Rimfire scope on centerfire rifle?

[Ned Ludd]

I recently purchased a very nice refurbished 1903-A4 Springfield (A-forgery) with the 2.5X M73 scope for use in the Vintage Sniper Rifle matches. I noticed immediately that the limiting factor in terms of precision my hands seems to be my ability to actually see the target and hold consistently with the relatively low magnification. I understand that I should not expect the same precision from this rifle that I can routinely obtain with my F-TR rifles and 32X+ scopes. Nonetheless, I am encouraged by the results of my initial outings and believe this rifle should be capable of ~1MOA precision at 100 yd, maybe a tick better. I have tested several different types of targets, and the best I can come up with at this point is quartering a 12" Shoot-N-C. However, it is far from "ideal".

For this reason, I looked into replacing the scope with one of higher magnification solely during the load development process. The problem was one of finding a scope with a 0.75" tube that will fit the mount, that also has more than 2.5X magnification. I found and purchased a 3-7X rimfire scope that I believe will work, but the next question becomes, "Will this scope actually survive the recoil when being fired from a centerfire .30-06?". The good news is that the scope only cost about $20, so if it doesn't work, it's not a big deal. Nonetheless, I'm curious whether it might withstand the heavier recoil.

What say you?

 

[xswanted]

My guess is it’ll be fine.

I’ve used a couple rimfire scopes on centerfires and had no issues. One was an etched reticle so the may have helped but I don’t believ you’ll have a problem.

 

[Homerange]

I would be hesitant to believe it will go the distance in that it might be alright for a while but I doubt the erector system that manages the vari power lense is robust enough to withstand the recoil in anything bigger than a small centerfire.
After some use careful dry firing might witness the crosshairs jump around which means it's toast.

I had this in a VX1 1-4x and sent it back to Leupold and they reworked it for free some 20+ yrs after dad bought it new. It lived that 20 yrs on a sporter 308 mostly hammered by 180's that pop loved to use.

 

[RegionRat]

I don’t know for sure about the one you found, but many 0.75” scopes won’t survive centerfire recoil because they were designed for air guns and rim fires. I think it is worth a try.

I have the same issues with the same rig. I hate that reproduction scope for the low mag, reticle, and turrets, but somehow it marginally works.

To be honest, I spent more time refitting the stock and mag well to get the gun to group. The main stock was making contact in multiple places along the middle of the bbl, and the guard was touching hard on top as well.

My magazine was making contact with the receiver, which prevented the stock from actually clamping. I had to rework that area to get a gap to insure the receiver was clamping on the stock.

After fixing all those issues, the gun stopped throwing fliers and coming loose. That reproduction scope hangs up when you go between 300 and 600, so I’ll have to work on that next.

It would be great to have a better scope to do the load development. I’ll check in if I find one.

 

[piie]

Air rifle scopes (scopes that are purposefully manufactured for air rifles) will work perfectly fine on center fire rifles - the opposite is not true though - air rifles actually produce more "impulse" recoil than a center fire rifle and will damage most "center fire" scopes. So instead of looking for rimfire scopes, perhaps also expand your selection to air rifle scopes.

 

[Ned Ludd]

I appreciate the responses! Like I said, for $20, it was worth a try, because any other "real" solution either costs a significant amount of $$$, or requires significant modification that would render the rifle illegal under the rules. Had I known the scope would be such an issue, I might have looked a little harder for a 1941A1 with the 8X Unertl reproduction scope. Regardless, I'm very happy with the rifle I have other than the low mag scope, and buying the Marine variant would likely have put me in the poor house. I looked briefly at air rifle scopes for the exact reasons piie stated, but nothing jumped out at me. Perhaps a more thorough search is warranted.

I should add that the quality/clarity of the Hi-Lux reproduction scope that came with the rifle really hasn't been the issue for me. In fact, the optics and knobs/turrets on mine seem quite good. It's just the low magnification isn't sufficient with my eyesight. I suspect that even a much higher quality scope with a larger objective might also give me similar problems if set on only 2.5X magnification. In any event, I will report back on this thread whether the rimfire scope can survive the mighty .30-06. Thanks again for your insights.

 

[Twicepop]

Now rimfire scopes are produced to be parallax free at 50-75 yards, maybe back when this scope was made it was also. Scopes for centerfire rifles are usually parallax free at 125-150 yards. Scopes of less than 12X usually don't have parallax adjustments. I don't know if this will have any bearing on the type of shooting your doing or not, but it's something to consider.