I have these levers and want to put a scope on them. My eye sight is bad at 100 yards but I also want to see how accurate these big bores are. I have a base somewhere but cannot find it. So I might have to go ahead and order new base/rings. Thus my query on what ya all use.

I've had good luck with Talley Lightweights.

I did lap them to get a high percentage of contact with the scope so they wouldn't move in the rings, but I pretty much do that with any new set of rings. The Talleys did seem to have some amount of misalignment, but being aluminum, they lapped easily.

Midway has..or had a Weaver Grand Slam turn in style for $12

closeout.....

My 1895 has a Leupold 1-4X shotgun scope with heavy crosshairs in a Weaver pivot mount. The front sight's brass bead has been replaced by a Trijicon tritium bead and the semibuckhorn rear leaf was milled to a shallow v "express sight." It's nice for game that shows up around sundown. It's not for shooting squirrels.

When I had 1895s / 336s, I used the Leupold one-piece steel mount and Leupold rings. They're somewhat heavy but rock solid. With that setup and mid-range scopes (Leupold 1.5-5x, 1.75-6x, 2.5-8x, and 3-9X at different times) the 336 Cowboy .38-55, 1895 cowboy .45-70, and ss 1895 guide .45-70 all shot sub MOA groups. The two cowboy rifles did it both with factory ammo and handloads. I don't recall ever shooting a factory load in the guide gun.

Tom

EGW base and Leupold QRW rings with a VX2. 2x7 is what I just mounted on my :444

I have a leupold vx3 1.5-5x20mm with Talley LWs on my .444 lever. Love the whole setup.

Talley stainless steel bases and Talley stainless 1" screw lock rings on a 1895 SBL. They never come off, cause I took the sights off anyway, and plugged the holes.

2-7 Ultimateslam

Guide gun with 1.5-5X20 VX-3i, Leupold Rifleman base and QRW rings.

Same rifle with an FX-II 2.5X20 Ultralight in QRW rings.

I like using a Weaver base modified so that I can co locate a Williams FP Peep sight as a backup. This is not a 444 Marlin in the picture, but I have one of them that has had the same modification/installation done to it and it works great. I just don't have a picture of it.

My 444 shot groups of about three inches at 100 yards. i decided to try fire lapping the bore. I pushed a lead slug down the bore and I could feel the constrictions under both front and rear sights as well as at the locations of the screws holding in the magazine tube. After fire lapping the constrictions were gone and the rifle would easily shoot into an inch and a half with enough groups close to an inch to keep it interesting.

Love my 444….