Vortex Crossfire II 2-7x32 Rimfire Review

Parallax error is the apparent shift in the reticle against the target when your eye is not perfectly centred behind the scope. It is zero exactly at the distance the parallax is set for and grows in both directions away from it. The table below uses a modest 0.1 inch eye offset, a typical amount of off-centre eye position rather than a measurement of any one shooter's head position, to show how that error moves depending on where the parallax is fixed.

A centrefire hunting scope's 100 yard parallax setting matches where most of those rifles are actually zeroed and shot. A rimfire scope shares none of that overlap: squirrel hunting, plinking and rimfire steel matches happen mostly between 25 and 75 yards, which is exactly the band a 100 yard parallax setting gets wrong. See the full computed breakdown of a scope parallax set at 50 yards against a target at 50 yards next to the same scope's error with its parallax fixed at 100 yards instead to see the exact size of the correction this scope is built to avoid.

Vortex publishes a 2-7x magnification range, a 32mm objective, a 25.4mm, or 1 inch, tube, a second focal plane V-Plex reticle and capped, resettable turrets for this model. Full figures are on the Crossfire II 2-7x32 Rimfire spec sheet. None of that is unusual for a budget rimfire scope. The parallax setting is the one line on the sheet that actually changes how the scope behaves rather than just how it looks.

The recurring positive theme is exactly what the price suggests should not be reliable: turrets that hold zero across a season of plinking and small game hunting, and Vortex's transferable lifetime warranty backing a genuinely cheap scope the same way it backs a $600 one. Owners consistently describe the image as bright enough for daylight rimfire shooting and noticeably dimmer than the pricier Diamondback rimfire scope at 7x.

The recurring caution is the eyepiece's forgiveness at the top of the zoom range: several reviews describe needing to hold a more precise head position at 7x than at 2x to avoid the exact parallax shadowing this review's table describes, which is consistent with a fixed rather than adjustable parallax design.

A fixed parallax setting is a trade, not a defect: it is correct exactly at 50 yards and increasingly wrong the further a shot happens from it, in either direction. Rimfire steel matches and squirrel hunting that stretch past 100 yards put this scope back into the same error band a centrefire scope creates for a .22 shot up close, just measured from the other side of the setting. A shooter who regularly shoots rimfire well past 75 yards needs an adjustable objective, not a scope fixed at any single distance.

The 32mm objective is the other honest limit: it is enough for daylight plinking and normal-light hunting, but it gives up real brightness at dawn, dusk and in deep cover compared with the 35mm objective on Vortex's own Diamondback rimfire model in the identical 2-7x configuration.

If the 32mm objective is the limiting factor, the Vortex Diamondback 2-7x35 Rimfire at $239.00 keeps the same rimfire-specific parallax idea with a larger objective and better glass. If you regularly shoot rimfire steel or small game well past 75 yards, the TRACT 22 FIRE 4-12x40 at $324.00 adds real magnification and a rimfire-specific BDC reticle for that longer window instead of a single fixed setting.