I had a Mueller 2-7 ( Multishot, illuminated) I put on a customized Glenfield lever that had been rechambered to 356 Win. It was a near 300 yard lever with pointed Hornady FTX bullets, and I wanted some glass on it instead of a peep sight. Nice scope for one and a half bills. The 4 MOA dot on the Mueller 1-4x is too big, and as you said it isn't a long eye relief scope anyway. I too am looking for an optic to put on my Ultimak rail. I have mounted a scope over the action of my Mini in the past just to test loads for accuracy, but don't like them there at all. Not low enough and I don't want anything mounted over/near the action. For a scout mount I was considering the Leupold VXR Scout 1.5-5x Fire Dot, or the Burris 2-7x BDC Scout scope. I looked at a Nikon 2.5-8x (Force XR handgun scope) yesterday. Nice and clear, light, reasonable price and it had the BDC reticle as well. But the eye relief changes quite a bit depending on what power you have it set at. I held it over the rail of a Ruger GSR at the store, and eye relief was fine at the lower powers, at the higher powers, 5x and above, I could no longer see through the scope. Now I am rethinking what I want my Mini for. I am willing to sacrifice some longer range accuracy in order to get more speed at closer ranges. I seriously doubt in a pinch for self defense I would have the option or time to use a rest and shoot the smaller groups my Mini is now capable of, more important to get a shot off quicker than the adversary before he shoots you. I went and bought a 2 MOA Aimpoint Patrol, went with that over an EOTech EXPS/XPS, because of way better battery life, so good you can always leave it on. Also the dot wasn't as "fuzzy" looking, and the made in Sweden Aimpoint's have a lifetime warranty as compared to the EOTech's 2 year warranty. The EOTech's have a bunch of buttons at the back, I like the simple,one big knob of the Aimpoint better, not that you would have to turn on the Aimpoint when needed, it will already be on. But to adjust brightness in low light or the dark, it would be much easier to feel the big knob on the end of the Aimpoint, than to find the correct button on the EOTech.