I bloodied my .30/30 this year, too. Just a meat doe, though. I used a Leupold M8-4X on mine. It worked fine.

I didn't even bother to load for it, I bought "shells" at the store (the horror of it all!!!).

Mine isn't as pretty as yours, , mine has "character" as defined by the previous owner letting it rust up a bit. Shoots pretty good, though.

You can roll a turd in peanuts, dip it in chocolate, and it still ain't no damn Baby Ruth.