How much Old School is to much for a new rifle?

[M118LR]

Out of curiosity, how many times have you taken off a scope to use iron sights on a hunting rifle on a scope made in the last 10-15 years? I haven’t had one die, but I’m also not dropping my rifle down mountains. Maybe from a blind to the ground or from my shoulder to the ground if I’d trip/fall though that luckily isn’t common.

When originally testing scopes on the range for the Mini-30 I had two well known & trusted brands fail catastrophically. (Nikon & Leupold) Both times I had to remove the scope and move back to the 50 yard line to continue the range session with the standard iron sights. The goal of extended range time is to prevent catastrophic failures afield. This happened within the last 6 years. I own S&B's, Premier's, Steiner's, Leupold's, Weaver's, Nikon, and I've been issued others by Uncle Sam. Any day rifle scope made by man can, have, and will fail. It's "Murphy's Law" that if something is going to fail- it will fail when it's least convenient.

How often have you broke a BIC lighter afield? But if it's cold enough, even a fully functional BIC won't light. Now a Bic & a Zippo take up allot less space & weight than all the parts or a secondary rifle. But Varminterror is correct, I could probably get a machine shop to mill the slots & a smith to install irons, on just about any rifle I purchase. It's just a shame that Commercial Manufacturers have discarded the wishes of customers wanting such features.

I'm not sold on the semi-auto mag feed function on a bolt action carbine, so the Ruger Hawkeye is probably closer to my taste. But I probably won't ever get elected into the Ruger Fan Club even though I've used the Mini-30 for several seasons hunting. Guess if I wanted to throw money at the problem until it was solved I could purchase a Winchester Ultralight, have the barrel reduced to 16 inches and threaded for an AAC Brakeout, then have it milled and send it to a smith for a set of sights.

How about a Remington Model Seven Laminate (85963)? https://www.remington.com/rifles/bolt-action/model-seven/model-seven-laminate

The Model 7 Laminate is a serious contender. Not sure threading for an AAC Brakeout is going to happen with the stock front sight, and Stocky's has quite a selection of aramid fiber stocks for the Model 7. But the Mini-30 Tactical has proven that it's easier for me to shoot from many field positions with it's 16 inch barrel than even the 18 inch barrel on the Lever Action 30-30 it supplanted.

About the only thing that I'm positive of: I'll be bolting the Weaver Scope to whichever rifle with the lowest DNZ Game Reaper Mount possible.

 

[entropy]

I hunted the northeast quadrant and around the eastern edge of the Solitario country for some 30 years. Some slips and falls. No scope failures.

I've been there; rough country. My Dad lives in Alpine, Took us all around down your way; Terlingua, (I blinked, didn't see much) Lajitas, nice restaurant there, best fajitas I ever had. Had to go see the movie set and the Rio, of course.

 

[Bushpilot]

Had to go see the movie set and the Rio, of course.

Entrope, what movie?

 

[entropy]

Entrope, what movie?

Contrabando.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/13583

 

[Bushpilot]

^^^ Thanks entropy...

 

[Art Eatman]

First use was "Uphill All The Way". Later, at least one of the "Lonesome Dove" series. The site is in the Big Bend Ranch State Park, a few miles west of the Lajitas tourist trap (locally known as Lahideous).

 

[CraigC]

It's like anything else, you're playing the odds. $*&^% happens and scopes fail. Iif you've never had it happen, count yourself lucky. I've had several fail, although most were of the less expensive variety. With modern optics it happens less often than it used to and the better they are, the less likely it is to happen. If it does, it's not a big deal if you're deer hunting an hour from home, then it's just an inconvenience. Might be a little different if you're spending $10,000 on an elk hunt, $20,000 on brown bear and moose in Alaska, or $50,000 on a 21 day safari in Africa. Insurance is a good idea and iron sights on a scoped rifle are cheap insurance. As would be a pre-zeroed spare scope or even a fully capable spare rifle. You just have to decide what risks you want to expend the effort to minimize. Personally, if I'm spending that much on a hunt, I want insurance, just in case "it" happens. Don't you carry a pistol when you leave the house, just in case "it" happens?




I even go to some trouble to have backup iron sights on hunting revolvers.