Iron sights are better than a lot of people think.
One of my first and best rifles was a 1903 Springfield which the previous owner had installed a Redfield receiver rear sight and a sourdough front sight. A great combination.
I also picked up a used Sears version of the model 94 Winchester. It was one of my all time favorites. The reveiver had an awful looking mottled color of what was once, some sort of bluing. It was a post 64 model but was smooth as silk in functioning.
It also had a Redfield receiver sight. It was also the only model 94 I have ever owned which was accurate.
“Iron sights are better than a lot of people think.”
Iron sights are more robust and reliable than a finicky scope. Scopes are nice to have, but a true rifleman knows how to shoot and score at a distance without one.
The first rifle I every shot larger than a .22 was a 1903 Springfield. I was 12 or 13 and pencil skinny at the time. I remember thinking I broke my shoulder. No, I wished I could get one and not pay a small fortune for it.
I had an M1A back in the early 2000s that I could shoot holes though coins at 200m using open sights. I’d staple a quarter or a dime to the center of an 8”x8” target that was stapled to a 12”x14” piece of plywood. At 200m the plywood was about 1/4 the width of the front post. I just centered everything up and it was dead on. Now my eyes are old and I am out of practice.
The original Ought-Threes came with vernier iron sights calibrated to 2800 yards. I don't even have a scopre that can see that far, much less hit something at that distance.