Not a true scout rifle, but my first deer rifle was a Ruger 77RSI in 308 with a 1.5-4.5x scope. It was a small and light package back when I was young and hunted way way up in trees. Took a lot of deer with that and never had to shoot twice. Of course, that was a lifetime ago. I'm happy now that I can walk 400 yards to my stand with my Grendel, climb four steps and sit with a roof over my head. Wish my FIL was still here. He would love my setup. He was a hunting fool.
Has the Scout Rifle Outlived it's Hey Day?
- Thread starter Shrek Of The Arctic
- Start date
He was in intelligence and killed 2 with a handgun. In WW2 he was on Guadalcanal before the Pennsylvania. Nice try though.
The reports of Cooper being at Guadalcanal are anecdotal at best. Nothing specific is out there to be found except his service aboard the Pennsylvania bombarding the shore. If you have a source, other than Cooper's own writings, please post it.
11 pages for a scout rifle that was not even a jeff cooper rifle design , It was just a shorter barreled lighter rifle that caught his attention as hunters had been using the shorter light rifle designs for decades ! Well except for the odd scope thang your ether ok with or dislike .
It is a picture of a carbine with an Ultimak rail - a means to mount any optic you want.
Cheers!
Riposte
A light handy rifle with a easily swapped magazine will always be a good idea. Now that there are many excellent low power variable illuminated scopes available the forward mounted long eye relief scope is probably not needed. Of course, if that is what you want buy one. However, conside a true one power scope with an illuminated dot and duplex reticle. Set on 1X, mount the rifle with both eyes open and put the red dot on where you want the bullet to strike. At longer ranges, turn up the power and use the reticle and dot also. A forward mounted long eye relief scope is generally a fixed lower power and not illuminated. I use a Steyr Scout every deer season that has a rear mounted Vortex Viper PST 1X6. I started out using a Ching Sling but now use an Andy's Leather Rhodesian Sling. It has better over the shoulder carrying qualities and yet still had the ability lock into your arm. Your mileage, may vary.
I'm a big fan of short, light, handy rifles but the scout scope was never a great idea to me. It just didn't work that well when I tried to compare to a conventional scope. The small variable scopes with the true 1x are quite superior in my mind.
DBrainard
Member
I beg to differ. The first forward mounted "scout scope" was the German K98 DMR (designated marksman rifle) with a whopping 1.5 power scope. The rifle on the right in the picture. The Germans provided us with a failed experiment that we definitely didn't need to try again.
Attachments
It did solve the problem of loading en bloc clips with a scope.
Even on the lowest power setting, however,
I never got comfortable with getting "into" an IER scope.
A high power setting was very difficult to get "into"
but one has more time to settle in on a long range shot.
This experience satisfied my curiosity about IER scopes
and set the stage for my "handy, friendly rifle" build,
as advocated by Colonel Cooper in The Art of the Rifle.
K98 Mausers adapt nicely to forward mounted scopes using the original rear sight assembly and Picatinny adaptor with no drilling.
Y'know, I never really gave much thought as to a so-called "Scout rifle." For my needs, I like a short-barreled, compact saddle gun that is handy, light-weight, and something that I don't think twice about when it comes to packing it. For me, it's my Ruger M77 Mk II Compact in 7mm-08 with a Leupold 3x9 scope. It fits nicely in a saddle scabbard and undoubtedly one of the last rifles I would ever give up. I suppose one might consider it a Scout rifle....sorta. Like I said, I never gave it much thought. It's small, light-weight, bolt-action and in what a Scout rifle would consider an acceptable caliber. It doesn't have a box magazine or a forward mounted scope. That's okay. I don't care. I replaced the trigger mechanism. Didn't like the original. It now has a 2½-pound trigger pull and I can pack it without it exhausting me at the end of the day.
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I no longer walk miles when hunting, but I still like a light short rifle. Sometimes I take my Scout to the blind and sometimes my Standard Reminton M7 in .260 Remington which has a Kevlar stock and a 2.5 to 8 Leupold compact - it weighs well under 7 lbs "all up" (Scope, sling and 15 rounds of ammo - 10 in a butt cuff).
I had to have to guess which one has taken more deer but both the Scout and the M-7 are quite capable.
I built me a nice '98 Mauser in .257 Roberts a couple of years ago but it is a bit too heavy and right on the cusp of being too long for my deer blind.
Riposte
I had to have to guess which one has taken more deer but both the Scout and the M-7 are quite capable.
I built me a nice '98 Mauser in .257 Roberts a couple of years ago but it is a bit too heavy and right on the cusp of being too long for my deer blind.
Riposte
Apparently I stuttered. "...in the Jeff Cooper context." We're not talking about carbines, cavalry carbines or military scoped rifles, although in this case the forward mounted scope was done for similar purposes.
And they offer fully controlled feed.
It depends what you want. Copper never said is was perfect as a scoped rifle.
Rather its a compromise that allows:
- loading from a stripper clip (forward mounted, long eye relief);
- carrying at the balance point (another reason for forward mounting)
- shooting with both eyes open (1-1.5x low end magnification, and its easier to look past a forward mounted scope with a small objective lens).
The maximum magnification only needs to be enough to see and hit a game animal at 400-500 yards (4x is plenty, 6-7x isn't going to hurt. A 2-7 variable still works provided your eyes can integrate the magnified image in your dominant eye and the unmagnified image in the other.
Pretty sure that if you're an intelligence officer, you can't say you're an intelligence officer. He was at least a Colonel by then, so I find it unlikely he killed anyone. There's certainly no independent evidence of such . . .
Then have a great day under that rock you live in.
Seems kinda mean, and totally non responsive to the discussion . . .
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