Yep, that little Ruger is nice and so is my buddies short action Browning A bolt in 7-08. There are lots of choices in compact bolt guns that can do all and in good do all calibers not limited to 100 yards.
On the glass thing, yeah, drop your scope on a rock, and, well, you'd better check it out at a range before continuing. If it doesn't BREAK the scope, it's likely to knock it off zero if the fall is good enough, don't care how much the scope costs. I do believe in quality scopes and consider my KV minimal, but high quality enough to suit me. There's a point, around 400 or 500 bucks in scopes where you reach a point of diminishing returns. There are some good 200 dollar scopes out there, but I've had a cheap Simmons just go to crap on me from recoil forces, not from a drop. I won't do cheap any longer, sub-100 dollar, even though I have some really good Bushnell sportviews, well, strong scopes anyway. The optics suffer with price in the Bushnell line, but the scopes can handle the recoil at least. I steer way clear of Simmons (the one that screwed up on me) and don't care for Tasco, BSA, anything that cheap. Missing a deer and finding out it's the scope just sux. I sighted that Weaver in 10 years ago when I got it and every year I go to the range and it's still dead on, bouncing along in my old Toyota, even a boat trip once, and it's still dead on. But, I wouldn't have a good feeling if I dropped it on a rock.
When I put that rifle together, I put Millett steel rings and mount on it and got millett "scope topper" top rings with a set of iron sights built in. The sights have all of 4" of sight radius and are way high over the scope to be useful quickly, but I had 'em layin' around for use on a Contender barrel and just decided I'd put 'em on the rifle, instead. Should I whack the scope in the field, I'd still be able to hit out to 100 yards with those sights until I could get to a range to sight back in, but I've never had the problem. I don't go around whackin' the gun on stuff. Personally, the scope is so much better a sighting system than irons, so much quicker on target with no alignment of multiple focus points, and much better in low light when you can't even see irons. The M7 didn't even come drilled and tapped for irons, but if it had irons, I would not use see through mounts. I want the scope mounted where it falls naturally in front of my eye with a normal cheek weld on the gun. The irons are just back up. See through mounts mess up the scope alignment and are fugly, too. I have a buddy that likes see throughs and has a Browning BAR in 300 win mag with see throughs and a 4x16 or something stupid on it. I've argued with him over the stupidity of that set up, LOL, but he likes it and it's his gun. I wouldn't set it up like that if it were mine, though. I don't particularly like the gun, for that matter, weighs a ton, long and bulky in a blind or stand, and the caliber is excessive for anything I'll ever hunt. But, everyone has their own ideas about what they like, I guess.
