Air rifle scope under $250

Rimfire bolt action rifles, lever action, pump action and self loading rifles. Air rifles.

Air rifle scope under $250

Post by Dippa » 07 Apr 2019, 7:41 am

Hi all,
Whats scope would you recommend for a gas ram air rifle (Stoeger Atac).

1” tube
Paralax adjustment
40mm

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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by Mattraff » 07 Apr 2019, 10:33 am

Nikko Stirling air king scopes are under $200 With mounts, I have had one with no problems and a mate has one and is also fine.
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by Dippa » 07 Apr 2019, 9:36 pm

Any thing else you guys would recommend for a air rifle?
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by TassieTiger » 08 Apr 2019, 4:38 am

I’d consider anything suitable for a centrefire - will handle a springer air rifle “jump”.
Bushmell dusk to dawns 3-9 are a cheap scope under $200.
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by marksman » 08 Apr 2019, 2:27 pm

Nikko Stirling are very clear scopes for air rifle's
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by bladeracer » 08 Apr 2019, 7:01 pm

TassieTiger wrote:I’d consider anything suitable for a centrefire - will handle a springer air rifle “jump”.
Bushmell dusk to dawns 3-9 are a cheap scope under $200.


Nope. The scope needs to be specifically designed to deal with the unusual recoil of a springer.
Vortex guarantee all of their scopes for springers.
Bushnell onlny offer three lines, Trophy, Nitro and Forge scopes.
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by TassieTiger » 08 Apr 2019, 10:16 pm

I’m going to respectfully disagree (but I’m not to big to be told otherwise:-)) - only because I’ve fired a couple unbraked .338 laps and similar.
Surely, your not telling me that a springer recoil can compare in any way, shape or form to anything near or approaching a large magnum rifle recoil?. Yes - the springer recoil is unorthodox, and in some ways I’d say it’s almost an inverted recoil, but if a scope is rated “generally” for a centrefire, then its effectively able to cope with large mag rifle recoil - up, down, backwards and sideways. Im sorry, I just can’t see it...rim fire dedicated scope? - sure...absolutely.

My Webley 177 was marketed over 1000fps, so had a decent reverse spring action, but There is no way I’d risk putting my air king scope on my 30/06, it feels like it would snap it...like it does my shoulder every now and again.
Tikka .260 (Z5 5x25/52)
Steyr Pro Varmint .223 - VX 3
CZ455 .22 & Norinco .22 (vtex 4-12, bush 3-9)
ATA 686 U/O 12g & Baikal S/S 12g.
Adler a110 reddot
Sauer 30-06 - VX 3
Howa 300 win mag. SHV 5-20/56
Marlin SBL 45/70
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by bladeracer » 08 Apr 2019, 11:20 pm

TassieTiger wrote:I’m going to respectfully disagree (but I’m not to big to be told otherwise:-)) - only because I’ve fired a couple unbraked .338 laps and similar.
Surely, your not telling me that a springer recoil can compare in any way, shape or form to anything near or approaching a large magnum rifle recoil?. Yes - the springer recoil is unorthodox, and in some ways I’d say it’s almost an inverted recoil, but if a scope is rated “generally” for a centrefire, then its effectively able to cope with large mag rifle recoil - up, down, backwards and sideways. Im sorry, I just can’t see it...rim fire dedicated scope? - sure...absolutely.

My Webley 177 was marketed over 1000fps, so had a decent reverse spring action, but There is no way I’d risk putting my air king scope on my 30/06, it feels like it would snap it...like it does my shoulder every now and again.


Lots of very nice scopes have been ruined by putting them on springer's. There's no reason you can't put whatever scope you want to on it, just don't act surprised if it fails because it wasn't designed to cope with the forces. Vortex is the only company I'm aware of that guarantees all of their scopes for Springer use. Most make a separate line specifically for springer's.
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by Sawyers » 09 Apr 2019, 12:07 am

Hawke Vantage are good bang for there buck (if you buy from a UK distributor)
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by TassieTiger » 09 Apr 2019, 7:14 am

bladeracer wrote:
TassieTiger wrote:I’m going to respectfully disagree (but I’m not to big to be told otherwise:-)) - only because I’ve fired a couple unbraked .338 laps and similar.
Surely, your not telling me that a springer recoil can compare in any way, shape or form to anything near or approaching a large magnum rifle recoil?. Yes - the springer recoil is unorthodox, and in some ways I’d say it’s almost an inverted recoil, but if a scope is rated “generally” for a centrefire, then its effectively able to cope with large mag rifle recoil - up, down, backwards and sideways. Im sorry, I just can’t see it...rim fire dedicated scope? - sure...absolutely.

My Webley 177 was marketed over 1000fps, so had a decent reverse spring action, but There is no way I’d risk putting my air king scope on my 30/06, it feels like it would snap it...like it does my shoulder every now and again.


Lots of very nice scopes have been ruined by putting them on springer's. There's no reason you can't put whatever scope you want to on it, just don't act surprised if it fails because it wasn't designed to cope with the forces. Vortex is the only company I'm aware of that guarantees all of their scopes for Springer use. Most make a separate line specifically for springer's.


Yes, but most have a range of scopes for those that put their left toe forward when shooting at targets to the right...
Why would a scope that’s designed to work on a large centrefire maybe fail on a a springer? What would be the reason??
Tikka .260 (Z5 5x25/52)
Steyr Pro Varmint .223 - VX 3
CZ455 .22 & Norinco .22 (vtex 4-12, bush 3-9)
ATA 686 U/O 12g & Baikal S/S 12g.
Adler a110 reddot
Sauer 30-06 - VX 3
Howa 300 win mag. SHV 5-20/56
Marlin SBL 45/70
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by wildcard6 » 09 Apr 2019, 3:43 pm

As Bladeracer said, many good quality scopes have been destroyed by putting them on to springer airguns. If you wish to find out for yourself, go ahead and put an expensive Leupold or such on it and see what happens. Some folks just have to put their fingers in the flames to find out that it will burn you, but it's your money. The reason scopes not designed for airgun use fail is because on a cartridge-firing rifle, the scope tries to move forward under recoil. The rifle moves backwards at high speed, while inertia tries to hold the scope in place. With an airgun, the recoil direction is reversed due to the forward motion of the spring/piston and the sudden stop. This tries to move the scope BACKWARD off the mounting rail. Internally, an airgun scope's lenses are braced to survive this backwards recoil, while those on 'normal' scopes are not. Hence, the internals are not built to survive this reverse recoil and they will fail. I bought a Hawke Vantage rimfire scope for my .22 - the one with holdover marks out to 200m, but I eventually upgraded to a Vortex for even longer range rimfire shooting. I contacted Hawke Optics and asked whether that Vantage scope was okay to use on my Diana 340 N-Tec airgun and they said it would be fine "and thanks for checking". I have had the Vantage on my airgun now for ages and it's working just fine, exactly as promised. Hawke Optics are big in the airgun scope world, so I guessed correctly that their Vantage-line of scopes is built to a very high standard internally. The only thing the Vantage doesn't have is parallax adjustments, which are necessary for airgun TARGET shooting, but if you want to shoot small pests etc., it makes no difference. Hawke makes a line of airgun scopes [AirMax I think] and I would not hesitate to recommend them to you. If you decide to put a rifle scope on your airgun, don't forget to buy a big box of tissues too. You'll be crying when it sh*ts itself!
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by bladeracer » 09 Apr 2019, 3:47 pm

TassieTiger wrote:Yes, but most have a range of scopes for those that put their left toe forward when shooting at targets to the right...
Why would a scope that’s designed to work on a large centrefire maybe fail on a a springer? What would be the reason??


The reason is the bidirectional recoil that firearms don't experience.
When the piston shoots forward the rifle recoils rearward (loading the lenses and internals of the scope with forward force), when the piston stops, the rifle recoils forward (loading the lenses and internals of the scope with rearward force). With a firearm the recoil is only rearward.
This guy makes a case for all modern scopes to be air-rifle suitable, but I'm not convinced.
https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2007/08/what-makes-an-airgun-scope/
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by TassieTiger » 09 Apr 2019, 10:15 pm

Okay - I hear what you guys are saying but, surely - with today’s faultless warranties - manufactures must make allowances for the small Bi directional movement imparted by a springer air rifle...I mean - I could literally put my springer in a cradle, balance a glass of water on it and it would be lucky to spill a couple of drops when fired...yet scopes can be dropped forward, back and everything in between these days - and still not have an issue.
To me at least, and hey - I’m wrong more often that I’m right - it Sounds like an urban myth that may have been correct 20 years ago. My mates 45/70 would have more forward movement from cocking the lever action after a shot than some springers.
Wish I hadnt sold myspringer now just so I could test the bugger some...I’ve no doubt the manufacturers are going to say it’s true, they want to sell more scopes, but I’ve personally never heard of an issue mounting a general purpose scope on air rifles, but my circle is pretty limited with springers so...but seriously...cmon, tho...youse are haven a laugh behind my arse yeah? Lol...
Tikka .260 (Z5 5x25/52)
Steyr Pro Varmint .223 - VX 3
CZ455 .22 & Norinco .22 (vtex 4-12, bush 3-9)
ATA 686 U/O 12g & Baikal S/S 12g.
Adler a110 reddot
Sauer 30-06 - VX 3
Howa 300 win mag. SHV 5-20/56
Marlin SBL 45/70
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by bladeracer » 09 Apr 2019, 10:38 pm

TassieTiger wrote:Okay - I hear what you guys are saying but, surely - with today’s faultless warranties - manufactures must make allowances for the small Bi directional movement imparted by a springer air rifle...I mean - I could literally put my springer in a cradle, balance a glass of water on it and it would be lucky to spill a couple of drops when fired...yet scopes can be dropped forward, back and everything in between these days - and still not have an issue.
To me at least, and hey - I’m wrong more often that I’m right - it Sounds like an urban myth that may have been correct 20 years ago. My mates 45/70 would have more forward movement from cocking the lever action after a shot than some springers.
Wish I hadnt sold myspringer now just so I could test the bugger some...I’ve no doubt the manufacturers are going to say it’s true, they want to sell more scopes, but I’ve personally never heard of an issue mounting a general purpose scope on air rifles, but my circle is pretty limited with springers so...but seriously...cmon, tho...youse are haven a laugh behind my arse yeah? Lol...


The piston is moving at far greater speed than you'd get from dropping a scoped rifle. I don't think the glass of water trick is relevant to the amount of force applied in both directions in an instant. I wonder if anybody has measured springer rifle recoil?

I personally would not put a non-springer rated scope on a springer rifle unless I wasn't bothered about it getting stuffed. I started shooting with air-rifles forty years ago, we didn't use scopes, but we were certainly warned about putting scopes on our rifles. Even modern Chinese cheapies are probably significantly higher quality than we would've had back then. I would not be surprised if most people run rifle scopes on springers all the time without any problems nowadays, but there are certainly failures occurring. I'm happy for anybody that wants to try it just as long as they're aware of the potential, and happy to let us know if it ever does fail. I have bought a very cheap Chinese scope for my own rifle to try it out. For $30-odd I don't much care if it doesn't last fifty shots. But the air-rifle market is so big these days I wouldn't be surprised if these bottom-priced scopes aren't aimed at the air-rifle market anyway, and designed to suit.
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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by bladeracer » 09 Apr 2019, 10:59 pm

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Re: Air rifle scope under $250

Post by Jon79 » 10 Apr 2019, 12:30 am

I took the crappy one off that came with my Remington tyrant .22 air and threw it in the shed, I had a few Nikko Stirling Panamax 3-9x40’s laying around that came with other rifles apparently they are air rifle rated
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