I have been reading about Jeff Cooper's scout rifle concept and it's got me thinking about building one. It seems like it fell out of fashion but the idea of a lightweight, versatile bolt gun with forward-mounted optic still makes sense. I saw a Ruger Gunsite Scout at the range last month and it got me interested again. Is anyone running scout rifles or building them? share you setup
Scout rifle concept builds
- Thread starter Spotter
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Deleted member 53
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What makes sense about it ? I never understood the concept. To me it’s no quicker than other rifle. Especially a rifle with open sights, such as a Skinner Peep.
Eric Rice
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I built a scout set up on a lever action carbine. I believe the theory was that a forward mounted scope allowed both eyes to be open for easier/better target acquisition.
A forward mounted scope also allows carrying the rifle at it's balance point around the receiver. A regular scope mount makes this more cumbersome.
Also, I have quick detach rings on the scope that return to zero when you reinstall it. The back up is a peep site. For me, scope in good weather, peep site in bad weather. I don't like dealing with wet scope lenses.
A forward mounted scope also allows carrying the rifle at it's balance point around the receiver. A regular scope mount makes this more cumbersome.
Also, I have quick detach rings on the scope that return to zero when you reinstall it. The back up is a peep site. For me, scope in good weather, peep site in bad weather. I don't like dealing with wet scope lenses.
Deleted member 53
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My experience has been when you try to make one rifle work for different applications it doesn’t do any of them particularly well. I have rifles with scopes for treestand hunting and a couple 44 carbines with ghost rings for still hunting. Correct me if I’m wrong (I might be), but wasn’t the scout rifle concept originally developed for tactical/military purposes? Hence the name scout.
