...2) Quit using the term "tacticool" You are denigrating a collection of hard use folks, many of whom were trained in LE or service during GWOT about using a rifle to fight, which along with hunting is the primary purpose of a firearm. I admit the 45-70 critter shown serves no purpose for me, but I am purposefully setting up my Marlin .357 somewhat like that as I NEED the RDS and ability to mount a good 1000 lumen light. It is not a coincidence that most of my training was with an AR platform and that function drives the training and equipment. The blue steel/wood cosmetic fetish has roughly the social utility of an "adult" website.
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We'll have to disagree with how "tacticool" is used.
We agree that a modular system is designed so that you can equip a rifle or carbine specifically for the mission at hand. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
"Tacticool" as opposed to "tactical" refers to the guy who buys an AR-15 or similar rail equipped rifle or carbine and then proceeds to tart it up with all kinds of accessories, and keeps them all on the rifle all of the time, regardless of the actual, intended or projected use.
This is extreme, but it takes far less than this to qualify as tacticool.
In fact, I'll take the position that the tacticool guys are the ones denigrating the working folks who actually understand the modular concept.
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Now, I can agree there might be situations where you need both a red dot sight and a light on a lever action.
A RDS alone can be managed easily with minimum impact on the weight and handling of the rifle with something like the Turnbull rear sight mount.
Also adding a light might imply a need for a quad rail type solution, and yet Skinner, Hill People, and others make a short pic rail that mounts on the magazine tube that will allow mounting a light.
Solutions like that have the advantage of good PR in not making a traditional cowboy style lever action look like a military weapon, and they have minimal impact on the weight, balance and snag resistance of the rifle. It's a win-win. It just doesn't look "tacticool".
The argument often is "but I live in a jurisdiction where assault rifles are banned!!". That always prompts me to ask why they got banned there in the first place and how they think it will go down when lever guns start looking just like the semi auto assault rifles that got banned. It won't end well, so its really short sighted to poke that bear.