear them. Alternatively, if anyone has a decent rimfire scope that they no longer use because you upgraded or whatever, I might be interested in buying it.

Parallax Adj is really nice to have on scopes shooting out to 1,000 yards along with unlimited focus but if you're shooting a .22 LR, you're probably keeping it with 100 yds so why bother spending the extra money on a feature that you'll not use...

There is also Burris, Weaver, Leupold, Bushnell, IOR-Valdada and BSA that have rimfire scopes available...and SWFA and Camera Land NY, Natchez, Brownell's, Midway and MidSouth have other, usually Euro, makes available...

Everything I've read about them has been good but we're also not talking $1,200 scopes here...

What model of Marlin do you have?

Baby Brother has that same scope on my old Model 60. I actually bought it for my Savage 93, but couldn't get the eye relief I needed, I couldn't get it back far enough. But when I mounted it on the little semi-auto, it works like a champ. Plenty accurate for plinking and bunny busting.

My bolt-action Savage wears a Bushnell. I got the eye relief I needed, and again, the scope is plenty accurate for the job. I think I gave a hair under $50 each, and gotten more than my dinar's worth.

I've got the Model 70PSS. I really don't like the factory sights all that much, and the 16" barrel means the radius is pretty small. Still, the take down feature is kinda cool, and it always gets some interesting looks at the range when i put it together.

Check and make sure that the eye relief can be set correctly, if it can, that Simmons will serve quite nicely.

A few of my .22s have the ubiquitous Bushnell rimfire scopes. And they work just fine.

I decided to upgrade a bit when I bought a Savage in .17M2 so I got a Sightron SI 3x-9x for ~$120. You can really see the difference... especially at 100 yards. But for plinking and informal paper killing, the Bushnells suit me just fine.

My Marlin 60SS has the same sights as your 70PSS and I can't seem to hit squat with them.

My Savage wears a Bushnell variable (3-9 power) that works fine, ran me about $100 with rings from Ramsey Outdoor.

My brother and I each bought 4x Bushnell scopes for our .22s, and both of them had problems with the reticle. I think he threw his away, but I actually sent mine back to Bushnell for repair, and it has been okay since, though it is mostly a safe queen at this point, since I won't hunt with a .22 rifle anymore. Even though they repaired it to my satisfaction, considering the hassle I would recommend spending a bit more on a good .22 scope from a quality manufacturer.

I put my vote in for BSA. For a rimfire scope at their prices, you can't go wrong!

I have a Simmons on my 17HMR. Got it on sale, holds zero. The optics don't match my Nikon or Leupold, but neither does the price tag.