entropy
Member
K 2.5 or K3?
Scoping a lever rifle
- Thread starter wgp
- Start date
That is a 1973 K3 Micro-Trac on a Weaver base with Weaver rings. It was bought at the same time as the rifle. I also have a K2.5 on another Marlin. Yep I have been sinning against the curmudgeons who think John Wayne was a real cowboy and lever guns for some reason cannot have scopes since I was a teenager. The same ones who say lever guns are for short range only. I wonder if it might be because they cannot see a darn thing, sort of like me now.
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Pat Riot
Contributing Member
I have swapped out the traditional sights on my 2 30-30s for XS Sights white stripe front sight and the a peep/ghost ring for the rear. That white line up the middle of black front sight really stands out.
I have the XS scout scope rail with a rear peep sight (it has the ghost ring on it in these photos) and the front white stripe sight on my Marlin 336.
I have to search for the photos of the sights on my Winchester 94 carbine.
I have the XS scout scope rail with a rear peep sight (it has the ghost ring on it in these photos) and the front white stripe sight on my Marlin 336.
I have to search for the photos of the sights on my Winchester 94 carbine.
halfmoonclip
Member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2011
- Messages
- 2,769
A '94 Marlin, in .44 Mag, was my deer 'rifle' for many years. It wears a 4x scope, at least partially because it helped 'put horns' on a deer in a cluttered background.
A couple replica Winchesters wear tang sights; these are mostly for my own entertainment, though I took what will likely be my last deer with that kind of rig.
The tang sights let you focus on the front sight and the target; you really don't see the peep aperture, but it does give you more depth of field. I like irons for their simplicity and old-school vibe. And it is a PITA to scope a top ejection Winchester. IMHO, this is what drove traditional Winchester lever guns out of the market. Cowboy action shooting, and old school guys like me, have brought them back to some degree.
Moon
A couple replica Winchesters wear tang sights; these are mostly for my own entertainment, though I took what will likely be my last deer with that kind of rig.
The tang sights let you focus on the front sight and the target; you really don't see the peep aperture, but it does give you more depth of field. I like irons for their simplicity and old-school vibe. And it is a PITA to scope a top ejection Winchester. IMHO, this is what drove traditional Winchester lever guns out of the market. Cowboy action shooting, and old school guys like me, have brought them back to some degree.
Moon
halfmoonclip
Member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2011
- Messages
- 2,769
I use those 'skunk stripe' XS sights on ARs, often with a same plane aperture. This was an effort to keep it a pencil KISS 5.56, but there's also a set on an AR9. The white stripe really shows up.
It works so well that an 'ivory' bead is now on one of the tang sighted lever guns.
Moon
Have a Bushnell 1-4x20mm AK (discontinued) LPVO on my Marlin 336 stainless. I like it. Old standard was 3-9x40 or 32mm for scopes or a straight 4x, which is hard to find now kind of sucks too.
Yeah you can learn to use irons, but using an optic, makes the experience so much better these days.
Yeah you can learn to use irons, but using an optic, makes the experience so much better these days.
Yeah, pictures of my bench have generated "Wheres Waldo" Games between my friends. One picks a tool, and the others go looking for it......what amazes me is how often they actually mange to find them.....most of the time I dont know they are there unless its a really recent picture...
If i manage to get that gun figgured out with the riton ill probably pull my 4.5-14 burris timberline off my .22 and put it on there..
Rob96
Member
Scope is taboo on a lever?????? Hell I have a red dot on my Henry Big Boy X in 45 Colt.
My buddies kid put a red dot on a Henry 45 70 . He says it looks a bit funky, but, you can’t argue with the results. Hitting a dessert size paper plate at 125 yards every time. I know I can’t do that with any type of open, or aperture, sight.
41 Mag
Member
Well it appears you will be in good company, and we should all have a great time of it...
I picked up a Henry in 44 mag a couple of years back. For a while we shot it with open sights, but got serious once hunting season rolled around.
I mounted the below scope on top using a Weaver style rail, and QD rings. I also have a couple of other things that I swapped the scope over to initially. Having that option was nice, but now it just resides there.
What I really like about this particular scope is that it has that small circle in the middle which naturally draws your attention and centers it up nicely on a moving target like a running hog. Usually there are more than one, and you pick the nicest one first and then follow up with whatever you can get on after the shot. Sometimes it works out in your favor sometimes not.
We just picked up another Henry in the 360 Buckhammer. Already looking for mounts and another one of the above for it.
I have a Simmons 4x rimfire scope on my Marlin 336 30-30. The 32mm objective lets it sit lower and I can get a better eye position vs a 40+mm objective. Since I switched to cast loads in the 1100-1500 fps range, a rimfire scope seems like a good match. If I keep it scoped I will probably upgrade to a 1-4x24 or even a 2-7x32 type scope from one of the other scope manufacturers. Now that load testing is basically done, I have to decide if I want to switch back to the Williams or leave it.
I wonder if there is an extra special place for me when I die. When I first started deer hunting, I got a Winchester Model 94 30/30 and put a see through base on the receiver and a Weaver 4x scope. The base was a side mounted and I could shoot either sites or scope at the same time. The interesting thing was that when mounting the scope offset, the windage became the elevation and the elevation became the windage. The helper at the site-in was really confused. Maybe I should read Dante's Inferno and see just were I will be. lol
Steve Milbocker
Member
I’m one of those guys that can’t bring himself to put a scope on an old lever gun. Not knocking anyone who does. I can’t see the buck horns that are on my rifles either but I do get along with peeps pretty well. When I was a kid at our Northern Michigan deer camp, the old man there, in his 80s then was blind in his right eye. His son actually sawed the stock in half on his pops old 94 and glued it back together offset and side mounted a scope on it so his dad could use his left eye and still be able to shoot right handed. I wish I had a picture of it. Helluva thing to do to an old Winchester but in those days it was just a deer rifle and it worked for the old timer
chicharrones
needs more ammo
What I really like about the XS rail over the flat top Marlin/Ruger rail is that the XS rail is dished out for really low scout scope mounting.
entropy
Member
I just recently worked on a Marlin 1895 in .45-70 that a man who is blind in his right eye owns. We rigged up a scope so it sat in front of his left eye when fired from the right shoulder. It involved a Picatinny rail, a pair of 45 degree BU mounts for ARs, high rings, and mounting the scope in them at an angle that sat the scope correctly and directly in front of his left eye.
I bore sighted it, then had to zero it at 100 yards. I used a Lead Sled, sighting with my right eye, but verified with my left eye. I started zeroing at 25 yards, as I usually do. Required a few more clicks than a .223 would.
I bore sighted it, then had to zero it at 100 yards. I used a Lead Sled, sighting with my right eye, but verified with my left eye. I started zeroing at 25 yards, as I usually do. Required a few more clicks than a .223 would.
CraigC
Sixgun Nut
I've got two dozen leverguns and while I normally prefer a peep sight on them, several of them have optics. Take no issue with optics on levers conceptually but the way some folks go about it sometimes raises an eyebrow. I think a traditional tube fed levergun (i.e. not a BLR, Winchester 88 or Savage 99) should have at most a red dot, compact fixed power scope or lower powered variable mounted as low as possible. So a Marlin 336 with a 4-12x in see-thru mounts will garner a snicker or two from me, whether I say anything or not. One of my pet peeves is over-scoping a rifle and that is about the worse example. Flat-topped guns like the Marlin and Henry designs are far more conducive to optic mounting but there are now some viable options for even the top eject Winchesters. Both my 92's wear red dots on forward mounts but of course, neither is a 100yr old antique either.
EIB0879
Member
I have my beat up Marlin 336 .30-30 circa 1971 scoped with a Vortex Viper 2-7x 32mm with Versa plex (German style) reticle.
This was my first rifle that made the circuitous route back to me after I had traded it in 1977.
I love this combination and have taken a lot of deer with it over the years.
I hear a lot of Vortex hate but this is an older, discontinued scope, and has taken a beating over the years without a hiccup. The rifle, off of the bench, will regularly shoot .75" 3 shot groups with 160 gr. Leverevolution ammo. The few times that I have had deer run a few yards after shot gave me a blood trail that Stevie Wonder could follow.
This was my first rifle that made the circuitous route back to me after I had traded it in 1977.
I love this combination and have taken a lot of deer with it over the years.
I hear a lot of Vortex hate but this is an older, discontinued scope, and has taken a beating over the years without a hiccup. The rifle, off of the bench, will regularly shoot .75" 3 shot groups with 160 gr. Leverevolution ammo. The few times that I have had deer run a few yards after shot gave me a blood trail that Stevie Wonder could follow.
Evidently and please confirm, but European hunters have been going with red dot optics on their hunting rifles for a few years now. Due to the fact that it's less busy of a reticle than most scopes are these days.
As well as to reduce weight while going around the woods.
As well as to reduce weight while going around the woods.
I too prefer the Lever Rail to the Ruger version. However, I have the same Burris 2.75X scope and it does fit on both the Ruger and the Lever products though it is tight on the flat top Ruger rail version. I use Warne QR rings in low, what rings are those?
I can swap the scopes back and forth if I wanted for some odd reason. The Ruger gets the Leopold 1.5-4 with medium rings to clear the peep and the Remington gets the Burris Scout 2.75X on low rings.
These are good scopes for the money:
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I am in the "you can't hit what you can't see" camp. I have a couple of lever guns in handgun calibers that don't have optics on them, but they are what I grab just to have something with me and are usually used well within 100 yards. On lever guns that have more reach, I think they should have some sort of optic, if for no other reasons than to improve your accuracy and provide for positive identification of what you're shooting at.
There are plenty of low powered, lightweight scopes out there that sit well on a lever gun.
Man, I really wish weaver hadn't stopped making the little V3.
There are plenty of low powered, lightweight scopes out there that sit well on a lever gun.
Man, I really wish weaver hadn't stopped making the little V3.
ditmo
Member
I've got a midwest industries Ghost Ring rail w/ T1 interface on my 1895GBL. Put a sig romeo 5 on it. I loved it so much I put one on my 1894 in .357 and a 336Y. The front sight doesn't work on the 336 but I had a skinner on it and just filed it down to zero. This allows me to use a red dot for my old eyes. If the red dot dies I can still use the irons. I think its a great setup for my uses. Here's a link to it. https://midwestindustriesinc.com/marlin-1895-ghost-ring-rail-interface/
I was all about irons in my youth. Not so much anymore. Do what you gotta do to shoot accurately. I also miss the Weaver 1-3. Great little scope for the money.
I was all about irons in my youth. Not so much anymore. Do what you gotta do to shoot accurately. I also miss the Weaver 1-3. Great little scope for the money.
herrwalther
Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2013
- Messages
- 8,130
I have a scope on my Marlin 336. And I don't really care what someone else thinks of it. It works for me, makes it a better hunting rifle, and more fun to shoot.
Vortex hate? Why when I find something I like they quit making it or people hate it. Glad I only have three. Right