RE: iron sights
I still use iron sights, though not exclusively! Actually I prefer " peep" sights to plain open sights. I have a 16.25" barreled Marlin in .44 Rem Mag with a peep. And a Ruger Carbine in .40 S&W with Ghost Ring " peep" rear. Additionally I have an unaltered 8X57 Mauser with the " balleycorn" rear and inverted triangle front. My SKS' s have their original open sights. (Even have a 20 gauge we originally set up for my son equipped with a rear " peep" sight!) Also I have a Remington 673 chambered for .350 Rem Mag and even though I am mounting a scope on it....it will be in Leupold Quick Release bases and rings. I like the sight picture on the 673 and want to have them accessable if I so choose! And of course I have open sights on my flintlock .50 and on both the smooth bore slug barrel and the " rifled" barrel on my Remington 870. So I guess you could say I still enjoy using and continue to use open sights!
I also have a number of other rifles set up that are fairly strictly scoped!