New fangled glass sighting device.

I am with you on handguns but not on rifles. Scoped handguns and I have never been able to come to terms for some reason and I have given up on them.. Red dots, OK, scopes, NO.

I'm with you. I guess I am from the school of "if you do it the hard way, then the easy way becomes super-easy". Probably a result of shooting mostly rimfire, where irons are just fine for casual plinking.

Your irons will always be there, and they won't fog up or lose zero. Even my centerfires wear receiver sights, mostly. I have two rifles with a scope - mostly because they came with them already installed.


That being said - the guns I shoot are mostly short-range. Plus, I am not hunting. If I was regularly trying to make clean hunting shots at much more than 150 yards or so, or were serious about any other long range shooting endeavors then I would gladly welcome a scope and what it brings to the table.

Depends entirely on the platform. I tried adding a optic to an M1 Garand and took it right off for aesthetic reasons. Same with a lot of classic rifles -- where possible they get receiver sights, but only when they stay true to the platform.



And classic rifles get classic scopes, but then I haven't hunted since the 1980s.



New rifles, yeah they get glass of one sort or another -- I no longer have the vision of a twenty-something.

Im with @Dave DeLaurant, it really depends.
In use I really dislike irons, but aesthetically certain guns look wierd(ish) without them.....and some guns look wierd with scopes on them, no matter how much i prefer them as sighting systems.

Just a note, open/iron sight really arnt any less likely to be damaged, or lose zero for that matter, than a good optic.
Ive seen way more busted/bent/loose irons sights than i have scopes.

I love irons on pistols and most rifles.

As I got older, I had to start using 1.0 diopter shooting glasses to shoot the pistols and switched most of the open sighted rifles to peep sights. And as I continue to get older, a lot of irons are being replaced with various types of optics. I guess it depends on your vision and luck in the genetic lottery!

All my fun guns have peep sights. The guns that I grab just to go plinking and have fun and blow off some steam with no particular purpose. But the reality of my eyesight means I use scopes for anything that really matters because I can't hardly see anything well enough to shoot past 30 yards with iron sights. Peep sights extend that out to maybe 100. I would never give up the advantage of being able to see well when deer hunting.

Bazoo said:

Interesting replies, thanks all. Aesthetically, most guns look better with irons. But a Marlin 60 looks better with a scope.

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To each his own

Really a marlin 60 like 10/22 was born not to wear a scope.

A shorter lever is ideal without a scope and a bolt action born for a scope.

All look good with mrd.

I have really tried to get into red dots on pistols because my eyes are making that increasingly difficult, but I am still not really proficient with them and end up hunting for the dot. I do like a 2x or 3x scope on a handgun alot.

For me, it depends on the rifle. As I don't own any sniper models, I wouldn't mount a scope on a milsurp. I personally wouldn't consider scoping any of my lever guns. My bolt action rifles all have scopes.

Peeps for the win!

For the last 15-20 years I've needing reading glasses up close but didn't need glasses for distance. With readers I could see the sights, but not the target. Without glasses I could see the target, but not the sights. I basically gave up on irons on rifles, I could always focus a scope for my eyes. I was still shooting a handgun well enough.

I've tried dot sights and they just don't work for me. A low powered scope does everything better for me.

But about a year ago my vision reached the point where bi-focals were needed. I can now see well enough to make irons work. Not like when I was in my 20's, but they are now usable. And I've improved my handgun shooting.

For hunting, or most any serious work, I'll still take optics, but for some rifles where weight and compact size is more important I'm moving back to irons on a couple of rifles. I have 3 AR's, all scoped, but I'm going to remove the scope on one and replace it with a rear sight.

And I have installed a rear peep on one of my 10-22's. I may move back to scopes, but I'm looking forward to trying irons again.

The only scopes mounted in my collection are on my current elk rifle, my old elk rifle, my Dad's old elk rifle, and my Grandpa's old elk rifle. Everything else is iron sights- both peep or open.

When I was a kid, I wore out BB guns. My favorite was the old Daisy 880 Powerline model with the metal receiver and smooth bore (the rifled bores would put an "English spin" on a BB and cause it to veer off like a curveball). I literally wore them out from shooting them so much.

If I didn't shoot a million BBs when I was a kid, then I came awfully damn close.

All my BB guns had iron sights. I got really, really proficient with iron sights.

I don't like scopes because I don't like looking through a tube. I like the wide open field of view that iron sights allow.

But now that I'm a grumpy old guy, and my eyes aren't what they used to be, I'm starting to outfit my guns with optics.

Dag-nab-it!

Shawn Dodson said:

When I was a kid, I wore out BB guns. My favorite was the old Daisy 880 Powerline model with the metal receiver and smooth bore (the rifled bores would put an "English spin" on a BB and cause it to veer off like a curveball). I literally wore them out from shooting them so much.

If I didn't shoot a million BBs when I was a kid, then I came awfully damn close.

All my BB guns had iron sights. I got really, really proficient with iron sights.

Dag-nab-it!

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I had a similar childhood shooting experience, except my Daisy BB guns were all the spring powered ones; I never stepped up to a multi-pump model. In a fit of nostalgia, I rehabbed my old Daisy Model 25, which I found in the attic when I emptied my departed mom's house several years back. I was disappointed to find that it wasn't anywhere close to as accurate as I remember. So, I bought some new BB guns. The 880s now have rifled barrels, so they're good for pellets but poor with BBs. The Model 35 is the smoothbore multi-pump. It is surprisingly accurate. I suggest you get one and try to relive your childhood!

......

They were my favorite as well.

I am purely function over form. A scope increases the functionality of a rifle considerably over the best open sights. If the scope fits the purpose of the rifle then I do not care how it looks. Even before I needed glasses I preferred a scope for both accuracy and speed. Now that I wear glasses there really is no way other than with a scope for serious shooting. Looks are secondary.

I have a couple of Daisy Red Ryder BB guns I keep for running off pests - cats, squirrels, etc. (I don't shoot them, I shoot near them just to scare them away).

I'll look into that model 35. The newer Daisy 880-type air rifles have cheap plastic receivers that easily break and, like you noted, rifled barrels. Thanks!

3Crows said:

I am purely function over form. A scope increases the functionality of a rifle considerably over the best open sights. If the scope fits the purpose of the rifle then I do not care how it looks. Even before I needed glasses I preferred a scope for both accuracy and speed. Now that I wear glasses there really is no way other than with a scope for serious shooting. Looks are secondary.

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I agree with all of this, except I might counter the final statement - I’ve found so much advantage for scopes that a rifle without a scope even LOOKS less useful to me, and a rifle with irons installed LOOKS like a rifle with a vestigial defect.

Varminterror said:

I agree with all of this, except I might counter the final statement - I’ve found so much advantage for scopes that a rifle without a scope even LOOKS less useful to me, and a rifle with irons installed LOOKS like a rifle with a vestigial defect.

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Blast-phemy!

A long time ago I got into an argument about bait fishing versus fly fishing. The bait guy made point after point about how the biggest fish and easiest fish almost always went to the bait caster. In the end I simply noted that if you just wanted a fish the easiest and cheapest way was to go to the grocery store.

Which is about how I feel about scopes.

At 69 years old, scopes for the win!

I have scopes on almost all my long guns as well as my Contender. Not, never, on my 94 and soon coming off my 336.

PapaG said:

I have scopes on almost all my long guns as well as my Contender. Not, never, on my 94 and soon coming off my 336.

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I felt that way about my '94 after having put a scope on it. I took it off, and that deer season, I missed the biggest buck I'd ever seen when my bullet was deflected by a branch I didn't notice (probably wouldn't have happened with the scope on). I sawed off that section of branch and kept it for years as a reminder.