Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Scout Scope vs. Iron sights - forest hunting?

It might. Then again knowing when and when not is an acquired habit.

Imagination is an acquired habit and she has Mastered same,though solely by default. Bless her heart.

In defense of the scout scope. Some rifles will not permit a conventionally mounted scope over the action. I have tried offset mounts and did not like them, due to no cheek-weld, and poor asthetics.

Red-dot sights are one alternative. The dot is easily seen, but the field of view around the dot is dimmer than a scout scope. They work well in bright light, if you don't need any magnification. I enjoy mine for plinking.

Ghost ring rear sights with a prominent front sight are fast, rugged, light-weight and work well on my brush-guns.

I have four rifles set up with scout scopes. Three are out of necessity, if I wanted them scoped. One is optional in Leupold quick release lever rings on an all-weather Marlin 30-30 that I carry with my hand around the action. The scope is out of the way and light-weight.

I like using scout scopes once I got used to them. The main advantages: fast on target with both eyes open. Some magnification. Light-weight and rugged. For some rifles in some applications they work very well.

If you think Scouts are fast,real speed of acquisition would snap you. Wow.

..........I`ll be happy volunteer to be the scout scope your dreams Boxer aka Big Schit-stick.

I`ll make sure that you get a real good head snappin!

Your imagination is taking you places.








Again.

...Yep! and my imagination will always make very short work of you.

You are too busy making short work of your faculties on accident,to ever entertain reality. Bless you heart.

what he said...

...so, would New England weather do hell on a Mannlicher stock?

..and by the looks of it, going solid iron-sights, hi-vis, with investment in Warne QD's attached to a 2-7x32 Leup VX-II series, or a 4x33 FX-II Ultralight. Or, the Burris scopes have a nice slender eyepiece, which would fit grandly around the bolt.

Rifle is a Steyr Scout at the moment, with the 2.5X28 Scout scope (eh...), and considering selling for a CZ 550 FS in 6.5x55SE, and using the rest of the cash to upgrade the irons (maybe) or add on said scope setup. Consideration is in response to warp-risk of the fullstock, as the Scout is near weatherproof, but I'd be upset seeing treebranches leave their marks on the barrel and stock (can/does happen with others I've seen). Sure, the CZ has a pretty stock that many wouldn't like to see branch scratches in, but those can and will be buffed out. Plus, it's why I'm going a CZ and NOT a Steyr Classic/Sako fullstock/etc...

I grew up shooting open sights so they are much more "natural" to me when the shooting is fast.

Back when I was younger the prefered method of deer hunting in East Texas was with dogs. The shooting tended to be very close and very quick. Most chose to hunt with shotguns and buckshot, which were very effective at ranges of 20-50 yards. However, even then I found a I prefered a rifle as it tended to leave a better blood trail and allowed shots over 50 yards (about where buckshot is getting "iffy").

Since we normally sat on stands in the morning and evening, and ran the dogs during the day....a scope was welcome at times. The solution (without carrying two different rifles) was a low power scope (1.5-4.5x) mounted in the old Weaver swing-mounts. They held zero very well and could be "swung" out of the way when the open sights were wanted.

Even in really thick brush I've found the low-power scope is better due to the ease of finding small openings to shoot through and (as others have mentioned) getting a better look at the deer.

The Weaver swing mounts might be your solution. I often carry my rifles with the scope swung to the side when slipping through the woods. This makes the open sights available if a deer boils up underfoot, but if the deer is not running full out you have plenty of time to swing the scope into place for the shot.

I've tried the scout set-ups and found them to be a very poor choice. They unbalance a rifle, give a poor field of view and cut light transmission......as well as look ugly as sin!

I am firmly convinced that the scout scope idea was created by Jeff Cooper to feed his ego and draw attention to himself with no other redeeming values.

Shadow,

In 58 years of hunting in all kinds of weather I have never needed or used irons because a scope failed. If a scope failed I would just walk out of the woods and get another rifle out of the car.

It rained the whole weekend in VT in a recent season. I used a Kimber Montana which has no irons. It had a Leupold scope on it. It did just fine.

Anyways I had another rifle in the car.

I think you are making too much worry over irons. I never use them for rifle hunting ever. Never need to. I use irons on the Woodsman!

Here are some of my wet weather rifles. No irons!

Savage99.

Your post is offensive. I would appreciate it if you would remove it immediately. There are women and children on this site.

Thank you

What ? Where ?

I believe that was a " turnabout is fair play" post...


BTW John Moses, I read what you said about capsicum, my cloaca etc. on another thread.....

Hurt my feeler....

Neither system would be ideal , because of their poor light gathering abilities a Traditionaly mounted scope with a pivot mount or QD type rings would be ideal . As much as it pains me to say it , see through mounts would even be preferable !

Don't know what that stuff is, but I'm studying up on it.

Keep extra rifles in car, if one is not right walk the 50 yards back and change rifles................got it

Bring a grenade launcher. Don't really need any sights, just get it in the general area.

Does 24HC have a "Like" button? :P