Rossi Rifleman

Only 48 and my eyes seem to be taking early retirement....... Did some shooting today with the 45-70 and I had to do some thinking afterwards. My sight picture is not as sharp as it used to be. A couple of years ago I was grinding without safety glasses and took a piece of metal dead center in my right eye. After playing tuff guy for about 4 days I could not take it anymore. Had to have eye surgery to remove the pieces of metal that were now starting to rust according to the DR.

About 6 months ago I had to start wearing cheaters to read. Now I am blind as a bat up close and cannot read anything without them.

Taking a look at what is going on in this crazy world we live in I am determined to put some meat up this fall. After some thought I had to admit to myself I just can't see good enough anymore for open sights. Did some research and decided to get a Bushnell Banner 1.5 - 4.5 by 32mm. I saw a glowing review on MidwayUSA from RD on that scope and figured that was good enough for me.....


Now I am starting to wonder what else on my body will decide it is going to take early retirement as well.....

Well, even without the metal in the eye (grinding without eye protection? Shame) you have reached the age of spectacles!!! It comes with the territory after FORTY.............

You can always talk to your optometrist about a pair of glasses that focus on the front sight! About the same as the ones you can have made for use on your computer!!!

Luck

It's been 20 years since I first visited the poor mans optometrist Dr. Walmart for my first pair of 1.25s and now I'm up to 2.5s.
Can still punch the 10-ring out of a rifle target at 50 yards over irons with my glasses on.

Try an aperture on your glasses. Merit makes a good one. You can make one using a piece of electrical tape and the proper sized pin to make the hole. You will have to experiment to find the right size. I started out using a 1/8 inch hole but need a smaller one now. I'm 64 and my eyes starting going at 45. The aperture will allow you to see the sight clearly. Makes a huge difference. I put mine on the top left side of the lens and just tip my head a little to use it. Works with rifle and pistol.

You can also try different sights. I can see the stock Glock sight well enough to hit good. Also. the square target sight on my S&W Model 22S work for me too.

Scopes, of course are adjustable to your eye. A scout scope on the R92 like RD uses works for me. An advantage to the scout type is that is it very fast after a little practice.

Hey, no shame in shooting through a scope! That is a good little scope and Bushnell remains my favorite scope manufacturer! I just took a quick count, I have 22 of those little buggers on rifles!

The irons are still working for me with my Walmart cheaters on but we're all different physically and in regards to what we want in a legacy levergun.
I do have scoped leverguns but I want my Winchester/clone legacy leverguns which I use for close to medium range (up to 100 yards) shooting to remain close to the streamlined, light, legacy concept.........that means gospel according to JMB.
I have literally dozens of rifles and if I need longer range performance I'll grab a scoped Marlin, BLR or a bolt action.
I realize in these tough economic times a lot of people don't have as many choices before them as I do and are lucky to have one rifle.
If I had only 1 gun available to me instead of dozens and it was a Winchester/clone levergun I'd probably install a scout style scope on it with QD (return to zero) rings so I could dismount the scope for close-in brush hunting and mount it if the hunt of the day might present longer range shots.
We all have a responsibility as ethical shooters to see clearly what we are shooting at and if that means installing a scope then so be it.........nature will not be denied until such time as the bionic eye or "Jordi from Star Trek" visor is invented. I suspect we will all be "pushing up daisies" by the time that happens.

Ranch Dog wrote:Hey, no shame in shooting through a scope! That is a good little scope and Bushnell remains my favorite scope manufacturer! I just took a quick count, I have 22 of those little buggers on rifles!

You are a man of many talents RD. (22) little buggers? That makes you a Bushnell stockholder.....
Looking forward to getting it all mounted up and shooting. Good friend of mine took advantage of the cool front today to get out and try to pop an axis. I am watch football and casting 45 ACP bullets and a few 45-70.

I own a fair number of Bushnell scopes (too lazy to count em) from Trophy & Legend grade on upward but mostly Leupold "Rifleman" scopes (2-7x33mm & 3-9x40mm) which are my go-to hunting scopes.......the Rifleman is tougher than nails and survives on heavy kickers like my Savage Alaskan Brush Hunter in 375 Ruger.
RANGE CREDS: I don't know why but we probably have all experienced from time to time that disdainful eye flutter and dismissive side-glance when we say "it's a Bushnell" in response to an on public range scope query...........like being the only person in church on Sunday wearing a pair of gum rubber boots.
Silly, immature & juvenile as it might seem "sporting the Leupy" is the membership toll for the range-acceptable "Gold Ring" club.

On that score I have a real advantage. I have not shot at a range since I lived in PA. Plenty of land to shoot right here at the house. I do have a Leupold on my Mark V but it came on the rifle. Have owned just about every brand out there other then the extreme top of the line. They all dropped game when the trigger was pulled.

One of my brothers proved time and again you do not need to spend tons of money to fill the freezer. Some of our best hunting trips years ago is when we had what most would call junk driving a truck we were not sure if we would make it there or back. When we went loaded for bear we got skunked.....

Bragging rights & range creds are useful sales gimmicks for the premium scope pedlars like they are for the premium bullet pedlars and the premium rifle pedlars.
It's all superficial salesmanship & marketing where the main target is your wallet.
The message being sent is that you're not in the exclusive loop if you don't own the latest & greatest.
People like to strut their Schmidt & Benders, Nightforce, Leica, Swarovski scopes on the range even though some of them don't have the skill to hit a hay silo from 10 feet with the rifles they are mounted on.
For me scopes like guns and most other things are tools and if filling the freezer is the end game then as long as they work they're all good.
If ooohs and aaaahs from the peanut guru-gallery at the range when they see your latest Schmidt & Bender that you took out a second mortgage on your home to buy is what you're after then you are in this shooting game for a different reason that most of the members of this board are.
I put a tool called a scope on a gun to assist my vision so I can see and hit what I'm aiming my gun at.
If a $100 Bushnell scope will do the job consistently, dependably and reliably then that's all you really need.