thinking of mounting the "least offensive to lever action sensibilities" scope on my Marlin 30-30.... Weaver K4 came to mind, although that is still a lot of scope... any better ideas? power range somewhere between 2 to 4X... svelte... (and no, not a SS 6X MQ please) lol

I had a Weaver K-2.5 on Weaver base with Burris super low ZEE's on mine for years. Worked great. Killed a couple truckloads of deer with it. Now it wears a Leupold VX-II, 1-4x20. and that works great too.

Have one on a 336 35Rem. Works great for Deer and Hogs. Clear and good field of view.

K4 would be hard to beat, I run Vx2 2-7x33's on My Marlin 336 .35 Rem and 1895 45-70, I love them........Good luck....Hb

Weaver V-3 is okay. Any version of a Leuopld 1-4 or 2.5 compact would be better.

A K4 would be a little large on a 30-30. What you need is a K2.5 like this one. Perfect on a lever gun.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...-gloss-duplex-made-in-japan#Post12496219

nice looking K2.5

I got a K2.5 C-3 made in 1961 to go on my Mossberg bolt action 346k 22lr made in "59. Nice pair up.

I think one of those scopes would be a good match.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Weaver-K3-Scope-w-Post-Crosshair-Reticle-/142636675656

https://www.gunsamerica.com/9980920...olt-Action-Rifle-22-S-L-LR-EXCELLENT.htm

The Leupold 3X from the custom shop, with a heavy duplex, would work. Nice scope.
Bob

" Least offensive to lever action sensibilities" .................. My Marlin 30-30 wears a 1 - 4x 20mm Leupold, which has already been mentioned, and to my eye looks perfect on a 30-30 lever gun. Can be mounted nice and low and fits right in with that "svelte" persona. Plus; I could never see using more than 4x on a 30-30 lever gun. Weaver K4 would work if it could be mounted real low but I'd bet the objective end of it would prevent that and scopes too high on a lever gun don't qualify as "svelte" to my tastes, anyway.

Here is a side by side comparison of the K4 and K2.5.

I prefer the aesthetics of a scope with a "straight" or 1" objective on my exposed hammer lever action rifles from Marlin, Mossberg, and Winchester.

I have 1.5-5x20 Bushnell and Simmons WTC scopes on several Marlin, Mossberg, Savage, and Winchester 30-30 and 35 rifles, but I don't consider any of these to be "serious" hunting rifles. I was going to scope a Marlin 336 as a "serious" hunting rifle, I'd opt for a VX2 with a heavy duplex reticle.

My 30-30 is mounted with a Lyman peep sight, but I have K4s on my two 308s, three of my ARs, one of my 270s, my wife's AK47,
and one 30-06. That's 8 of them right now in my home. I have used them on a few other rifles that I have now sold, but I bet I have owned 12 of them in my life and used all of them for hunting.
I have never been disappointed and I have never felt I needed more magnification. With one of my 308s my 30-06 and my 270 I have made kills on game at some fairly long ranges too, and I always had "enough scope" for the job. I am speaking of shots from 400 to one that was at 725. I also have killed a number of animals with rifles mounted with K-4s at very short ranges too, and never felt it was too much magnification. The closest shots I have used 4X scopes with were at about 15 feet. I did not feel a non-magnifying red-dot would have been any better at all.

Overall I think good 4X scopes (of which Weaver K4s are some of the best for the money) are very under rated today. Many opportunities are missed or slowed down by men who have way "too much scope" on their hunting rifles. They have swallowed the bait of what they are told to think, instead of thinking for themselves, and buy what the magazine advertisements/writers tell them they "need". What the real truth is isn't pleasant to hear, but here it is:

YOU are the product. Not the scope. Not the rifle, Not the ammo not the gear-queer-goodies. YOU ARE!
See, magazine subscription-monies do NOT pay for the magazine publishers to keep in business every month. Advertising monies are the largest percentage of their profits and expenses, so they need to sell product to those that pay them. That product is consumers. That's YOU! Not knowledge, not education, not reality. Anything that talks shooters into using what they have and building skill is NOT as profitable for the manufacturers as selling you need goodies.


High magnification is good for paper and steel targets and any shooting where the shooter has some time and can set up. But in hunting it's common to have limited time, and moving game. Making the animal look 16 times bigger doesn't make it bigger. The bullet is the same size in the chamber of your rifle as it is at 500 yards too. Magnification is just that...magnification. But it does NOTHING to make you shoot better. What does help is a large field of view and brightness of the image. You loose nothing with 9X or even 16 X if your game cooperates, but in the cases where it's moving or your time is limited (about 1 in 2) the lower power and big field make hits a lot easier, not harder. And holding your long range dope is no harder with 4X then it is with 20 X and in my experience that easier with the 4X too.

VX-II, 1-4x20

or

Weaver K-2.5

I have, and like both of these on my short-range rifles.

Just buy AnsonRogers scope in the Classifieds. Weaver 2.5x.

The K4 is very light in weight but has a "large" look to it.

The are not a whole lot of hunting applications around here that I WOULDN'T use a K4 for...and I'm running them on 3 out of 4 rifles I hunt with.

Leupold M8 4x is also a nice, slim, overall small, scope.

Especially the older 28mm objective. You can mount them lower. I have found them to be superior to the Weaver in eye relief and ruggedness.