1X scope on Lever Gun

[Kjay]

I've always preferred iron sights on lever guns but age has caught up with me. Noticed a 1x scope and had a silly thought on why not mount a small 1x20 scope on a Winchester/Marlin. Large eye relief, huge field of view, and able to be used up close. Any thoughts?

 

[Dave Markowitz]

If you can no longer shoot irons well, why not? Another option would be some kind of a red dot sight, although these usually require batteries, which may be a negative.

OTH, how well do you handle a ghost ring peep sight? A friend has a Marlin 1894C .357 with a Williams receiver peep sight and a Firesight fiber optic front sight. It doesn't ruin the lines of the rifle like optics would, and the front sight is very bright. It gave me very fast target acquisition when I tried it.

 

[E=MC^2]

1.5X is what my 1.5-6X42 Swarovskis are usually set on. It only gets increased when shooting at night or on the range.

If you're having trouble with the irons a scope is a great alternative, though, I recently went up to Canada and had laser eye sergery performed. It's like being reborn. The $1,000 cost was covered by my health insurance through work.

 

[AZRickD]

For aging eyes, there's nothing like having the target imaged on the same focal plane as the reticle.

Rick

 

[sebago]

No reason not to if your eyes are getting weak. I had to do it too. You're on the right track with a small low powered scope like that. Some folks like a gaumy big 3-9x but it's just out of place on a levergun. I usually stick with old 2.5x and 3x Weavers. They're cheap but well made. And without the big objective bell, they look right. IMHO

 

[Northwest Cajun]

KJ
I'd suggest the scout scope set up. Mine has a Ashley mount, Leupold rings and a Burris3.75X scout scope. The ghost ring sights are from Wildwest Guns in Ak. I'm good out to 200yds with my warm loaded 45-70. I can stay on a 8" plate off hand with and without the scope. There is no change of zero either.
Here is a pic of it with me and the 4X4 Elk it knocked of it's feet

Cajun

 

[larryw]

What Cajun said: the Ashley setup is very nice. Have one on my Marlin with a 2.5X scope: very quick two-eyes-open shooting. I used the Leupold QR rings and put a peep sight in the event the scope goes stupid at the wrong time. Peep's much better than the buckhorn for our aging eyes. But the scout scope setup is IMO the way to go.

 

[PO2Hammer]

That's a very good solution. My marlin 1894 CP wears an XS scout mount. I HIGHLY recomend an optic that mounts as low as possible such as Burris's 1X ler in low rings. The scout set up has the advantage of being nowhere near the hammer, more important than you might think. I originally mounted a trijicon reflex II red dot, but it ended up so high that a cheek weld turned into a jaw weld on the stock- not very quick or comfortable. Get the 1X scope or an aimpoint that will mount low. Also Leupolds 2.5X scout scope is nice if you want a little magnification. Then a peep sight at the rear and you're all set!

 

[Kjay]

Excellent solutions - peep and low power scope. Thanks!

 

[WYO]

I can't speak to the scout scope concept, but if you want to go with a low power standard scope, there are a lot of deals on Leupold scopes because Leupold is revamping the Vari-X III and VX-II lines in 2004. Some vendors have been discounting Vari-X III's by $100-$115. I believe that Grafs still has some 1.5X5 Vari-X III's, as well as some 1X4 VX-II's. (www.grafs.com) Midway USA also has deals that pop up then disappear on their website. Other vendors such as Cabelas and SWFA don't appear to have jumped on the bandwagon yet, but I expect that they will.