I had offered my HVA '06 with Leupold 2-7x33 on the classifieds. Had some bites, no takers.
One guy asked if the HVA crest was on the receiver ring. I couldn't remember, so I removed the scope and front base to confirm it was.
Handling this 6# rifle gave me an idea. If I mount a very low, compact red dot sight, thinking maybe a reflex version, this would be a wickedly fast handling '06, about like a high end bird gun.
Question: Given that scenario, what would be the best option?
DF
I mounted a small reflex sight on the receiver ring of a Remington 700 Ti short action. Worked "fine" with some caveats. Decided the rifle itself could get closer to my goal, so I got a Kimber Adirondack (shorter, even lighter) and moved the red dot sight to the receiver ring on that. (First was a .260 Rem, second is 6.5 CM; ballistic twins for my purposes, and 10-15 other cartridges would work just as well for me.)
Pros: light, fast, accurate (for me, probably out to about 200 yds depending on game size and visibility), makes the rifle easier to carry, very good access to the magazine and loading port, mounting on the receiver rings instead of the bridge seemed to me to make operating the bolt easier.
Cons: not so great where we usually hunt these days, which happens to be brushy forest; the sight works well for actual game, but it's not so useful for inspecting (or looking through) brush and tree limbs and so forth in between target and muzzle. (Probably would be much better for open country, and in fact was decent in AZ for javelina hunts. Would maybe also be better for running game, perhaps driven, where there's maybe not as much "obstruction evaluation" at play.)
So I recently reverted to a low power 1" variable for the Adirondack. Adds weight, clutters up the magazine/loading port, doesn't enhance bolt manipulation... (Brand/model is irrelevant for the question, but it happens to be a Leupold VX-3i 1.5-5x20, relatively lightweight as scopes go.)
FWIW, I started with a Burris FastFire2, moved to a FastFire3, and now also have a FastFire4. Can't say "best" since I've not experimented much with many other products. The FF2 is sort of a pain to sight in and battery changes are a bit more work. FF3 is better. FF4 seems even better, but I only just got it and haven't worked with it yet. I moved the FF2 back to a target .22 pistol, moved the FF3 to a short AR, and installed the FF4 (so far) on a Redhawk. I've got a C-More Railway on a .22 rifle; that works very well... but I also have an easily-swappable (?) scope set up for that rifle too. The long C-More Railway mounting system wouldn't have offered the same clearance/carrying advantages on the bigger rifles.
-Chris