Best Rimfire Scopes UK

Buying Advice

Rimfire scopes — predominantly for .22LR and .17HMR — sit in a comfortable middle ground between air rifle and centrefire optics. Effective rimfire ranges (typically 50-120 yards for rabbit and vermin control, extending further for dedicated rimfire benchrest and F-Class-style target shooting) call for genuinely adjustable parallax, since a fixed-100-yard setting leaves visible error at the closer end of that range. A 3-9x40, 4-16x44 or similar variable with side-focus or AO parallax adjustment covers the great majority of UK rimfire use without needing centrefire-grade elevation travel.

Rimfire's mild recoil means almost any scope built for centrefire or air rifle use will physically survive on a rimfire rifle, which makes it easy to over-spend on ruggedness features you don't need. Prioritise parallax range and glass clarity at your actual working distance instead — a rimfire shooter engaging rabbits at 60-100 yards benefits far more from crisp glass and accurate close-range parallax than from elevation travel built for 800-yard centrefire dialling. Dedicated rimfire benchrest and target shooters pushing distance further should look at this site's long-range category page instead, where turret precision becomes the priority.