I have a Henry Big Boy Steel carbine in .357. It has to be at the top of the list for most fun rifle to shoot. I mounted a red dot on mine (sacrilege I know) which makes it a point and shoot setup. With a heavy load of H110 and a Honrady 158 XTP-FP, there is not a deer alive that can survive it. It's traveling 1650-1800 fps and gets it done.
My sons first deer rifle had a Red Dot on it. Thought it was the best thing in the world since I thought HMMM eye relief ? scope eye? No problem teach the boy to put the dot on the target and go boom right? Well he killed his first doe at 30 yards no problem. Hit her a bit high but the boy was 10 years old. We have all been there. Then he kills another doe a few weeks later hits her really low and I am thinking he was hitting a B-27 TARGET to simulate a deer inverted pretty well at the range at 50 yards what gives?
Then we got up on a deer at 75 yards overlooking a field. He says he cannot see the deer at all. I say give me the rifle. Sure enough the dot is covering the entire deer for the most part. Impossible to get any sort of shot on the deer. I think the dot was a 6 min dot. A 3 Min dot would have been better probably.
Even the Firedot systems on the Leupolds and similar Scopes with Magnification tend to wash out on Deer and other Light Colored animals. I think they are better suited for Dark Colored hides like Bear and Wild Boar.
Home defense and tactical set ups? Probably the greatest thing since sliced bread.
