I'm having a 375 Ruger built by Kevin Weaver. The only hunting I will be using it for is Big Bears in Alaska, and possibly; Cow Elephants and Buff in Africa. The rifle will be built on a FN mauser action, with a 21" Pacnor barrel, and Lone Wolf Stalker stock. I'm seriously considering making it a dedicated open sight rifle. Similar to the 458 Lott by Ron Paul that 458wim used two seasons ago.
Am I making a mistake, does anyone have any hunting experience with a rifle like this?

DR B

It gets awfully dark at last light along some of those salmon streams. I would prefer a super quality low magnification scope with a bold or even illuminated reticle. You can have Talley mounts installed and use the Talley peep in the bases if you wished and have the option of going either way.

You have me torn on this one. I love my 1x4's and 1.5x5's but at the same token my peeps are hard to beat.

Right now I am having a 9.3x62 (still after a year) and its having wildwestguns peeps put on it. they actually fit a mauser pretty good.

I got the same sights on my co-pilot. All I have to say is excellent and I'm not to fond of WWG.

Its a draw, a good low powered scope vs peep. I like them both.

In your situation, I would go with the glass, only cuz distances may not always be close or at darker times of the day.

i've used peep on back up for big bears and if they are farther than one hundred you really don't have any idea what your aiming at...front post just covers the animal, horrible option for shooting if ANY of the shots have to be taken very far away or if the animal is running off. i carry my peep in case my luey 1.5-5 goes belly up on me, i've been in on alot of bears and none of them have i wished i had a peep in stead, but the one i was on with a peep, i wished i had a scope...

.........I agree with jake but would add that a wet bear in the rain, in the timber and dark conifer brush ,on a fish crik is about impossible to see where to put the cross hairs of most scopes .....Including top end European scopes,,, if there isn,t something illuminating the reticle ....the heavy duplex like Leupold sells is better than nuthin,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but an illuminated reticle can make or break the hunt ......Dem big bears don,t often stick their mug out in the open till its about DARK ...................Then you still got to walk out ...............There are 2 problems with a scope ,#1 the lenses get wet and fogged up and then all you have is a carry handle for your rifle if you can,t get the lenses cleaned off .................................fall bear season , and 2 plus inches of rain per day are sinonims .........The other is they get in the way of carrying the rifle comfortably ........But a good tough scope in milled into the reciever bases ie CZ or Ruger makes a good handle if the barrel isn,t too long and the rings are high .............I prefer express sights ...............But for trophy hunting I would use an illuminated reticle scope ...

I love a rear peep sight. This mostly dates back to my days of collage smallbore shooting where I learned how accurate a peep can be.

Having said that one thing I've learnd in 29 years guiding brown bears has been that a scope will be advantagas almost every time. All of my DG rifles have QD mounts and when hunting big bears I typicly will carry my rifle without the scope on and attach it on final stalk. The only time I will use the iron sight will be if I have to fallow up on a wounded bear in the really heavy brush. In this case I prefer a express sight.

Under 75 yards or so a peep can not be beat. But bears often do not listen to the rules and will venture outside the 75 yard rule. I would go with either a low powered variable or a fixed 2.5

For buffalo, especially in Tanzania, a scope is really a necessity IMO. jim brockman has a very nice pop-up peep sight that installs on the scope mount, pops up when you remove the scope. i would try that rather than a dedicated peep sight. the 375 has the ballistics to take advantage of a scope.

Another vote for the scope, 90+% of the time it'll will allow one to place the all important first shot with better precision than a peep.

There is a big difference between placing shots on game with no aiming point that lining up a round target with a target peep sight.

And even more important than what you use to aim is putting in the time to be able to quickly aquire and take shots from field positions.

I have a custom 416 Rem Mag that wears a low powered Leupold- 1.75-6 with a Brockman Pop up peep under tally quick detach rings. The front sight is an XS post with a white line in the center. This gives me a choice/backup in the field. The 416 when loaded with 350 Barnes Tripple shocks at 2600 fps. has the trajectory of an '06. Your 375 will probably shoot a bit flatter so a scope would definitely be in order. I'm off to Kodiak this spring to try for a bear and will leave the scope on as my primary sight. I shot a couple of cape buffalo with this setup last year and would have had a hard time with the peep as they were in dark areas in the woods, a bear in the alders at last light would be hard to see with a peep. I use the XS peep/front sight on my muzzle loaders and have installed them on several friends rifles and can shoot them well but they have their limitations.

................Lewis, that sounds like a great setup........I,m actually thinking about going to the 2.5-8 x scope with my 416 ..But I,ll probably end up with a 1.5-6 or 1.5-5 power variable .....I prefer the express sight and have no need for a scope in the summer when hikeing , working or berry picking .....

The Brockman pop-up peep sounds like a really good idea. In fact, I had one installed on a .416 Hoffman built last year. It's coming off...

The biggest problem with it is that the adjustment is not positive; it's simply an allen screw that cranks the sight up or down...no positive stops. Therefore, it's more subject to changing. Also, the peep, when pushed down under the scope, scratches the scope body. I couldn't get the sight to zero either, but that was more a function of the front sight not being high enough. OTOH, a higher front sight just obscures more of the scope field of view.

I'm going back to a quarter rib and single vee. It was a worthwhile experiment, but the standard, more bullet-proof rear appeals to me much more now.

The brockman pop up peep is an excellent idea, but expensive. I priced one from brockman, he only makes drop in units for the Model 70 and Montana Rifleman actions. He will do one for a Mauser but it is a custom build and he needs the barreled action. His cost was around $250 to $300 dollars.

A cheaper and almost as good solution is to install Warne Maxima or Weaver Bases and a XS removable backup ghost ring and front sight. I did this on a mauser I built for my son and it works great. The ghost ring is stored in a muzzle loading patch box inlet in the butt stock when not in use. The patch box is blued and polished. I had it engraved and gold inlaid with my sons name and the date I presented him the rifle. I didn't know how it would look when I came up with the idea but it really looks classy.

Scope for low light and for picking holes in brush. I built a 416 T in case I go for the big bears some day. It wears a 1.75 x 6 leupold as its only only sight.

I have to line up on the low magnification scope side. Quick detachable mounts with open sights are always a plus.All of my rifles of whatever caliber must have open sights. You never know when you might need them.

Post driver, you must be doing something wrong with the brockman peep, I have one on my 458 Lott and 375 H&H. They work VERY well. I have a sourdough post on the lott and tritium bean on the 375.

The one on my 375 has been kicking around seeing some pretty rough conditions for the last four years, probably had 250 or so rounds thru it and it hasn't changed zero on me yet. At 6lb 4oz my 375 is a real kicker too. I checked the zero this year with the peep and it was still dead on at 25 yards and a tad high at 100. I had a 1.5-5 illuminated VxIII on the 375 but switched it to the lott and put a 3-9x40 VxII on the 375. Hope it holds up to the recoil.

Although I do like the ghost ring sight, and it would get the sighting job done for sure, with today's scope technology, I have to opt for a GOOD low power scope.
I bought one of Leupold's VX-7 scopes in 1.5-6x. It is far and away superior to any other scope I've looked through; the image is stunning. I leave mine set at 3x, but 2x would be better for your application. And, I understand that the Swarovski Z-6 in that same power range is better than the VX-7.

Don

I vote for a low power scope

My .375 Ruger has a 2-7 Leupold Rifleman on it. I left the factory sights on "just in case". Low power for close up, usually set on 5x for normal range.

I am a big fan of iron sights, either shallow V or a peep sight..

Most of my guns go with irons for dangerous game with a scope for a backup..I have my actions surface ground and bases hand fitted as this seems to make replacement of the scope come to exact zero, if you position the levers the same every time..

All my rifles are custom stocked and low combs. I don't mind shooting a scoped rifle with a low comb stock, it works fine for me, but won't work the other way, can't shoot irons with a high comb..I was raised on low comb M-70s then Bill Weaver gave all of us in my family a then new Weaver 2.5X and we didn't know any better about shooting with low combs...A blessing in disguise that still works for me.

Amen to the low powered scope with a low comb stock, here's mine.

quote:

Originally posted by Oregon45:
Amen to the low powered scope with a low comb stock, here's mine.

What are the specifics of your rifle, especially the stock.

THanks

..........Thats a pre 64 model 70 isn,t it ,,?...

Specs:

Rifle: Pre-64 Model 70, 30-06. Cerakoted in graphite black.

Stock: McMillan factory replacement, painted brown. Basically a clone of the pre-64 low comb stock.

I've since taken the scope off this rifle and have an XS ghost ring sight on the rear Weaver mount. I did this more for carrying convenience than anything as I like to have the rifle in my hand when just putting around.

......Nice Rifle.....

Although I stated I prefered iron sights with a scope as a backup, I would not recommend that for just everyone, particularly most of you who have grown up shooting scopes..

A good 3X, 1x4, 1.5x5 Leupold would probably be a much better choice for about any hunting...

I would recommend a good scope with an illuminated reticle in QD mounts AND good iron sights, either a wide V or peep, your choice.

Call Brockman before You choose..I have 2 45-70's with his Tritium Ghost Ring set-up.. This system will be a big asset when it grows Dark..
AK

Here are pictures of my rig with the XS rear ghost ring sight.