I am 50 yr. old and wear biofocals and need some opinions. I just purchased a 444p and have oreered a 45-70 guide gun. I'm not sure what is tthe best reciever sight to buy or should I go withe a red dot. Also If I were to go with a traditional scope what would be the best for the money(very little left) to put on them. I hunt form a stand and shots very seldom get past 125 yds on our deer and hogs. By the way I'm gald I found this forum. I have been shooting and handloading for 30 yrs and I never realized the preformance you could get from cast bullets. I always thought that if it didn't expand it wouldn't kill good. Thanks Marshall

Tony,

Even with the modern lever action of today with cross bolt safties and recoil reducing ports, I like iron sights over scopes. Putting glass on a light easy handle lever gun just doesn't seem right. I have the Ashley Ghost Ring sights on my 1894 Marlin and while they aren't the traditional receiver sights they perform just great. Marshall has recently mounted a set on his Outfitter and posted his sight in targets in the General Discussion forum under the Fashion Photo of Marshall topic. The targets are quite impressive. These sights are much less expensive than a good quality scope and certainly won't get in the way.

I've been using a Lyman reciever sight for the past 20 or so years on my Siamese Mauser, 45-70. I did have the reciever drilled and tapped for a scope. I used a Lyman 1.75 to 4.5 or 5 power.
My rifle disassembled the scope three times and I sent it off to be repaired three times. I put the scope on a 243 and use the Lyman reciever
My 375 Whelen uses a scope most of the year but come hunting season the Lyman sight goes on and the scope comes off.
I'm putting a Marples tang sight on the Winchester 1886. Personally I'm sold on the reciever/tang sights for my 53 year old eyes.
Jim

Hi, Tony:
  I have a Williams Foolproof receiver sight on my Marlin in .35 Remington.  The Ashley and Wildwest sights weren't on the market when I got it. I picked it over the Lyman because it doesn't have knobs sticking up to block the view. You need 3 screwdrivers to adjust it, but little fingers can't diddle it. My other two receiver sights are Redfields and that dates me.

   I use a scope when I'm working up loads but it's much handier to carry without a scope.

   Somebody knocked the brass bead off the front sight and I'm going to try a Williams Firesight on it. You may need a higher front sight to match a receiver sight.

Bye
Jack  

Hi, Tony:
  I have a Williams Foolproof receiver sight on my Marlin in .35 Remington.  The Ashley and Wildwest sights weren't on the market when I got it. I picked it over the Lyman because it doesn't have knobs sticking up to block the view. You need 3 screwdrivers to adjust it, but little fingers can't diddle it. My other two receiver sights are Redfields and that dates me.

   I use a scope when I'm working up loads but it's much handier to carry without a scope.

   Somebody knocked the brass bead off the front sight and I'm going to try a Williams Firesight on it. You may need a higher front sight to match a receiver sight.

Bye
Jack  

Hi, Alex:
  I got disconnected while I was submitting my last post and didn't realize it had gone through. Yoy can delete one of them if you want. Sorry about that.

Bye
Jack

There is a thread running over at Marlin Talk, big bore rifles section discussing this same topic.  I have pasted a copy of what I have written there, but it might be worth a visit to read the whole thread.

We have two Marlins, the 1895SS which wears a Leupold VXIII 1.75-6x, and a 1895G wearing the Williams FP peep rear. From the bench one can shoot the peeped rifle just as accurately as one can the scoped rifle at 50 yards or less. However, we have found that with the scope we can definetly hold a tighter group from 100 to 150 yards (we have switched the scope and peeps back and forth so that we are sure it is not just rifle to rifle variation). So, in short, for target and load work up, we use the scope, but for fast shooting in the brush the peeps are a little faster and you give up nothing at short range, and darned little at longer ranges. The rifle handles a lot better without the scope also.

Like others here, I've been the gambit of sighting aparatus for the lever guns.   I've done like Jack, and used a scope for serious load development, then put the receiver sights back on the guns for hunting use.   Truth is, that under field conditions I can't shoot any more accurately with glass hanging off the reciever than with a well done apeture sight.

Now, all apeture sights are NOT created equal.  I too have three or four Redfield reciever sights on various rifles... one of them an old, custom by hack-saw and chainsaw Sprinfield '03-A3 in .30-06 that has ridden many thousands of miles in a pickup truck and harvested lots of game... one blackbear at a little over 400 yards with those sights... one shot, one kill!  I have some of the Lyman peeps hanging on some hardware in the safe, and also some Williams sights.

My older .444SS has a Williams 5D cheapie that it has worn since I traded for it nearly 20 years ago... that rifle has put more game in my freezer than all other firearms I currently own combined!

However, the fine folks on this forum, as a very generous gift sent me a set of Ashley Outdoors receiver sights for my Marlin 444P Outtfitter.   These are undoubtedly the finest apature sights I've ever used.   The targets mentioned above , if you look at them, were fired at near dark, and were shots fired during the sighting in process with these fine sights.   At dusk, I can see through them and acquire my target nearly as late in the evening as I could with a good 4X scope!   They are that good!

I prefer the peeps for the reason that they don't ruin the handling characteristics of these well designed lever guns, and the balance point isn't changed.  Finally I've never had  an apeture sight fog up, run out of batteries or have problems with glare shooting into the sun!

Just my &#360.02 worth!

God bless,

Marshall

I have to echo Marshall's post,
*I have a Marlin 450 Guide Gun. Because of the recoil and possibility of eye injury under certain conditions (eg. shooting uphill), I chose not to put one of the fine tang sights from Marbles or Lyman on this gun. Instead, I opted for the Ashley Ghost sight set. WOW! Even in low light that front post is visible! *Now I've used the Williams Fire Sights and they are a quality sight system, but under certain low light conditions, I think the Ashley beats them. One recommendation I would make is to get the .218 Ashley threaded aperture ( part No. 23-2003A-218-3). This ring is just slightly smaller in circumference than the one that comes with the sight set. Additionally, it is threaded and will accept Williams apertures. I screw in a Williams Twilight .050 (&#367.95)disk when I want a finer sight picture for paper punching. The white ring around the edge of the disk helps my aging eyes locate the pinhole!
*Talk to Bo at Ashley and he'll fix you up for what ever you need.

Tom,

Thanks for the information on the Williams disk fitting the Ashley base. Sounds like a trip to the Brownells site is in order.