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My Krieghoff Teck O/U DR has a 2 1/2X Lyman All American scope in claw mounts on the .458 Winchester Magnum barrel set and a 3X Lyman All American, also in claw mounts, on the .375 H&H barrel set. Keep in mind this rifle was built in 1971 and the optics were top of the line at that time.

I have taken one elephant and one Cape Buffalo with the .458 set and lion, leopard, eland, greater kudu and lesser kudu with the .375 set. I have never used the iron sights and would only do so if the scope was somehow damaged. At my age, I can't get a good sight picture with open sights anyway without special shooting glasses which would be worthless in the game field. Scopes are the way to go.

Having said that, my "stopper" is a .505 on a P-14 Enfield action, and it has a Lyman 48 receiver sight and Redfield Sourdough front sight as its only sighting equipment. With it I have taken one black rhino, three elephants and five Cape Buffalo. However, were I to use it again, I would probably outfit it with a Leupold 1.5-5X VariXIII scope, like the one I plan to use on my .500 NE Krieghoff, still under construction.

One thing I forgot to mention was that a scope in my opinion should always be as unobtrusive as possible and should be mounted as low as possible, so as not to interfere with the rifle's handling. This generally means no scopes with enlarged objective lenses and a rifle stocked with a minimum of drop. For this reason, equipping a rifle with a scope as an afterthought is usually a bad idea. A DR stocked for very low iron sights is unlikely to point properly with even the lowest mounted scope.

All my scope mounted DR's were stocked with scopes in mind and all the scopes have straight tubes. I am particularly put off by the kind of hugh variable powered scopes one often sees on German DR's. Of course, they are intended for shooting wild boar from stands by moonlight, and handling qualities are secondary in such situations, but they still look all out of proportion, like full rigged ships under sail. To be fair to the German hunters, they often equip the DR's with a sceond low powered straight tube scope especially for driven game shooting.

My ideal low mounted scope is the one on my Winchester Model 70 in .450 Watts Magnum: a 22mm Lyman Alaskan with post reticle in a Griffin & Howe side mount. Whether I am using it or the alternative Lyman 48 receiver sight, the rifle mounts and points just the same.

Edited by xausa (20/05/07 01:13 AM)