I'll argue the opposite viewpoint. As noted early on in this thread, I was against mounting ANY scope, because the rifle likely never had one whilst in service. So, why remove a scope from the pool for use on a rifle that didn't have one in the first place.

Since Mudhut DID mount a bracket on the possibly unmarred pads, it's all downhill from there.

The barrel situation IS extremely curious, though. It couldn't have been in service in such a state, so that throws the whole package into a "suspect" category. Hmmm.