Yes, mount the scope.

The thing is, in practicle terms, even a short-range gun like a 30-30, is limited if you're only using iron sights and, in my opinion, your accuracy over 50 yardsis limited to what half of the deer you're shooting at and that's about as precise as you can get with iron sights.

Now before the lever action guysstart protesting outside my house, let me askthis. If you had to shoot in a 100 yard target competition and the stakes werebig money and you had your choice of scoped or unscoped rifle, which would you choose? I thought so.

There is an old myth going back to the 1950s that says scopes are useless in the brush. My father heard that over and over again when he first showed up in deer camp in northern MNin 1960 with a pump action .30-06 and a 2X10 scope. All the other guys carried the old 30-30.

Over the next few years he proved again and again that the ability to precisely place a shot on a deer that was partially hidden or hard to see in the brush, or at long range,completely outweighted thearmchair theory that you "can't pick them (a deer) up in the scope in the brush".5 yearslater the otherguys, without exception, had scopes on thier guns.

And BTW, I've had great performance with Simmons scopes. Maybe it's just me, but I think they're great value for the money and I have them on handguns and 2 rifles. Never had one go bad yet and to me, at least, it's no contest when it comes to performance and prices. The next step up for a 6X24 varmint scope was over $125 more! Fro that money I'll stick with the Simmons and it if only lasts 10 years, so be it.

Grouse