Favourite optics for your lever action rifles
- Thread starter tangent
- Start date
Joe Amorosi
CGN Regular
- Location
- Not Where I Thought I Was....
Iron Sights or a Peep.
Scoping a lever action is just wrong...
Scoping a lever action is just wrong...
Hand Skills
CGN Regular
- Location
- In the 'heartland', southern SK
Red dot outperforms open sights and peeps for me in both speed and accuracy.
Don't care for the looks, but thw results speak for themselves
Don't care for the looks, but thw results speak for themselves
I agree with you on the older style models, the carbines, and basically every tube fed lever action. But in the models that use magazines, like the Henry long ranger, or a Browning BLR, I think optics can be a great addition.
Any decent lighter weight scope that falls anywhere in the range from 1-12x suits me perfectly. Great for walking around in the bush with, and also a perfect fit for a longer shot if need be.
Lots of different types of lever actions, what type do you have?
Some take to scopes like a duck to water.
Some just look odd in most people’s opinion.
I had a Leupold long eye relief fixed power scope on a no drill scout mount on a Winchester 30/30 that worked amazingly well, unbelievably quick to acquire targets.
The downside was it just never looked right to me and the front end of the rail was less than solid, all it had was a tension screw (never had a mechanical attachment).
I’ve thought of trying one of those vintage externally adjustable long scopes from Hi-Lux Optics but so far it’s stayed as an expensive curiosity. I had a M1D with an offset scope so I’ve already had the experience of an offset scope and I’m not in a hurry to try one again but I think one of their two toned scopes on a gold Henry would look great.
Same company makes a red dot mount too, and with all these tactical(ish) models coming out lately would likely be a good fit and not look anymore out of place as the rest of it.
For modern levers I think a smaller lighter scope looks best and in my limited experience works great. I put a silver Leupold VX-III with silver QD rings on my Browning 308 BLR stainless TD and it has exceeded my expectations. I expected it to look great and it does but what I was pleasantly surprised by was how bright it was, for some reason I figured smaller scope equal less light but for me I have so far found it excellent. I believe the current Leupold VX3 versions only come in matte black with a 2.5-8x36 spec.
Some take to scopes like a duck to water.
Some just look odd in most people’s opinion.
I had a Leupold long eye relief fixed power scope on a no drill scout mount on a Winchester 30/30 that worked amazingly well, unbelievably quick to acquire targets.
The downside was it just never looked right to me and the front end of the rail was less than solid, all it had was a tension screw (never had a mechanical attachment).
I’ve thought of trying one of those vintage externally adjustable long scopes from Hi-Lux Optics but so far it’s stayed as an expensive curiosity. I had a M1D with an offset scope so I’ve already had the experience of an offset scope and I’m not in a hurry to try one again but I think one of their two toned scopes on a gold Henry would look great.
Same company makes a red dot mount too, and with all these tactical(ish) models coming out lately would likely be a good fit and not look anymore out of place as the rest of it.
For modern levers I think a smaller lighter scope looks best and in my limited experience works great. I put a silver Leupold VX-III with silver QD rings on my Browning 308 BLR stainless TD and it has exceeded my expectations. I expected it to look great and it does but what I was pleasantly surprised by was how bright it was, for some reason I figured smaller scope equal less light but for me I have so far found it excellent. I believe the current Leupold VX3 versions only come in matte black with a 2.5-8x36 spec.
New Camper
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Lurking in the woods near SFRC.
If I needed an optical sight, I'd only ever put some sort of prism or red dot sight on a lever action. But if it were something capable of longer distance like a 99 in 250, 308 or 300s it would be appropriate to fit a classic gloss 1" tube, 2-7x33 Bushnell Elite, Nikon Monarch, Leupold VX 1, 2 or 3 type of scope. I've seen older guys need such things, and some nice old guns tapped to accommodate their aging eyes. That always bugged me, but as I get older I can already see why they would do that. Otherwise my first choice would be aperture sights with adjustable iris.
I agree with Joe Amorosi, peeps or open sights on a lever . A scope just looks out of place and the idea of a lever is to have something light and easy to carry . With iron sights you can grasp the rifle right at the balance point , not so when you mount a scope , then you have to carry it cradled in your hand. And a red dot is just weird on a lever .
