Scoped saddle scabbard?

[huntinlever]

Never used one, but just starting to look. Leather scabbard for a scoped 45-70 guide gun. Thoughts?

[rancher1913]

good luck keeping the scope set. maybe a hardsided of some sort

[huntinlever]

good luck keeping the scope set. maybe a hardsided of some sort

Yeah, another reason I hate to scope the lever but I finally accept my eyes need it. To be honest, rewatching Yellowstone last night when Rip does exactly that with a scoped lever got me thinking on it again, lol. (also finally, not every 55-60ish-something cowboy has perfect eyes and only needs a buckhorn to hit a dime at 300 yards).

By the way - by your username seems you might be the real deal. How do you guys feel about the series? Hate it? Have to admit I love the thing.

[Chena]

Twenty or so years ago I used a full length, zippered leather saddle scabbard for several seasons in Alaska. I don’t remember the maker, but it was a knock-off of a Keith design, I think originally made by Lawrence. I may have bought it from Cabelas. In any event it was a good one, it’s only faults were being fairly heavy and slow to open. Had my saddle horse roll on it once in a bog without damage to rifle or scope. Rocks of course would have been another outcome. Murray Custom Leather offers a version, although the price is eye-watering. Somewhere in Keith’s writing is an excellent discussion of the pros and cons of various scabbards and rigging that I found true in practice.

[Chena]

https://www.murraycustomleather.com/press2.htm

[openbook]

This place makes custom rifle scabbards to your dimensions.

https://thelastbestwest.com/western-store/custom-leather/custom-rifle-sheaths/

[35 Whelen]

Never used one, but just starting to look. Leather scabbard for a scoped 45-70 guide gun. Thoughts?

My father and I have carried our scoped bolt rifles in saddle scabbards on many, many elk hunts in the mountains of NM and CO. A good saddle scabbard will protect the rifle and the optics. A lever rifle is no different. Unless you have some sort of wreck with your riding stock (been there, done that x3) there's no reason that a scope won't stay zeroed in a saddle scabbard.
Here are a few random pics of our scabbards, mostly of my old man and his mare mule "Shoog" aka "Sugar" :smile:-

https://i.imgur.com/Jhfcbcel.jpg https://i.imgur.com/bO295eFl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/OCQcPgjl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/qS04mRSl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/PD1Cms1l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/LPXQYbAl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7n4ROT9l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xfH2JXcl.jpg

Mostly we carried them butt to the rear, sometimes butt up with the butt right and forward of the saddle horn.

As to the Yellowstone series, I live on the eastern edge of ranch country here in Texas, just a very few miles from the Waggoner Ranch (500,000+ acres) and a couple of hours from the 6666 Ranch where used to help some close friends who ran cattle NW of that ranch, just south of the Tongue River Ranch. Last Saturday evening I attended a party at the Matthews/Lambshead Ranch(es) which is west of historic Fort Griffin. As such I've had much exposure to ranching life. On the Yellowstone series I think they do a passable job of portraying ranch life, randomly pushing their little herds of cattle here and there. But in reality, women and men wouldn't cohabitate in a bunkhouse, and that portrayal irritates me.

35W

[samari46]

Awesome leather work and some fine looking horses. Frank

[Misery-Whip]

Beautiful animals, I know little about them. Which is a shame my great grandfather made his living raising and racing horses. Ive never sat in a saddle, but would love to go hunting on horseback.

As long as the scope doesnt take a hit it should be fine. I crashed on a bicycle with a bolt gun on a sling over my shoulder. I hit the butt good, but the scope stayed zerod to my suprise. (Savage Axis, and a Nikon at the time.) Conditiones are right a buckhorn can get pushed in the dovetail too.

Make the rifle work for you. Take the chance. Beats stayin home.

I love the pic of the snow machines in the corral.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Spent a lot of time on horseback in the Colorado, Wyoming mountains, always carried a scoped lever action behind my leg on the offside. I hung it more vertical so it did not ride under my leg, Did need to swing my leg high to clear buttstock when mounting. Carried a Savage 99E .243 with Burris 3-9x32 most of the time, Marlin 1895 45-70 with Leupold 1.5-5x20 for elk, Savage 99 .308 with Nikon 2-7x32 for deer, cow elk, other hunting seasons, used a LEATHER Hunter Gunlock Scabbard with basketweave for most carrying. I do have another couple open top scabbards, some will handle scope rifles. Always carried a rifle when horseback in the mountains. Weaver Rings and Bases on the rifles, no problem with zero, NEVER, NEVER walk away from your horse without removing rifle, loved my horses, but they are horses and can break things just by being horses.

[txbirdman]

35 Whelen, your pics brought back some memories of elk and bear hunts my family has done in the Gila wilderness in NM. My nephew owns a string of mules and lives in Las Cruses. So we’ve done it quite a bit. I’ve heard that in the “old days” you could tell where a man was from based on the way his rifle scabbard was mounted. Yours would be for timber country while one mounted up by the horn would be someone from the open plains. Those pack in hunts are a lot of work but also a great experience. We carried our rifles as depicted in your first picture (less chance of hanging them on tree branches.)

[huntinlever]

OK, thanks for the options guys. We're a way out but I wanted to start thinking of one.

And 35, your photos are excellent. Kudos to you for the experiences and memories.

[huntinlever]

Something weird is going on, guys. A member with 5 posts made a duplicate of this thread complete with title (word order jumbled).

[Chena]

Beautiful photos 35 Whelen. You must be a much better horseman than I ever was. I don’t believe I could stay on a slick fork in the mountains. Am I seeing it right that those are full rigged double D saddles? One reason I liked the full length rifle scabbard was due to the wet, brushy trails above tree line in Alaska. Sometimes things got pretty scraped up and muddy including me.