I'd like to see a budget bolt rifle offered in .35 Whelen. I know it's not going to happen though. The late Marlin X7 would've been perfect. I would've topped one with a Leupold Rifleman which I don't think they make anymore but has worked well for me.
You guys must be blind as bats. I still hunt irons on my Win. 30-30's and mt T/C Hawken every season and I can and do still kill deer with them in dark hemlock forest early and late right to the limits of legal hunting hours. Granted you do need highly visible irons, which is why mine all wear fiber optics these days but I do think this "have to have great optics" shyt is just an excuse to not practice or even try irons by many hunters today. Also, for chrissakes the way many talk you'd think the only time you can kill deer is before sunrise or after sunset. Sheesh.
The good shooting, smooth operating cheap rifles like Tikka and RAR are gradually taking the appeal away from an expensive gunsmithed M700 with custom barrel, custom trigger, and stocks that don't shoot much if any better.
I assume that when someone says they cant see iron sights very well, they are telling the truth.
I tend to think most haven't tried many options and the majority just prefer scopes anyway. Lots of folks these days have never really used anything but scopes right from the get go.
This thread reminds me of an old steel-tube K-4 Weaver I had for many years.
It wasn't the brightest scope around, but I had it a long time, put it on several rifles and 12 gauge slug guns, and it never, ever shifted zero, fogged, or caused a minute's trouble over the years I owned it.
I'd still have it, but it, and the 10/22 it was on, at the time, got stolen.
Early on, I cracked the ocular lens, and even after 20+ years, it still never caused any issues at all. I finally sent it to El Paso and got the lens replaced. It came back, like new, and still never gave me any trouble at all.
I'm sure an alpha Euro scope would be brighter, but I never lost an animal I shot at, with this scope, either. IIRC, I paid $69.95 for it, back around 1978.
I wish I had bought a truckload of the danged things. I bought a K-6 a year or two later, and had equally excellent luck with it, too. Maybe I should have bought TWO truckloads of them.
Last edited by ratsmacker; 09/24/16.
You can roll a turd in peanuts, dip it in chocolate, and it still ain't no damn Baby Ruth.
The good shooting, smooth operating cheap rifles like Tikka and RAR are gradually taking the appeal away from an expensive gunsmithed M700 with custom barrel, custom trigger, and stocks that don't shoot much if any better.
While I said what I said above about acceptable accuracy, i'll also note that as long as I"ve not been talked into a douglas barrel, my smithed 700s all shoot around .5 moa and under CONSISTENTLY, and at yardage, which is generally speaking, quite a bit, IMHO, better than factory rifles...
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
I hunt irons sometimes. I have a Lyman Deerstalker flintlock with a TC peep sight on it. I've touched the front sight with some white fingernail polish. Also have a 1950 Marlin 35 Rem sport carbine with a Redfield peep sight I use. However, at very first or last legal light in thick cover, range is limited vs a Scope, especially with overcast skies.
I hunt irons sometimes. I have a Lyman Deerstalker flintlock with a TC peep sight on it. I've touched the front sight with some white fingernail polish. Also have a 1950 Marlin 35 Rem sport carbine with a Redfield peep sight I use. However, at very first or last legal light in thick cover, range is limited vs a Scope, especially with overcast skies.
A white front sight helps alot with visibility when compared to black or a brass or silver bead. I've found the fluorsecent green fiber optic puts them all to shame at least for me.
There are ways to make irons stand out. They also lessen your overall max distance... I tend to keep my sights square and blackened so I can make precise shots.
Thats not needed or desired at dusk, but we pick our battles.
The bright front sight edges blurr so badly, that you can't define the front sight perfectly, hence the lessened accuracy. Yet at 25 yards we don't even really need sights actually...
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
There are ways to make irons stand out. They also lessen your overall max distance... I tend to keep my sights square and blackened so I can make precise shots.
Thats not needed or desired at dusk, but we pick our battles.
The bright front sight edges blurr so badly, that you can't define the front sight perfectly, hence the lessened accuracy. Yet at 25 yards we don't even really need sights actually...
Perhaps, but I killed two woodchucks one right after the other at 120 yards this summer with my 94 and it's green fiber optic front sight. Shot the first one and the other took off for it's hole but stopped right at the entrance to see what happened and I clobbered him too. I don't know how many times you need to shoot further than 120 yards in the woods where you live but around here it's pretty close to never.
Not all of us think the Winchester 94 was the end all be all of rifle design. And a bolt action .300 with irons only would be pretty lame.
Hunting deer in the woods around here with a bolt action .300 would be pretty lame. Tough to beat a 94 or if you prefer scopes, a 336 for deer in the woods. I've got scoped bolt actions in several chamberings {.223, .243, .308, .30-06} but they mostly stay home while the levers go hunting { I do still take the .223 out to do some "stunt shooting" sometimes}. My tags get filled every year.
Haha! Yeah, its pretty bare out here, and I aint no Matthew Quigley!
We dont need a long range gun out here either, but it sure helps sometimes.
Off topic, it is kind of funny that my great grandfather ended up out here. We Conrads hail from Boone Township, Harrison County Indiana.
Where he homesteaded is pretty much the polar opposite of Laconia, Indiana.
I live, almost literally, right across the Ohio River from Laconia, and used to live in Elizabeth, just up the road. Yep, that area is pretty tight quarters, hardly any place at all for anything long range. I had to fight and scratch to get 300 yards for any kind of riflery at all. I moved across the river, mostly, because it was closer to work, and because there was more opportunity to use the rifles I owned. Now, Indiana has legalized rifles for deer, and there are still a LOT of deer around Laconia.
You can roll a turd in peanuts, dip it in chocolate, and it still ain't no damn Baby Ruth.
Thats cool. I plan on heading down there some day to visit the ancient land of the Conrad.
Has to be lots of history down there, and it would be the kind of country that I have never seen before. My great, great grandmother was a Brandenburg. Her Uncle started the town of Brandenburg, Kentucky.
The Conrad's that shot all the Whitecaps were cousins. Thats an interesting story, The Whitecaps, if one is interested in Historical stuff.
When dad went to Armor Officer Basic he got to spend a lot of time down there, I would like to as well.
