They are a fine rifle. You can mount a scope on it but you should go with a scope with plenty of eye relief. Most Luepolds have 4 inches which is enough. I have a Luepold M8 4X scope on mine and it never gets me. Another excellent scope would be the Simmons Aetec. It has five inches of eye relief and is tough as hell. They will last many years. My NEF 45-70 will shoot 2 inch groups at 100 yards. I am sure it will do better as I work up loads. A very mild nice load to shoot in the rifle is 13.0 grains of Unique. I don't think I spelled that right but my mind went blank. That behind the 405 grain lead flat nose bullet. Shoots about 1150 fps and is very consistant and accurate. I have five NEF long guns right now.