Budget close range pesting optic(parallax <=5yds)

Jump to latest Follow Reply
S

slickmamba

Member
Aug 14, 2025
29
20
Hey AGN,
Looking for a solid budget pesting optic for my dad to use in his backyard, almost everything will be in the 3-15yd range, with the longest shots being maybe 20yds. I was drawn to the bugbuster because it goes down to 3yds which I think would be pretty useful for him around the fruit trees and around the chicken coop.

Its hard to find the minimum parallax for lots of these budget optics, and so far I've found a few like the hawke 2-7, utg bugbuster 3-9, some vectors(2-6x32AO), discovery, and a few other chinese brands I've run into. Just wanted to get what people here would recommend instead of me trying to randomly source info around the internet.

I'm new to all of this, so maybe a 10yd min parallax is still completely usable even at 3-5yds.

Thanks!
 
Struckat said:
Many of mine are very usable inside 10 yards. As long as I know the hold over LOL

I have had both the Bug and the Hawke 2-7. Both work well inside 10Y
Click to expand...
Yeah these seem great, I was just seeing if there were other recommendations out there that might be better or more budget options. I saw people liked the UUQ offerings on amazon, and some other cv-life or something.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chasdog
Upvote 0
boscoebrea said:
that close ,won't a red dot work better?
Click to expand...
I really have no idea, I've seen red dots or fixed scope(2/3/4x) recommended. I am very new to this so don't know what would be ideal. Dad is pretty old, so I thought more zoom would help him acquire the pests and take better humane shots. Its mostly mice/rats at night, squirrels/gophers during the day, and a maybe a raccoon once or twice a year.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Chasdog
Upvote 0
Ranchibi said:
I have a Discovery HD 2-12x24 FFP that focuses under 10yds....about 190 off of amazon. It's small, compact and 16oz.

DISCOVERYOPT HD 2-12X24 Rifle Scope with Parallax Adjustment, MPVO Lightweight Hunting Scope with Illuminated Reticle, First Focal Plane Rifle Scope 30mm Tube https://a.co/d/6lMEo01
Click to expand...
Good choice I was looking at that Scope myself
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chasdog and Ranchibi
Upvote 0
slickmamba said:
Hey AGN,
Looking for a solid budget pesting optic for my dad to use in his backyard, almost everything will be in the 3-15yd range, with the longest shots being maybe 20yds. I was drawn to the bugbuster because it goes down to 3yds which I think would be pretty useful for him around the fruit trees and around the chicken coop.

Its hard to find the minimum parallax for lots of these budget optics, and so far I've found a few like the hawke 2-7, utg bugbuster 3-9, some vectors(2-6x32AO), discovery, and a few other chinese brands I've run into. Just wanted to get what people here would recommend instead of me trying to randomly source info around the internet.

I'm new to all of this, so maybe a 10yd min parallax is still completely usable even at 3-5yds.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I recently bought a Daisy 901 pump-up gun and my buddy bought his second Daisy 880 pumper (his first one is decades old and needs new seals). For me it's just for attempting to shoot precision pin-point hits on tiny targets that have x-rings less than half the diameter of a .177 pellet at 20 yards, which is all the farther I can shoot in my in-town back yard from my porch. For my buddy, it's for that too, but also for dispatching squirrels at close range in his yard (squirrels eating his peaches and such). Although it seems like a really big scope for a plasticy Daisy pumper shooting .177 pellets, the CVLife 3-9x40AO scope is really nice from Amazon. It comes with your choice of 11mm dovetail rings or 20mm picatinny rings. Although the reticle is a bit thick, it's not excessively thick when the magnification is cranked up to 9x -- and 9x is actually usable on this scope if you can hold it still and adjust the diopter and objective lens (parallax correction and focus) properly. When shooting from my back-porch table using a Caldwell Stinger bench rest, I can often times shoot 3 pellets in a row into the same hole with this scope at 9x with my 901. Although they say this scope can focus down to 10 yards (at 9x), you can back off the magnification to 3x and focus down to about 3 yards. I bought one of these for my 901 and liked enough to buy a second one later for my friend's 880. Sometimes when you make turret adjustments, the actual movement of the erector doesn't happen until the scope has been subjected to a vibration, so you don't see the change in impact point until the second shot after the adjustment. This is typical of cheap scopes -- not a defect. But it does hold zero once you get it where you want it.

Here's the amazon link:

stovepipe
 
Upvote 0
stovepipe said:
I recently bought a Daisy 901 pump-up gun and my buddy bought his second Daisy 880 pumper (his first one is decades old and needs new seals). For me it's just for attempting to shoot precision pin-point hits on tiny targets that have x-rings less than half the diameter of a .177 pellet at 20 yards, which is all the farther I can shoot in my in-town back yard from my porch. For my buddy, it's for that too, but also for dispatching squirrels at close range in his yard (squirrels eating his peaches and such). Although it seems like a really big scope for a plasticy Daisy pumper shooting .177 pellets, the CVLife 3-9x40AO scope is really nice from Amazon. It comes with your choice of 11mm dovetail rings or 20mm picatinny rings. Although the reticle is a bit thick, it's not excessively thick when the magnification is cranked up to 9x -- and 9x is actually usable on this scope if you can hold it still and adjust the diopter and objective lens (parallax correction and focus) properly. When shooting from my back-porch table using a Caldwell Stinger bench rest, I can often times shoot 3 pellets in a row into the same hole with this scope at 9x with my 901. Although they say this scope can focus down to 10 yards (at 9x), you can back off the magnification to 3x and focus down to about 3 yards. I bought one of these for my 901 and liked enough to buy a second one later for my friend's 880. Sometimes when you make turret adjustments, the actual movement of the erector doesn't happen until the scope has been subjected to a vibration, so you don't see the change in impact point until the second shot after the adjustment. This is typical of cheap scopes -- not a defect. But it does hold zero once you get it where you want it.

Here's the amazon link:

stovepipe
Click to expand...
Hey thanks for the recommendation, this was one of the ones I was looking at, the CVlife 3-9x, the similar UUQ one, and the similar victoptics ones. My only issue is that the CVlife has a minimum of 10y parallax, would you say that its still usable in the <10yard range, some of his shots will be much closer range like 3-5yds and I wasn't sure how bad the focus would look.

Was also considering the cheap fixed 4x32 CVLife one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chasdog
Upvote 0
slickmamba said:
Hey thanks for the recommendation, this was one of the ones I was looking at, the CVlife 3-9x, the similar UUQ one, and the similar victoptics ones. My only issue is that the CVlife has a minimum of 10y parallax, would you say that its still usable in the <10yard range, some of his shots will be much closer range like 3-5yds and I wasn't sure how bad the focus would look.

Was also considering the cheap fixed 4x32 CVLife one.
Click to expand...
Forget the non AO version. You want the CVLife 3-9x40AO (AO meaning adjustable objective lens -- meaning focus and parallax correction). The specs say parallax correction down to 10 yards, BUT that's at the full 9x magnification. If you dial down the magnification to 3x magnification, you can focus and correct parallax at about 3 yards. This info is from ME actually using it -- not some hear-say. If you are shooting something that is only 3 yards away, you don't need 9x magnification. It's not a junk scope -- it's pretty solid (although not made for spring-piston rifles -- pcp and multi-pump pneumatics and rim-fire are OK with it). The scope rings that come with it are good enough for a rifle that doesn't have much recoil. At $39 for the one that comes with 20mm picatinny rings or $43 for the one that comes with 11mm dovetail rings, I don't think there is a better fit for the situation you are describing.

stovepipe

P.S.
Just to verify my claim as to minimum focusing, I just now laid out a tape measure across the floor of my living room to 9 feet. I stood with the rifle with the CVLife 3-9x40AO mounted with the muzzle of the rifle at the 9 foot mark. I set the magnification to 3x and focused the AO to minimum. The tape measure at 9 feet away on the floor was perfectly in focus. As I looked at the tape measure closer and closer to my feet through the scope, the tape measure got more and more out of focus. This was wearing my driving glasses, which give me normal vision. If I take off my glasses, I can focus closer than 9 feet because I'm near-sighted.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Chasdog, MongooseV8, JungleShooter and 1 other person
Upvote 0
slickmamba said:
Hey thanks for the recommendation, this was one of the ones I was looking at, the CVlife 3-9x, the similar UUQ one, and the similar victoptics ones. My only issue is that the CVlife has a minimum of 10y parallax, would you say that its still usable in the <10yard range, some of his shots will be much closer range like 3-5yds and I wasn't sure how bad the focus would look.

Was also considering the cheap fixed 4x32 CVLife one.
Click to expand...
Hi slickmamba. Check out my P.S. (verification of minimum focus) in post number 13.

stovepipe
 
  • Like
Reactions: slickmamba
Upvote 0
stovepipe said:
Forget the non AO version. You want the CVLife 3-9x40AO (AO meaning adjustable objective lens -- meaning focus and parallax correction). The specs say parallax correction down to 10 yards, BUT that's at the full 9x magnification. If you dial down the magnification to 3x magnification, you can focus and correct parallax at about 3 yards. This info is from ME actually using it -- not some hear-say. If you are shooting something that is only 3 yards away, you don't need 9x magnification. It's not a junk scope -- it's pretty solid (although not made for spring-piston rifles -- pcp and multi-pump pneumatics and rim-fire are OK with it). The scope rings that come with it are good enough for a rifle that doesn't have much recoil. At $39 for the one that comes with 20mm picatinny rings or $43 for the one that comes with 11mm dovetail rings, I don't think there is a better fit for the situation you are describing.

stovepipe

P.S.
Just to verify my claim as to minimum focusing, I just now laid out a tape measure across the floor of my living room to 9 feet. I stood with the rifle with the CVLife 3-9x40AO mounted with the muzzle of the rifle at the 9 foot mark. I set the magnification to 3x and focused the AO to minimum. The tape measure at 9 feet away on the floor was perfectly in focus. As I looked at the tape measure closer and closer to my feet through the scope, the tape measure got more and more out of focus. This was wearing my driving glasses, which give me normal vision. If I take off my glasses, I can focus closer than 9 feet because I'm near-sighted.
Click to expand...
Yes sorry they are all the AO versions for the parallax adjustment I just didn't type it in. Wow yeah the info about being able to focus at 3x when you're not fully zoomed in very useful, would help me some some cash for a compressor.

Thanks alot for putting in the work, I really appreciate it, opens up the options for sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stovepipe and Chasdog
Upvote 0
+1 for the Discovery 2-12x24. The UTG bugbusters are also good choices in that same price range. A few of the UTGs with AO like the 3-9x40AO will adjust down to 5 yards, but the reticle may or may not have enough hold over points to be useful to you. The only disadvantage to the discovery is that it's a FFP scope with a low detail reticle on lower magnification, so if you need precise holdover, you're confined to working with the upper half of the magnification range to easily see reticle details. I personally don't have any issues with keeping the scope between 9-12x for close range shots, but your preferences may vary.

How usable a scope is below the minimum parallax distance does vary based upon the magnification. A 6-24x50 may focus down to 10 yards, but even at lower magnifications will likely struggle much below ~7 yards at 6x. A 3-9x40AO with a minimum parallax of 10 yards will probably still be usable at 3x or 4x at 5 yards.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chasdog
Upvote 0
The range is so close that I would want a light, small scope. It does not need to go above four power, in my opinion. Why not just use open sights? Plus, it would seem one would want a fast sight picture.....,.light,bright,fast ,close focus.
Is there a problem with eye sight?,what is old? The Bug Buster is a good scope.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chasdog and slickmamba
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu