{"id":2260,"date":"2014-10-09T18:38:06","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T22:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/?p=2260"},"modified":"2016-09-10T15:15:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-10T19:15:29","slug":"scout-rifle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/scout-rifle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scout Rifle: Is it Still Relevant?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, I\u2019ve been working on a review of a couple of rifles, including the new .223\/5.56 version of the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle<\/a>. I\u2019ve already seen a lot of griping online about this gun, in particular the fact that a rifle firing such a small cartridge doesn’t meet the definition of\u00a0a \u201ctrue\u201d scout rifle.<\/p>

So I thought this would be a good opportunity to take a step back and look at the scout rifle concept; where it came from, what it\u2019s intended to do, and whether it\u2019s still relevant for today\u2019s shooters.<\/p>

At its core, the so-called \u201cscout rifle\u201d is simply the name that one man assigned to his personal ideal of the general purpose \u201cdo-everything\u201d rifle. It just so happens that man was the late Col. Jeff Cooper, one of the 20th century\u2019s most influential and authoritative voices in the shooting and self-defense world. If that name isn\u2019t familiar to you, go read his Wikipedia page<\/a> to get an idea of the impact Cooper has had on the way we still think about and train with firearms today.<\/p>

Cooper’s influence runs deep in the shooting world,\u00a0so when he started writing about his general purpose dream rifle, shooters took note.<\/p>

\"Ruger<\/a>
The new .223\/5.56 version of the Ruger Gunsite Scout has raised some eyebrows for bearing the “Scout” name while using a caliber Cooper was critical of.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Cooper’s Scout Rifle Criteria<\/strong><\/h3>

When Cooper was really promoting\u00a0the scout rifle idea back in the early 80s,\u00a0the only way to actually get your hands on one\u00a0was to make one yourself, or commission an\u00a0expensive custom job. Eventually, a few gun companies started offering\u00a0factory rifles branded with the “scout rifle” name, and some\u00a0meet Cooper’s criteria better than others.<\/p>

The scouts generally accepted as being closest to the real thing are the\u00a0Steyr Mannlicher\u00a0Scout, the Savage Scout (based on their Model 10), and the Ruger Gunsite Scout (based on their Model 77). Cooper collaborated with Steyr on their version of the scout, and while it didn’t quite meet every detail of his original checklist, it seemed to be close enough to get his stamp of approval.<\/p>

That checklist of scout\u00a0criteria is something Cooper wrote about many times, and it seemed to change and evolve somewhat over the years. There is no single canonical list of criteria, and too much is probably made of whether any given rifle strictly adheres to them. If we consider the scout description\u00a0published in Coopers excellent book The Art of the Rifle<\/em> to be the primary canonical source,\u00a0we end up with something like this:<\/p>