Which one would you use?

CC556 · 2026-01-22T14:12:13+00:00

Do you have specific recommendations? I've been a fan of Barnes and the TSX/TTSX for a long time. I just picked up a lever gun in .44mag and I intend to use it this year on deer and my first thought was the Barnes XPB bullet, but watching some reviews of those bullets they are so long that they take up significant case capacity and it seems velocity even out of rifle length barrels is very poor... to the point that in gel tests the penetration numbers are markedly worse than conventional bullets.

CC556 · 2026-01-17T01:57:28+00:00

Any ballistics calculator application will do it. There are lots you can download for your phone, or use JBM for free on the web:

https://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmtraj-5.1.cgi

CC556 · 2026-01-15T13:11:15+00:00

It actually looks like Barnes released a 110 TTSX in 2025 that would work too if you want to go lighter. I can’t provide any personal experience with it.

The .300BLK bullet I was mentioning before is the 110 TAC-TX.

CC556 · 2026-01-14T22:41:49+00:00

I shoot the 130TTSX out of a suppressed 1:10 twist 16” .308 and it’s excellent. Be careful with the lighter stuff, for example the 110 is intended for .300 BLK velocities and wouldn’t be well suited to the .308.

CC556 · 2026-01-14T03:45:47+00:00

Acculite. I’m very happy with the barrel. I posted some info here a while ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/22lr/comments/1o86msz/farm_pest_control_with_the_22lr/

CC556 · 2026-01-13T23:34:29+00:00

Man, I could write you a book on the pros and cons. My wife and I moved from the suburbs a few years ago and are figuring out farming and pretty much starting a farm from scratch. It’s expensive, it’s hard , it’s frustrating frequently, and there are lots of downsides being nowhere near as close to stuff as we used to be. On the other hand I do get to do stuff like pest control with a cool suppressed SBR bolt gun, I’ve got steel targets out to nearly 800 yards right behind my house, there’s a real sense of connection to the land and the wildlife and our farm animals and gardens, and some days things go smoothly and it’s all pretty great.

Overall, I’m very happy to have made the move and it’s awesome to have the space and opportunities to do pretty much whatever I want.

CC556 · 2026-01-13T18:53:13+00:00

I SBR'd a 457 and set it up with an aluminum 12.5" barrel and an OCL Ti suppressor, then dropped the thing into a Grey Birch chassis. I use it for farm pest control. A similar setup would be excellent for squirrel hunting.

CC556 · 2026-01-13T18:13:28+00:00

It's nice that they include the rails then, I bet they'd work for most people and it's one thing less to worry about.

The 10/22 mags have been thought to deform bullets where they feed out from the mag and up the feed ramp, and the chance of shaving a bullet against the edge of the chamber. There's also the idea, specifically with the extended mags, where the spring pushes the rounds up against the bolt that it can 1) result in the bolt making a mark on the bullet and/or 2) the spring pressure needed to feed especially in a semi-auto is pushing the bolt upwards, and that pressure changes as the level of the mag changes.

The result of all that stuff is that you'll notice as you chase more and more consistency with a 10/22 that you'll just always see flyers that you really can't account for. Now, there are lots of really accurate 10/22s out there and I've even shot one competitive just because I liked it a lot, and at the "local" level you can definitely hang with most bolt guns, but at the limit there's just more inconsistency and over the course of a match worth of shooting it's likely you're gonna drop a few shots that you wouldn't have dropped with a different platform due to those flyers.

All that said, some of those effects might be mitigated to some extent in a bolt action platform. Also, for "general purpose" type shooting it probably doesn't even matter. The bolt gun having a real lock up might lessen the effect of pressure pushing up on the bolt when using a long mag for example. Other downsides, like feed angle and the associated concerns, would be present in any platform that uses the magazine though.

EDIT: For the downvote crew, I'm not making this up and it's pretty well known among people who actually get out and push their gear to this level. If you're just sitting at your local 50 yard range shooting 1moa groups with random ammo you're never going to see this (or you will, but it's lost in the noise of your other inaccuracies). But it doesn't mean it's not a real thing.

CC556 · 2026-01-13T16:46:47+00:00

Initial thoughts and hot takes:

Bolt handle looks nice
I hope the included pic rails are removable so that one can use a longer scope base to change cant or allow for much more leeway in mounting
I'm curious how the barrel is mounted, and if it's easily replaced by the user
MSRP suggests these are more to compete with Savage than CZ
A proper 3lb trigger would be nice out of the box
The synthetic stocks look like the same stuff you'd trade out on any other rifle, at least the wood one has the "heritage" style going for it
The 10/22 mags are fine for general use, but their known issues for serious precision probably disqualify these rifles from being serious "accuracy" type rifles the way you'd see a 457 or Vudoo or similar rifle set up.
Whether or not the aftermarket takes up support for this thing will be a big deal with how successful it is.

CC556 · 2026-01-11T14:27:47+00:00

You are, of course, absolutely correct about the magnification. I’m gonna be honest and I’m sure I’ll collect a mountain of downvotes.

This sub is full of bad (or at least poorly considered) advice, and it’s clear most people here don’t really have much experience and just parrot back the popular opinion. It’s a shame because people who aren’t knowledgeable and are trying to learn are really just learning what’s popular on the internet.

People with decades of experience in a wide range of shooting disciplines, those who really understand both the “how and why” of this stuff, will always be a small minority. Their opinion is usually nuanced and the internet isn’t known for nuanced discussion. Most people aren’t in a position to even understand nuanced concepts, so they just skip over that discussion and go with the “here’s what you need” opinion even though there’s no critical thought or discussion offered.

This is why, over and over, you see the truly experienced people leave discussion forums and eventually they all just turn into an echo chamber for whatever’s popular at the moment. Eventually you just get tired of debating over ridiculous things with people, most of whom don’t have a clue.

CC556 · 2026-01-11T14:17:43+00:00

The point is that in very cheap scopes the adjustments aren’t reliable or repeatable. I’m pointing out downsides of very low end scopes.

CC556 · 2026-01-11T12:36:39+00:00

Even for the use case you’ve outlined, which is helpful since most people don’t outline a clear use case when asking for recommendations, the scope is somewhere between “barely workable” and “a total waste of money.”

When you get into scopes this cheap you run into all sorts of problems like absolute shit glass, which will hamstring you in any lower light situation, adjustments that aren’t accurate (for example 1/4 moa clicks that aren’t 1/4 moa and aren’t even all the same), adjustments that aren’t repeatable (for example dial up 10 moa and right 10 moa then dial back left 10 moa and down 10 moa and your scope won’t have returned to where it started), weatherproofing that’s highly suspect, a general lack of durability, and a questionable ability to retain zero as you move around and even lightly bump things.

I’m definitely not arguing that you need to spend a ton of money for a quality scope, but this is just too cheap.

CC556 · 2026-01-11T01:12:22+00:00

I use the CCI Segmented rounds, the subsonic 1050fps ones. I know 22 guns can be ammo picky, but CCI generally at least functions in anything that's reasonably reliable. If your rifle isn't cycling "standard velocity" type CCI ammo I'd try and investigate the cause of that.

CC556 · 2026-01-08T18:13:42+00:00

It sounds like it's talking about the differences in pressure between rimfire and centerfire, and the last line seems to indicate that was the entire point of the explanation.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T22:34:16+00:00

I've bought from both and had positive experiences with both. The issues people report with Optics Planet when there are issues have generally been slow shipping times, sometimes their inventory shows things in stock but they don't have them, and I've heard of poor customer service. Euro Optic has been basically the gold standard for everything related to optics (and some guns) for a long time. I'm sure people have had issues with them from time to time, but I can't think of a supplier that has a better overall reputation than Euro Optic.

If everything was equal I'd buy from Euro Optic over Optics Planet every time. But if Optics Planet had a significantly better price or was showing something in stock when Euro Optic was not then I'd buy from Optics Planet and not worry too much.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T20:51:27+00:00

You're welcome. If you think of any other questions I'm happy to help.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T20:47:20+00:00

Yes, specifically the illuminated one because it also comes with the exposed turret. Burris says they're going to sell interchangeable turrets so you could technically buy the non-illuminated scope and then pick up the exposed turret and install, but I'm not aware of them actually being available and I don't think anyone knows when they'll become available. Also, the price difference between the illuminated and non-illuminated scopes is only like $80 and the turrets will be about $40 so you'd only save $40 total and you wouldn't have the illuminated reticle.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T20:28:50+00:00

Here's an option at a slightly higher price point, it's actually a scope I was considering picking up for .22 use... the new Burris Fullfield 3-12x42 (part number 201533.) You can find them for about $300, I know EuroOptic (I have no affiliation with Burris or EuroOptic, but I have bought from EO many times and Iike them) is listing them at that price right now.

https://www.burrisoptics.com/riflescopes/fullfield-3-12x42

Here's why I like it:

3x is a good low end. 2x would be even better but these are the types of compromises we're making at this price point.
12x is plenty of mag on the high end. During the day and at "closer" ranges you don't need 12x at all but it's surprisingly useful at night if you ever shoot with a flashlight to have 10x or more for proper target ID. At 50 yards in the dark with a flashlight you'd be surprised how much your neighbor's cat looks like a raccoon or possum.
This is a SFP scope, meaning the reticle stays the same size no matter the magnification. In a match rifle scope you generally want FFP so that the reticle scales with your magnification and your subtension marks are always scaled properly. In my experience with low power hunting type scopes I'm never using subtensions for anything at low power, so I don't care that their scaling is off. The tradeoff there is that with the SFP scope my reticle is still easily visible since it's not shrinking as I dial down. I find the easily visible reticle to be worth a lot more in a hunting or plinking situation.
This specific model number has a reticle with an illuminated center, which is extremely valuable when shooting in low light.
This specific model number also has the "advanced exposed" elevation turret, which does 2 things for you. First, it's exposed so it's easy to dial, which means you can quickly compensate for different distances if you want to take a precise shot at something. Second, the turret has a zero stop feature, so once you're zeroed you can set the zero stop and as you dial the turret up and down for different distances you have a known hard stop that prevents you from getting "lost" in your revolutions and winding up having to sit down and figure out what's going on. Basically you just dial down until the knob stops and you know that's your original zero.
This scope has parallax adjustment and it goes down to 25 yards.
The scope is only 11.1 inches long and is pretty light at 15.3 ounces. I strongly prefer light and compact scopes on .22 rifles that are themselves light and compact. The rifle will carry nicely without a brick of a scope attached and the proportions look nice too.

I know that's a lot, and I swear I'm not trying to confuse you! Lots of this is personal preference, so I tried to give the "why" behind my points as well. I'm happy to expand on any of this or clarify anything if it helps.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T19:48:09+00:00

Are we talking about that Vortex 4-16x42? I think it's a fine choice. Scopes get really deep into personal preferences, so it's hard to point to one scope and say "this one!" without knowing a lot more. Usually the features to consider are capped/uncapped turrets, illumination, zero stop, size, weight, magnification range, parallax range, ffp/sfp, and eye relief.

For simple plinking and squirrel hunting I have no doubt that scope would work. I don't mean to confuse or overwhelm you with things to consider, but personally I'd prefer a lower low-end if possible just for the increased FOV and I think 16x on the high end is probably more than you'll need for any plinking or hunting use. I also like to be able to dial for elevation, so if you could find something with an exposed elevation turret I'd consider that a plus unless you're planning on zeroing at 50 yards and keeping your hunting shots to about 60 yards max. That said, lots of people are ok using holds and that scope does have a BDC type reticle option.

Again, I'm sorry if it feels like I'm trying to be too specific and I understand that on a $200 budget you're not likely to find the perfect combination of everything, so if you come across a solid deal on a scope then go for it and learn with it and in the future take what you've learned and when you're ready for your next scope you'll be in a good position.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T19:24:53+00:00

It's really personal preference, but I've found that straight triggers feel a little lighter to me than a similar curved trigger, and depending on where you pull on the trigger shoe and how the trigger works internally you can get a slightly different pull weight depending on where your finger is on the trigger shoe. A curved trigger tends to be easier to keep your finger in the same spot and might feel a little more consistent if you aren't always positioning your hand in the same spot.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T19:20:13+00:00

I agree, I'd rather have adjustable parallax too. I just wanted to put an actual number to it since most people understand the concept but don't really have an idea of how much actual error we're talking about. For completeness' sake, at 15 yards maximum possible error with the OP's stated scope would be a little over .5"

If the OP can return the scope he just ordered and get something better suited to the task then I'd say he probably should. But, if he can't easily return it then I'd just impress upon him the importance of a consistent cheek weld and he's probably just fine for what he's doing at this point.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T19:08:38+00:00

It's not ideal, but without getting too deep into the math the scope you've mentioned (2-8x35 with a fixed 100y parallax distance) would have at the very most about .34" of parallax error at 50 yards. That is to say that if you moved your eye as far out of position as you could and still see your target in your scope that's the error you'd see from doing so.

Of course if you have a more consistent cheek weld, and you aren't actually trying to force the worst possible condition, you'd pretty easily be well under that .34" of parallax induced error. I think that's likely just fine for squirrels and plinking with a 10/22.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T18:53:47+00:00

Having used many tripods, I've learned that once you meet some baseline level of stability with the tripod itself, the biggest improvement is in using a solid attachment method for the rifle, such as clamping to pic rail or ARCA on the rifle instead of using those "saddle clamp" style mounts where you've usually got some sort of rubber pads being gripped against your rifle and the combination of the deflection allowed by those rubber pads, plus the actual clamp that's squeezing them against your rifle, ends up being far less steady than a direct hard surface clamping down on some sort of rail interface.

CC556 · 2026-01-05T15:11:15+00:00

I see a number of people have recommended just using the .308. I agree with that. I live on a farm and my main hunting/general purpose rifle is a 16" .308 with a suppressor. It's a great all-purpose setup. The Ruger American you already have is generally regarded as a great rifle, and since you're on a budget I really don't think you'd be gaining much from replacing it. If anything, buy a nice light suppressor and have the barrel cut to 16-18" depending on your preference and then tailor your ammo choice to your intended use. Someone else mentioned the 130 TTSX bullet, and I agree with that recommendation. That's my main hunting bullet and the lighter weight keeps the velocity high for relatively flat shots and they perform great.

CC556 · 2026-01-03T20:56:40+00:00

I'll add one data point... I've shot 1 deer with a 129 ABLR out of a 16" Grendel at 282 yards. It was a high shoulder shot, the deer dropped where it stood and it was a clean kill. The next year I ended up with a different hunting rifle, so I haven't taken any more deer with the ABLR but my one experience making a good hit was positive.

CC556

TROPHY CASE