I'd read too many stories about the horse falling and breaking a stock or hooking the rifle out of the scabbard in the brush. I just slung the rifle over my head and shoulder which seemed to me a better alternative to being separate from my rifle. One of our guys missed out on getting a shot at a big mule deer because the heat from the horse melted the snow down into the rifle's action and the firing pin froze up. That guy put his bolt in a camp fire to melt it out. Not recommended. I could never see the need for those exposed turrets myself because 225 was the farthest I ever shot an elk and Kentucky windage worked well enough.
