Granted, those areimportant concerns. Done right, you can install extremely durible open sightsthat will not obscure your vision through the scope. I read the following entry from a 2006 blog earlier, and I agree with the author:

As one of the ones "learning" on this thread, I'll have to chime in.

I actually have had a scope failue, in the field, and on a backpack hunt. Last year. Being that I haven't been doing this type hunting long, I feel that the event occurred quickly in my career. I think that has made the value of iron backups more emboldened.

I was walking in typical Adirondack "big woods" with over 1.5' of snow on the ground. I was stepping over a fallen tree when my leg got caught on one of its limbs beneath the snow. My rifle was slung over my shoulder at the time. I fell backwards, pinghing the rifle between my back and the body of the tree. The scope made direct contact with the tree.

This wasn't a terrible dramatic fall, or a terribly long and painful one, either. But it was enough of a jolt to screw up a premium scope (trijicon)in good leupold steel rings. The T3 was fine. In fact, I thought absolutely NOTHING about the impact. Later that day, I had a shot on a buck. He was 30yds from me. I shot, and watched the snow fall off a pine tree, 20' up and to the left of him. Would have been more accurate throwing a rock. 2 days earlier, that rifle with that scope was shooting 1-hole 100yd groups.

While I can see that guys like timberline and Brad have done away with them for obviously good reasons, I can say that a LOT of my shots are close enough on game to say that irons could do the job if pressed into service. What does anyone suppose their weight/cost was worth to me at the moment that I realized I just saved/spent/prepped all year to go "camping with a big game license in my pocket"?

I wouldn't build a gun to go out to Brad's country and bother with backup irons when i'm going to laser 300+ yard targets. But in my woods?

I'm building a m70 lh rifle. Edge stock, lilja barrel, leupold scope, blah, blah. Can anyone imagine how furious I'd be with all that work, if that rifle becme completely incapacitated by a similar fall? Not half as furious as when I would remind myself that this already happened ONCE to me, and I failed to prepare.

So, I lean towards having B/U Irons on a rifle. I think if that experience didn't happen to me, Brad's thoughts regarding irons would ring true just like most everything he types about the outdoors. But, for now, my experience with a failure trumps everyone. If that gun goes 10 years of heavy hunting and the irons never again come into play, Kimber may have finally by then, heard that some guys shoot Lefty and have built a LH Montana. Then I'll dump the irons and do a lighter rifle. Which, when I consider how much longer Brad has been doing this, I realize that I'm following along nearly the EXACT path he took. I'm just a bit behind.

Plus, what if there is sign of bear scat while I'm walking? I'll need to be able to get the scope off quickly so I can handle a charge in heavy cover. /images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif