i have an older ruger mini 14 in the 141 serial # series that rides around 24/7 in my kawasaki mule on a ranch. it has a red dot site that always has a dead batt when i need it, which is rarely. looking for a 4X short lightweight scope that will sit on the top Piccininni rail. any suggestions?

Sorry to hear about those batteries but not so surprised. Your need is probably governed by resistence to the double shunt of the self-loading action and being used to a highly visible reticle, as well as size.

Ray Atkinson would probably recommend a Leupold Compact 2.5x or a later version. If you can find one, I'd prefer an old reticle-movement scope of about the same size.

Nickel, Pecar, Kahles and Unertl come to mind but there are others. Zeiss/Hensoldt, Unertl and Kahles made neat 4× scopes with smallish objectives but some of the others were a bit big for your purpose.

If you get one with the German #1 reticle it will be plenty for low-light situations except, just maybe, when hunting black bear.

PS: obviously you won't be chasing black bear with that rifle. Maybe you could look for one of the smaller Leupold 4x scopes with the 28mm objective. These generally have a duplex reticle, which should be visible enough in most light.

well, i did get a scout type scope, 4x, bushnell. haven't even had a chance to dial it in yet.