Picked up a good/cheap deal on an older Marlin 30-30. It's not perfect, but will make an excellent carry/truck gun. Not wanting to spend a whole lot on scoping this thing, as I only paid $200. Seems several Marlin owners are fond of this scope, but I'm leery do to is cheap price. Seems to get fair reviews, but what say the CF experts here?
When I came of elk hunting age in the early 70's my dad gave me a first year production M700 "carbine" in 270W, topped with a old Lyman scope that was kinda' dark to look through.
In anticipation of this day, I had saved my pennies and promptly went to the local sporting goods store and traded in the Lyman on a new Banner 1.5-4 and a Western skinning knife when they were still made in Boulder.
Traded the M700, the Western knife sits a box with the rest of my spare hunting knives, the Bushnell now sits atop a M721 "camp rifle" and still sees occasional use.
Killed a lot of elk with that scope in the 70's, and bear, pronghorns, plus a B&C buck too. That scope has been carried on LOTS of high country horsepack hunts and survived in a scabbard despite the best efforts of my cantankerous cowhorse, (the same horse that bent the barrel on my dad's M721 almost 45 years ago) plus all the way to Georgia on a whitetail hunt.
I think the old jap made Bushnell optics are still good stuff. I have a pair of 10x50 Custom binos I carry in my truck. Bought it for $45 on Craigslist.
Casey
