Thanks for the replies. I'm thinking the scope lets me shoot more deer, but also will decrease the number of bad shots as well.

Scope all the way

I am almost 70 years old, so far I can still use the open sights on my Hawken. I expect that will change one day as I have had to put peep sights on my Win. 94. I have a 1.5-4.5 scope on a 3006, which I can shoot more accurately then the other guns, probably due to the scope. I have a tang peep sight to put on the Hawken one of these days, but I will not mount a scope on it. If I can not use the peep sight accurately, then I will retire the Hawken and get an in-line and mount a scope on it. To me, a scope doesn't look right on a Hawken.

I've seen that sentiment expressed often Jenks. It always puzzles me. If one likes sidelocks, why would it be preferable to shoot an in-line with a scope over scoping a favorite sidelock?

I consider my peep sighted sidelocks to be 75 yard guns (maybe a tad more under perfect conditions) and my scoped sidelocks to be 125-150 yard guns. I have two in-lines, but favor sidelocks.

deleted : no longer want to be on the forum

Semisane, that is a great looking collection of guns. You are right, the side hammers don't look so bad with scopes on them. Maybe I have let tradition cloud my thinking. Also, I had a TC Hawken that a friend had tried to mount a scope on, I had bought it from him before I really examined it closely. He had someone drill a couple of holes for the mount, one of the holes was out of line. I then found out that TC didn't want folks drilling holes in their barrels. I never shot the gun. I decided to clean the bore butter out of the barrel and sell the gun, there was rust under the bore butter. So I did sell it to a guy that trashed the barrel and put another on it. All of that may have soured me on mounting scopes on Hawkens. I also like the idea of a stainless barrel that is not as quick to rust. The ones I have seen were in-lines that were drilled for scope mounts at the factory. So I am keeping my eyes open for a good inline stainless to mount a scope on for hunting. To each his own.

'Ah don't need no stinkin scope!

That's it MD, No More BS209 fom you:)
(BP)

I shoot with both open sights, and a scope. Durring our Ml'er season we cant use scopes, so have my Wolf set up with a williams peep. But durring our gun season, we can use scopes, so I have my Accura V2 set up with a scope on it.

No, MD, I guess you don't need a scope. Just a lead sled and twenty-some year old eyes. Bite me! :)