I never felt handicapped by the hammer on mine. I suppose it has more to do with the size of the ocular bell itself than with the design. I bought mine back before Hubble telescopes became all the rage with riflemen- the old Weaver 3-9 certainly wasn't in the way of my manipulating the hammer (and it served me well the whole time I campaigned the gun).
The Europeans have sold American riflemen on the ocular lens/power adjustment mechanism that is the size of a 12oz beer can. Even with the 70mm objective bell that beer can is in the way, bigly.
