I shoot pests at 50 yards out my back window, so that's what I sight in at. And then I shoot at 10 yard increments out to 100 and down to 20 and measure the drop and make a dope chart taped to my gun.
Some cheap 22 scopes are parallax adjusted at 50 yards. I've found several brands that had serious parallax problems at other ranges. I thought my 22 mag was more accurate at 100 yds than the 22LR. but it was not. The LR a 50 yard parallax adjusted scope, and the 22Mag had a 2x7 Leopold with very low scope error even outside the ~150 range setting. At least now I don't blame the rifles! They're nearly equally accurate until the LR gives out of gas. Both are heavy barrel bolt guns.
Ironically I learned this when I was test shooting an M4E1 I built. I thought it was trash too until I got a proper AO scope
Because of the parallax issue there's a lot of reason to sign in at 50 depending on the scope and the application.
That being said I might in my 22LR at 75 yards because that's mostly where I use it 50 to 100 yds. There's a little bit too much rainbow at intermediate distances if I sight in at 100. Just personal taste.
The 22 mag I sight in at 100 yards. It's very capable at 150 and reasonably capable at 200 if it's not a Gusty wind day.
Agree with 50. Think about 25 or so if you really want to be precise with close in shots on pests or small critters (head shots on squirrels).
with a 50 yard zero you will have 3-7 inches of bullet drop at 100. If you do a lot of shooting at that range, then you will need to dial or work out a holdover and you will need some very consistent (higher price) ammo.
with a 100 yard zero, you are gonna be 2-3 inches high at 50 yards, which is minute of squirrel / critter adjustment and can cause a miss Or a bad hit at closer range.
again, to keep most 22s grouping well and consistently, you need to feed them good ammo. The Walmart grade cartons of plinking ammo have been very inconsistent for me in the last few years. I haven’t bothered to crono them, but based on sound, groups and gun function it seems like a fairly wide variation in powder charges. for steel challenge, and small bore silhouette matches, I tend to shoot CCI minimags or better Based on what I can find.