My rifles that have irons and a scope, the hood is left on for the sight's prtoection. When/if removing the scope for iron sight use, the hood also comes off.
: My rifles that have no scopes have no hoods on the front sight.
: For iron sights, I prefer an ivory bead for a front sight, with shallow "V" for the rear sight. I find this combination gives almost as good accuracy on target as a low powered scope, and the ivory shows perfectly in the darker forest on game.
: Any comercial rear sight can be filed to the shallow "V" like an 'express' sight. I have done this on several guns including a .375 Winchester BB 94XTR and it's perfect - coupled with the ivory bead. That rifle is exceptionaly fast & hard shooting and has taken 2 mature moose for me so far.