Got an 1894 I want to scope, but only for load development. Down at Wallyworld last week, I saw a 3X shotgun scope that I can pick up real cheap, and it got me thinking. Has anyone mounted one of these on a Scout Mount for an 1894/95? This would be a lot cheaper than buying a fancy scope just to test loads, and I have been called worse than frugal before! Surely I'm not the first cheap [email]b@$tard[/email] to think of this, anyone got any experience with it?
Papajohn the Thrifty <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Papajohn,

Great to see you here! At the old M-T many guys permanently mounted shotgun scopes on some of their rifles. I for one haven't tried one but from the other's experience it works well, especially for load development. They are suppose to be parallax adjusted to 75yds and should serve you well. For load development I use an old Tasco 1.75 X 6 and it does well for what I need. If I were you I would give it a try, what could it hurt, you could always sell it on ebay if it doesn't do like you want. By the way what is your "sight" by choice on your rifles? I have come to love the factory sights on my Marlins. Took a while to get use to them though!

Mines not a scout setup but I put a Wally world Tasco 2.75 Bantam shotgun scope on my guide gun, mostly to see what ammo it shoots best, & its held up so far. I like it, it tightened up my groups & I left it there.
I found my load & if it falls apart, I'll throw it out & put the Williams peep back on. Been thru 320 rounds with it on top so far without incident. Only shot one box of +P PMC with it on there & got a couple 3/4" group at 50 Yards. Mostly I shoot factory Rem 405's & recently PMC 405 cowboy loads. The factory loads kill deer for me so after the other PMC +P's are gone I'll probubly stick with them.
Alot of guys rib me for it but I'v had a number of Tasco, Bushnell & Simmons scopes on my guns thru the years & have had good luck with them.
Might have had different results if I was shooting guns with heavier recoil but for the shooting I do (30/30, 7mm08, 45/70)
they seem to hang in for me.
Never had one fail while hunting & I always bring more than one gun to deer camp anyhow, so I feel I'm covered.

Hey papajohn. I did exactly that on an 1894 .44 mag Marlin and it worked great. Since then I have played musical scopes And it now resides on my turkey gun. It actually made a nice package. reflex264

I have a Leopold Veri-X III 1x-5x on my .45-70 Marlin Guide Gun.

I didn't like the heavy crosshairs on most of the shotgun scopes I looked at.

Hey Fellers, it feels like old home week, good to see so many familiar names from M-T!
I guess I'll try the shotgun scope in an A-O mount, I had a Williams 5-D Peep on the 1894, but I'd rather have a scope, at least while I'm testing loads. Once I'm done I'll probably move it to my 336C in 35 Rem, for more testing. My eyes don't get along with buckhorn sights very well, the peep is a good solution for old geezers like me!
PJ

Shotgun scopes are supposed to take the recoil of 3" magnums without breaking and most rifles don't kick that hard.