I have noticed over the last few years that the quality of open sights is getting very very much worse, even those sights on my old rifles seem to have gone fuzzy.

I am not a fan of red dots. I much prefer a decent little scope. And by little, I mean something with a 1” tube. On my Ferlach combination gun I mostly use it with its original 6x42 Zeiss from mid 1970’s. Its wonderfully bright, simple 4a reticle. It comes to my shoulder like a fine shotgun with the sights aligned.

I wish that 1” tubed scopes are still made by top quality makers. They are light in weight, and can be mounted nice and low. Yes on a 30 or 34mm scope there is more room for lots of elevation dialing, but on a hunting rifle whats the point. Set the sights to shoot 4cm high at 100m - and the bullet will hit within an inch or two of point of aim to 200 and if you want to shoot at 300 hold a bit high.

I do have a 1-4x20 also on claw mounts. But its a 30mm tubed S&B and its bulky. I tend not to use it. I should have bought a 1-4x18mm when these were still made.

Most of the low power scopes these days are based on the tactical needs of AR type rifles, where their bulk doesn’t matter. As for 1-8x20 - I just question why?