How many of you prefer rifles with back up irons as well as optics?

For those with older eyes front sight<FRONT SIGHT,FRONT SIGHT. Focus on the front sight you will surprise yourself.
If you spend extended time in the backcountry especially in wet weather like Newfoundland back up irons are essential. If you have your fat azz planted on a truck or atv seat I guess you dont need to worry about it.
 
Purposefully adding iron sights to a scoped rifle is somewhat like carrying a Coleman lantern in the trunk of your car in case the headlights go out, so that you can still drive.

I have always thought with a decent scope/ring set up there is a very small chance that I could possibly damage the scope and not the entire gun.
 
Ahhhhhh yesth, dem eye-run awpticks.
If they arr awn, they stay awn.
Wutts the worstits that can'appin?
Bust a scope.
Unsrkrew it. Stick'er in yer back pawkitt.
Find a bigg'un pine cone.
Pewt awn stumpf.
Bang,............... pine cone fawls over .......... oar it don't.
Gooder iff'in it duzz.
Bang agin iff'in it duzzint.

I bring two ker-pows awn away frum home hunts.

Sumting izz better'n nuttin.
Ask that folk awn the ledge faysin that bigg'ol grizz.
 
I actually prefer iron sights entirely. It will be a lost art soon enough. I don’t have terrific eyes but I don’t make excuses and just make sure I practice. If I can hit a pie plate at 200 meters 5/5 time I’m happy.
 
heronfish said:
Purposefully adding iron sights to a scoped rifle is somewhat like carrying a Coleman lantern in the trunk of your car in case the headlights go out, so that you can still drive.

I have always thought with a decent scope/ring set up there is a very small chance that I could possibly damage the scope and not the entire gun.
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"Somewhat"? I can shoot much better with iron sights than I can drive in the dark without headlights.
 
Mumbles Marble Mouth said:
I actually prefer iron sights entirely. It will be a lost art soon enough. I don’t have terrific eyes but I don’t make excuses and just make sure I practice. If I can hit a pie plate at 200 meters 5/5 time I’m happy.
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+1 since I sold my 7mm Rem Mag all of my centerfire rifles have iron sites and no scopes. Might grab a low power optic for my 527.

I never really got the hang of shooting with a scope, investing a lot of time in offhand shooting with irons, I recently went out with a friend and was actually doing better with my iron sighted rifles offhand than with his scoped rifle.
 
When I was young I much preferred iron sights especially for closer ranges. As I aged scopes found homes on all my rifles. I now could care less if irons are on them or not. Nowadays a sharp stick would be as useful as an iron sighted rifle.
 
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I have often pondered if 'advancing age' isn't just an excuse to buy the great glass. I think good glass is easier to make 'Hail Mary' shots that we wouldn't be able to make with irons.
I've worn glasses since grade 5, and while reading books is entertaining these days... I find no problems shooting with irons.
Shooting offhand with glass seems boring, and I like being entertained... even challenged. Good glass seems to take a lot of the challenge away; you can make shots that remove a lot of the sport of it IMO. Don't have to look for long in 'Hunting' to find a Nimrod boasting of 400 - 600 yard shots... do you?
350 with irons is pretty darn far in my world, it's my world and I make my rules to live by.
Good glass is an 'End of Season and should fill the freezer' thing in my world.
Nothing against good glass; it'll do things that I cannot do with irons, but then again...often I can make shots with irons that most folks won't be able to ( with iron's)
Sort of enjoying the process more with irons. Like driving an 18 speed truck, or a 5 & 4...it's not as easy or efficient as a 6 speed automatic. But it's neat to be able to master the iron...to do something 50-60 % of the drivers can't do.
I can always step down to an easier model, but when they try mine...they can't make it perform. Often they don't even really try.
Theirs is far more effective, and boring. Boring is...well, boring, lol.
No offense meant in any way.
 
I always preferred irons on rimfire but now my .22's wear optics. At 43, my eyes deteriorated to the point of needing reading glasses. I have no issue seeing a front sight. The rear however, is often just a blur. No excuse, that's just how it is. On centerfire , I have always been a scope hunter because my most successful times of day to hunt deer, has been early morning and last hour of daylight. Irons were never the best choice for these circumstances regardless. If your rifle wears a good scope and mounting system, you need not worry 99.9% of the time.. I ,like others always bring a back up rifle anyway.
 
I prefer iron sights as well as optics. But I think they are best matched with some type of QD rings so the irons can be used easily when necessary and optics remounted just as easily when appropriate.
 
all the rifles i have but the 340 wea mag and a 30-06 has iron sights and scopes ... even the ar15 is doubled with iron and scope ...

and of course quick detach rings ...
 
I remove irons from ALMOST everything. In 65+ years I have never felt the need for irons or had a scope fail. The exceptions are a Savage 99 TD in 250 that has a lymph tang, a Rem model that has a Williams receiver sight and I have left them on a 9.3x62 and Marlin levers more for nostalgia,
 
tokguy said:
I have often pondered if 'advancing age' isn't just an excuse to buy the great glass. I think good glass is easier to make 'Hail Mary' shots that we wouldn't be able to make with irons.
I've worn glasses since grade 5, and while reading books is entertaining these days... I find no problems shooting with irons.
Shooting offhand with glass seems boring, and I like being entertained... even challenged. Good glass seems to take a lot of the challenge away; you can make shots that remove a lot of the sport of it IMO. Don't have to look for long in 'Hunting' to find a Nimrod boasting of 400 - 600 yard shots... do you?
350 with irons is pretty darn far in my world, it's my world and I make my rules to live by.
Good glass is an 'End of Season and should fill the freezer' thing in my world.
Nothing against good glass; it'll do things that I cannot do with irons, but then again...often I can make shots with irons that most folks won't be able to ( with iron's)
Sort of enjoying the process more with irons. Like driving an 18 speed truck, or a 5 & 4...it's not as easy or efficient as a 6 speed automatic. But it's neat to be able to master the iron...to do something 50-60 % of the drivers can't do.
I can always step down to an easier model, but when they try mine...they can't make it perform. Often they don't even really try.
Theirs is far more effective, and boring. Boring is...well, boring, lol.
No offense meant in any way.
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No offense taken, but your post is nonsense... without a scope I could never, in good conscience, squeeze the trigger on any animal.

Go ahead and make your own artbitrary rules to govern your life, but they don't apply to the majority of hunters... and I am not speaking of the choice of "irons or optics."
 
hoytcanon said:
No offense taken, but your post is nonsense... without a scope I could never, in good conscience, squeeze the trigger on any animal.

Go ahead and make your own artbitrary rules to govern your life, but they don't apply to the majority of hunters... and I am not speaking of the choice of "irons or optics."
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Well typed and my thoughts on this post resemble what you stated.
 
Rut Roh my Looky filter must be permanently switched on in my head, no conscious effort required!!

Unless I lived on the island and chased Blacktails in the jungle would I choose to go out with irons on purpose. Still would probably have a 1-4 wth a German #4. Make no mistake I like the thought of backup irons and most of my favourite rifles have them... But optics rule for hunting for myself anyways.

Dirk
 
I’ve always felt that it’s possible to get stranded somewhere and that scopes can fail or get broken, so I like back up irons, but I wouldn’t necessarily pass on a rifle that doesn’t have them ... so many rifles seem to come without irons these days.


A fall or an overturned boat are a couple of unlikely, but possible ways for a scope to fail. I’ve been flown into a lake where weather conditions almost made for a very, very late pick up .... you never know what could happen or how long you could be stuck somewhere and back up irons seems reasonable to me.
 
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I was all set to type about how I remove the irons from everything; then got to trying to remember the last time I've actually done that. The manufacturers do a pretty good job of leaving them off, and many of my favorite rifles aren't wearing their original pipes anyway. Maybe its time to stop living in the past.:)

While I was brooding about that; I acknowledged that I have irons on my mediums and heavy rifles cause you're supposed to, and that I've somehow never taken taken any off pumps or autoloaders either. Its probably illegal to remove irons from or add a scope to a lever gun, and I seem to remember upgrading irons on my BPCR rolling block. My muzzleloaders may get shot with scopes but the irons are still there, and I've never taken any off a .22 either. Handguns all get shot with irons except my XP100 that had them removed before I ever got it.

So anyway, for a guy that doesn't have much use for irons I've sure got a lot of irons.:confused:

My mediums and heavy rifles do have that dangerous game close range angle, and the expensive hunt that could concieveably be salvaged with irons angle but somehow returning or resorting to irons never seems to happen. Spare rifles sort of fill that slot with a spare everything, but I'm racking my brain to remember needing that. I do sometimes switch rifles to change my luck but that's based on science.

What has happened over the years is a disturbing amount of broken, loosened and lost sights that were supposed to be the rugged back-ups for scopes that never failed.
 
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