Posted
2016-09-22 21:42:54 by: Johnny Gearfire
Photo by Steyr/Ruger
Steyr Scout Rifle (top): Built in collaboration with Jeff Cooper, the original factory-made scout model comes in .223, .243, 7mm/08, and .308.
Ruger Gunsite Scout: Chambered for .223 and .308, this popular rifle comes in 11 different versions, including left-hand models.
Some guns are instant successes. Others require years for their wonderfulness to percolate down to the shooting public. And so it has been with the scout rifle, the brainchild of Jeff Cooper, a hugely influential writer, instructor, Marine Corps officer, and all-around shooter and hunter. Before 2011, there was only one factory-made scout rifle. Since then, Cooper’s idea of the perfect all-around rifle has caught fire, and there are now at least five.
He used the term scout to evoke a lone soldier who had to move rapidly and shoot only rarely, but accurately. This was a rifle for him—but also for the hunter who wanted one gun to do many jobs. Cooper began work on the concept roughly in 1980, and the specs he eventually came up with are these:
A bolt action in .308, or if that was not feasible for some reason, 7mm/08.
Feeds from a 10-round detachable magazine.
Weighs about 7 pounds without scope.
Employs a ghost-ring rear peep sight and a blade front, either as primary sights or as backup.
Optional scope is a fixed-power IER model of low magnification mounted on a Picatinny rail.
Barrel length is between 16 and 20 inches.
Trigger pull is roughly 21⁄2 pounds.
Accuracy of 1⁄12 to 2 inches at 100 yards.
Not to be used to hunt critters of more than 1,000 pounds, or dangerous game, or at ranges longer than 400 yards.
Given the new popularity of Cooper’s design, my editors issued me a challenge: Get your hands on as many scouts as you can, they said, to find out which are the best. So I have done. (Or tried to; one test rifle came without a firing pin.) After handling and/or shooting the current crop, I concluded that today’s best scout ...
View more...
