Thoughts on Red Dot for Lever Gun 45-70

[hangman1]

Been using a fast fire three on my 94 big bore for a but 8 years now works great not much bigger than a peep sight batterys last seems like for evener ,I for got to turn it off when the season closed it was on for a bout a month and still as bright as with new battery.

[danmat]

After having played with red dots, I am a huge proponent of 1-4, 1-6, or even 1-8 scopes with illuminated reticles. They offer better, more predictable parallax and much more flexibility than any red dot out there. When set to 1x, it's your red dot. Above that, it's your scope. Now that there are super-compact models on the market, red dots really only fill the super-lightweight niche from my POV.

This is what I use on my levers that come ready for scope mounts, best of both worlds.
I am in the process of mounting reflex dots on some of mine that are not easily done such as a browning 92 using a dovetail mount rail where light weight is a priority, Holosuns and sig romeos are the best value for me.
I also prefer a green dot for all around use much better for me in bright daylight.
I dislike doing this on any lever gun, but when you cant see the sights in low light____ it is what it is.

[W.R.Buchanan]

The Aimpoint H2 micro with the standard mount that places the sight low on the receiver is the Cadillac of Red Dots and at $750 ish it should be. However I have 6 Bushnell TRS 25's that I paid between $65 and $90 for and they have served me well on all my Carbines and even on my Ruger Scout Rifle.

Red Dot Sights offer the fastest target acquisition of any sighting system, and it is up to you to develop a "Dot, Bang" mentality, so you aren't studying the sights and wasting time. As soon as the dot is on the target you pull the trigger! Dot, Bang!

If you watched the Series "Wild Boar Fever" on the Outdoor Channel you would have seen people using these same Aimpoint sights on various Rifles taking shots at Running Wild Boars in Europe, and connecting with "boaring" regularity.

You could try a TRS 25 on your .45-70 as see if you like it for <$90, and if you liked it, buy the Aimpoint later. Only problem with the Aimpoint is that you can buy 8 TRS 25's for the price of one Aimpoint. But the Aimpoint is a really nice optic and if your gun is really nice then it needs a nice optic. I don't know how the mount for it works on an 86/71, but if it was a Marlin you'd just bolt a strip of Pic Rail onto the top of the receiver and then attach the optic to it.

I was going to attach a Reflex Sight (Burris Fast Fire 3) to the barrel of my A5 Slug gun for Pig Hunting but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Hope this helps.

Randy

[Tokarev]

Red Dot Sights offer the fastest target acquisition of any sighting system

True but most of them except for the most pricey models have parallax at any distance. Before one decides to spend $$ on a red dot, they should shift the look left/right and up/down, to see of the dot moves across the target. If it does, then the sight is not parallax-free no matter what the manufacturer's AD says. It directly translates into the loss of accuracy.
At the same time, scopes are parallax-free at a specified distance, usually of about 50 yards, or they have adjustable parallax.