Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Lever gun hunters...I'd like your opinions

Aperture sights are my choice for lever actions; they keep them slim and handy and are much faster than open barrel sights. Unfortunately, at 61 my eyes are forcing me to hunt with scopes almost exclusively.

My Brownig B92 in .44 MAg has factory iron sighting instruments. All the Marlins (.30-30, .375 Win and .45-70) have Leupold glass in Wanre Quick Detach rings. Fixed 4x for the .375, 2-7x for the others.

I find that I rarely take the glass off except when I'm shooting the .45-70 with my "Rhino Blaster" loads.

The three Marlins (.30-30/170g Speer, .375W/220g Hornady, and .45-70/350g North Fork) deliver about 1350fpe to 120 yards, 200 yards and 300 yards respectively. I'm not concerned about 75 yards as a limit or average as most of my game shots have been longer.

Before my eyes got old I shot a peep sight, but these days it's 1.5-4.5x32 B&L and a 1.75-6x35Pentax on my Marlin (336SS & 336-35LTD). Even the 9422 has a Leupold 3x on it.

Crimson

I have a BLR in .358 win, was itchin real bad to get into the woods with her, but with my luck i just didnt want to chance it without a scope.

Well the itch was too great, first mornin in the woods and wouldnt you guess, Yep, i ran into a deer, saw the movement in the dim twilight, and it wasnt until he decided to get the hell out of there that i realized it was the big 10 pointer i had been huntin.

I was pretty sure that if i had a scope on the rig i could have easily have shot him, oh well, schitt happens, and usually to me.......All lever guns looks better with peeps or open sights but my BLR is real light, even with the scope so for now it stays put, its a Weaver Grand Slam fixed 4.75X

Darkstar, No binoculars?

both have their ups and downs... i prefer the peep sights, I just unscrewed the disc to make the hole in the peep larger. Gun works perfectly fine that way, and out to a hundred yards, I've had no problems.

not reading whole thread i'd say if your eyes are good go with peep sight

I am an optics guy. I have 5 lever guns, and 4 of them are scoped. I like shooting my 336T with open sights, but I don't hunt with it. In my opinion, I would lose at least 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening due to low light if I hunted with open sights.

If you don't mind your sights having batteries the new micro sized red dots and holographic sights are quite nice, but a little expensive.

The peep sight looks good and should do everything needed within the range your looking at. Another option which is good is to go to a scout setup with QD rings in case you find yourself in low light conditions and need the scope. If not, another consideration is a Hi-Viz fiber optic front sight to pickup in low light conditions and a little fluro orange nail polish around the aperature.

I've been hunting with the 30-30 since I started 28 yrs ago in a Marlin lever action and it is a great combo. Though I mostly use scoped bolt rifles now, I still have 3 30-30's in the safe which at least one gets carried every year for a hunt or two.

Nice pickup

I use the XS ghost ring peeps sights on my 336SS and I love them. Very fast and easily minute of deer!

Nicest buck I have ever shot, which isn't saying too much, I got with a open sighted Marlin in .45-70 GOVT.

Also the most fun I've had shooting a deer.

Gave up my 300 WBY/3x9 scoped from the previous year.

That is a really nice rifle you have their.I would mount a peep on the rear with a scope just in front using a guide gun type mount.

I would leave the Marlin mid sight if it folds or put a folding one in if it didn't.

Apertures screw in and out and the gold lined ones are a big help

I have a sourdough on one of my model 70's and an ivory bead on my 1899 Savage TD. I have fire sight fronts on three shotguns, a 24 D Savage, and a a 10-22. They make a huge difference.