Scout rifle, circa 2016

[oldtexan]

What's wrong with a Steyr Scout in caliber .308 with a Leupold MK4 1.5-5X20 SPR scope mounted over the action? Is this out of the desired price range?

I've got a Steyr Scout and tried mounting a Leu 1.5-5X on mine. Couldn't get it to work out. The rifle's receiver only has two slots over it, and they aren't in the right place for me to mount the scope and get good eye relief. Too bad Steyr hasn't modified the rifle at some point to have a true Picatinny rail from the rear of the reciver to the front end of the stock.

[LittleLebowski]

Starting in the late 80's, I became enamored with the Scout rifle concept, as put forth by Jeff Cooper. In 1991, my wife and I attended API 270 at Gunsite, taught by Jeff Cooper, where we spent a glorious week being exposed to Jeff, the Gunsite staff and facility, all the while being enlightened as to what you can do with a light bolt action rifle that can both deliver a reasonably powerful rifle cartridge quickly up close, and reach way out there and touch something. Over the years, I have had built countless practical rifles, incorporating some to all the features Jeff Cooper thought should be on a Scout rifle. My favorite rifles have been model 70 based, and built by Jim Brockman.

Fast forward to today, where we have different rifles available, different optics available, different laws, and potentially different applications for the light rifle. Consider offerings from Tikka, CZ, Ruger, Kimber and others in the light rifle area that shoot accurately, carry light and cost a fraction of a full up custom rifle. Consider how the scout scope has largely been obsoleted by the low power variable and red dot. Consider laws that limit the action type of rifles and magazine capacity. Consider threats like we have seen in Baton Rouge, Dallas, Orlando, and San Bernardino.

To experiment, I have been thinking about putting together one or more currently available light rifles that will allow me to maintain bolt gun proficiency, shoot steel, paper, small game and even larger animals, and if necessary could be employed defensively. Some possibilities that come to mind are:

CZ 527 in 7.62x39 with a 30mm Aimpoint over the action. Inexpensive ammo, accurate gun, lightweight, tiny magazines, and an action that is slick as snot.

Ruger American, threaded, 16 inch bolt action in .300 BLK. $400, supposedly moa accurate, neat five round magazines. Either a red dot or fixed 2.5 power Leupold as glass.

Tikka CTR in 6.5 or .308, cut down to 16.25 inches to save weight, ten round magazines, great reputation for accuracy, and a yet to be determined optic.

What do you think?

.300BLK supersonic because ammo commonality with your existing .300BLK ARs.

[Matt O]

It looks like they might.


Okie John

I really hope they make a LH version; I'd be all over that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DamonL]

The original list looks like rifles, I would try, too. The CTR would be too heavy for me as a general purpose bolt gun. For me, I would want a .308 so that would eliminate the CZ. The Ruger can be had in .308 so I would try that one, but I wonder if it can be run hard.

Why is the Ruger Scout, not on the list of possible rifles? It is CRF, short, light (with the synthetic stock), and magazine fed.

The Ruger American Predator in .308 is another possibility.

I have no experience with any of these rifles, so its just me thinking out loud about what I would shop for in a general-purpose bolt rifle.

[UNK]

http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2016/07...tm_campaign=nl

SCOUT: The One Rifle To Rule Them All…

Posted at 9:08 pm on July 20, 2016 by Bob Owens


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steyr scout

I think there is an argument to be made that no other individual had as much of an impact on the usage of small arms in the late 20th and early 21st centuries than Col. Jeff Cooper. Col. Cooper is perhaps best known for popularizing the “four rules” of gun safety and the Modern Technique of the Pistol, which he taught at the shooting school he founded, the world-famous Gunsite Academy.

Those things alone would be a tremendous accomplishment for most people, but Cooper wasn’t content to focus his life only on handguns. Col. Cooper was also a rifleman, and there is an argument to be made that a concept he popularized, the scout rifle, is just beginning to really hit its stride a full decade, after Col. Cooper passed on.

Col. Cooper began developing the concept of the scout rifle in the late 1980s as “the one rifle you would have if you could only have just one rifle.” It might not be as accurate at distance as a precision rifle, put as much lead downrange as fast as a pure fighting rifle, or be as light as a pack rifle, but was designed to do almost everything relatively well and be a light, and compact weapon that could go almost anywhere.


“It’s most outstanding characteristic is handiness. It is light, compact, and user friendly… It is easy to carry, convenient to pack into a boat, car, or airplane, powerful enough for any targets shot of pachyderms, and easily provisioned throughout the world. It is ideally adapted to the snap shot, and is quite able to group well into the vital zone of a 200-pound target out to around 400 paces… under field conditions.”

—The Scout Rifle: Some Simple Principles – Guns & Ammo – July 1988.

Over a period of years, Cooper refined the concept down into a set of fairly rigid criteria; those rifles that fit the criteria were scout rifles, and those that were outside the parameters were dubbed “pseudo-scouts.”

The criteria for a scout rifle includes specifications for the rifle, sights, optics, slings, an accessories

The rifle
1.1 meter or less in length
2.Chambered in .308 Winchester (or at least uses the .308 as a parent case)
3.short-action
4.18-20 inch barrel
5.good trigger
6.light weight (ideal was 3 kilos or 6.6 pounds with sights, scope, and sling; max was 7.5 pounds with sights, scope, and sling)

The sights
1.low-mounted, long eye relief optics with low magnification, mounted forward of the action
2.ghost-ring rear sight, and a post front sight

The sling
1.CW or Ching sling
2.flush-mounted sling swivel sockets (no protruding hardware)

Accessories
1.Butt magazine or cuff for ammo storage
2.collapsible or vanishing bipod
3.magazine cut-off
4.Stripper clip compatibility

For a long while, the only way to get a scout rifle was to send your short-action .308 rifle to a competent gunsmith to be reworked to Scout criteria, which could easily lead to a very expensive firearm.

Fortunately for us today in the middle of the scout rifle’s resurgence, we have a number of factory-made scouts to choose from.

Steyr Scout

Introduced in 1998, the Steyr Scout is the “grandaddy” of all factory scout rifles, and the only scout personally approved of by Col. Cooper in his lifetime. Owning a Steyr Scout was originally a very expensive prospect. As time has passed, however Steyr has not only refused to raise the price of their Scout, but has recently been able to drop the price of the rifle to a MSRP of $1,499 as interest in the platform has surged.

scout-mud_1

The Steyr Scout is popular and versatile enough that it became the basis of a precision rifle, the Steyr Elite .308.

Ruger Gunsite Scout

Perhaps nothing is more directly responsible for the recent resurgence of the scout rifle concept as the Ruger Gunsite Scout, which was developed in close partnership with Gunsite Academy. Introduced in 2012, with blued and stainless versions for both right and left handed shooters, it it a sub-$1,000 price point that is attractive to a lot of shooters. 6822

Mossberg MVP Scout

Mossberg jumped into the expanding scout rifle market last year with the MVP Scout, a variant cleverly designed to use magazines from both the M1A and SR-25/AR-10 family of rifles. The MSRP on this newest scout is listed at a MSRP of $738, and can be found for significantly less, assuring that it will be once of the top-selling scouts for years to come.

mossberg mvp scout

Honorable Mention: Savage Model 11 Scout

The Savage 11 Scout has a MSRP of $818 and may convert lot of fans of the AccuTrigger, but its too-beefy design is both a little too long and too heavy to be a true scout.

scout

Honorable Mention: Springfield Armory Squad Scout

Springfield Armory makes a trio of short-barreled M1A variants designed for forward-mounted scopes including the Squad Scout, but weighing in a hefy-8.8 pounds empty, they don’t come close to meeting the core concept of being light and easy to carry.

springfield scout

* **

I was fortunate to be one of a hand-selected group of attendees for the second-ever Scout Rifle Conference at Gunsite Academy last week, where an influential group of scout rifle experts, shooters, media, and and manufacturers got together to train on the platform, have a friend;y competition, and then hold a roundtable to help manufacturers further refine their designs.

scout rifle sticker

I’d not fired a scout rifle under field conditions prior the the Scout Rifle Conference, but by the end of the week, I’m sold on the concept of the scout rifle as one of the most mature and thoroughly refined concepts I’ve encountered.

We’ll be talking more about the Scout Rifle Conference in the days ahead.

[secondstoryguy]

Damn Steve, that CZ/Winny hybrid is going to motivate me to build another rifle. I've long thought of ditching backup irons and just carrying a pre-zeroed T2 or RMR in my pocket with a QD base to act as a back up sight/brush sight instead of irons.

One of my ideas is to have a barrel profile like your FN bottom metal rifle but have the barrel maker add a flare(kinda like a a counterweight flare on a palma or target rifle). This would solve the problem of mounting a suppressor or muzzle device on a light contour barrel. Another thought was to cut the threads on it to match an Accuracy International back up iron front sight(these sights screw on to the factory threads of AI rifles) and this would give you a rock-solid mil-spec front sight to play with.

Another thing I would like is a lightweight folding stock for a Winny. I've thrown a lot of pennys in the wishing well for this but nothing has emerged. Eberlestock was going to release his stock for a W70 but when production came around it was for a Rem 700 only. The solution to the stock problem would be to buy one of the new Mausingfield actions but damn they are expensive.

[GJM]

Jim Brockman is now making a lightweight, controlled feed bolt, with a folding stock, based on a Kimber action. Will see if I can get a picture.

[rob_s]

I think there are several threads around here pertaining to the "practical rifle" which, to my mind, has replaced the concept of the Scout.

To be considered a "Scout Rifle", beyond the litany of criteria collected by the Cooper-nistas as published in various places, it has to have the forward-mounted scope. Which, also IMO, is anachronistic and shows a lack of historical knowledge on the part of the buyer. You have to understand the state of the optics market then vs. now. At that time, the forward-mounted scope was the only real option to balance up-close speed with magnification at distance. Now we have more 1.x-Y optic choices than we can count, and so the forward-mounted scope becomes a less-good option.

I also, personally, think that in today's market and outside of various niches, the gun should cost no more than $1k, and the optic no more than $500. Anything more than that and you have to start asking yourself what the advantage of said snowflake gun might be (especially in the alternate calibers mentioned) over a standard AR.

[rob_s]

This looks mildly interesting if it (a) wasn't a mossberg and (b) was controlled-feed instead of push and (c) that top rail is removable for normal-people mounts
http://www.mossberg.com/product/mvp-scout-rifle-27778/

[GJM]

This looks mildly interesting if it (a) wasn't a mossberg and (b) was controlled-feed instead of push and (c) that top rail is removable for normal-people mounts
http://www.mossberg.com/product/mvp-scout-rifle-27778/

I hear they are accurate.