It's a fine scope with optics as you good as 99% of folks need. Those yammering away have yet to produce photos of their suitcase handle scope setups and all the game they have slain with them.

My only goal is to make it more user friendly w/o destroying its original configuration.

AS for "hunting rifles" I managed to kill a speed goat at 90 odd paces with iron sights on this Whitworth replica.

In the Civil War you really didn't want to get within 600 yards of a Confederate armed with the military version of this rifle. I now have a 3/4" Unertl 6X scope on this rifles (many CW sniper rifles also carried scopes). Even this old geezer can ring the 12" gong every shot @400 yards using a simple rest.

Comparing a muzzle loading rifle designed to be shot with sights 1/2" above the bore from an offhand position to a modern sporting rifle built when scope usage was common is just silly. The Hawken style ML shown above was designed to be shot off your hind legs and has 3X the drop as the FN. The hook buttplate goes on your upper arm not your shoulder and cheek not chin goes on the stock. They "hang" beautifully and with the DST shown, some amazing shooting can be done.

Here are a matched pair of R.F. Sedgley deluxe engraved Springfield Sporters in 257 Bob and 30-06 built for a lefty in 1935. Note that they are fine examples of the desire to have the iron sights available with the scopes mounted. Rather like the silly "see thru" rings you see today that instantly brand the rifle's owner as a rank novice.

The Remington 721 I showed earlier and the FN with the suitcase handle are about the same vintage. Note that the 721 carries a proper period Unertl Hawk and Redfield mounts. Interesting that we had it figured out on a bargain rifle while the Euros still clung to pre war technology.