Hello all. I'm awaiting my new .17 HMR rifle and I'm torn between scopes. I want to say this rifle will be used primarily at the range punching paper with limited or occasional days afield. I have a Kahles 2-7x36 scope with no home, but given the performance of this round I may be better off with a higher magnification scope for the distant paper punching and challenges. I was leaning towards the Leupold VX-II 6-18x40mm scope for my purpose. I was also told I should probably look into one of Leupold's EFR scopes such as the VX-III 6.5-20x40mm scope since this is a rimfire and you can take the focusing distance down to 10m.

Should I be concerned with EFR (extended focus range) scopes in my case? Yes, I'll be shooting at distances from 50 yards to 200 yards. I'd hate to purchase a higher magnification scope and wish I hadn't. I'm used to big game scopes with lower magnification, but then again we are talking smaller targets at greater distances.

I'm curious to see what others have to say about the scopes mentioned and the .17 HMR.

Thanks,

Craig

I have an old Leupold Vari-X II 4-12x on 1 and a Sightron 3-9x40 on another. I don't shoot anything over 150+/- yards with a 17 HMR, so either of those scopes works fine. I have 2-7x Nikon ProStaffs on my 17 HM2 and 22 Magnum.

Jeff

I looked at the Leupold VX-I 4-12x40 as an option last night and the price is definately better. I'm used to "click" adjustments versus "friction" adjustments, so I wasn't sure if this should matter. Probably not.

I also noticed a couple 4-12 Leupolds (on the net) had Adjustable Objectives for Parallax. What yardages are they for? If 50 yards is the lowest, then I'm set and don't have to worry about EFR.

Thanks

I just got back from shooting mine in WY at prarie dogs. I used a BSA sweet 17 scope and could find nothing to complain about. The scope has BDC dials which made it real easy to hit them out to 225 yds. Windage was another matter entirely. I had serious reservations about buying a BSA product but I have to say that I cannot fault it's performance. The dials were very accurate & repeatable. I have the 3-12x40mm.

I bought my son the Thumbhole stock Savage. We put on a 3x9x40 Bushnell Trophy. It's a nice setup, not too much money.

I have a Leupold Rifleman 4-12 on my CZ. Works great.

I had a Nikon Prostaff 3-9x40 on mine. It worked fine until I put a 6-20x50 Barska on it. That didn't work so well because the Barska left a bit to be desired in the quality department. A 3-9x is probably plenty, but if you have an accurate one, and some of these rifles are shockingly accurate, you might want a bit more magnification than that.

If you aren't shooting inside 50 yards, you certainly don't need to spend the $$$ for a Leupold EFR scope. Especially since there are plenty of decent scopes that will focus inside that range without spending extra.

LWD

4X12 Leupold, Friction or click should not make any difference, objective adjusts to 25 yds. I think these are great scopes. Have one on a 22, and one on a 22-250. My HMR's have 6X18 Leupolds,