Civilians who are free to purchase the rifle that best suits their purposes have a great advantage over those in the armed services who are required to carry an issue rifle. The new Canadian Ranger rifle is thought to be pretty good, and certainly has some features that are desirable, but I have yet to see one, much less use one. One concern I have is towards the plunger ejector if in fact that feature is retrained in the Ranger rifle. A fixed ejector, as found on the Muaser 98 and it's copies, is is more reliable than a plunger ejector, that when exposed to salt water can freeze in it's recess, and furthermore, the rifleman determines the force by which the empty brass is ejected from the action. This is an appropriate concern when a rifle is dirty, or when used in wet and/or cold conditions.
The Picatinny rail is a nice touch, and I expect that may Ranger rifles will be scoped between exercises; I also expect that more than a few of the peep sights will be misplaced and lost. To my way of thinking, a rail provides the most versatility to mounting any sort of optic, and is particularly useful when attempting to acquire the appropriate eye relief with variable scopes having very long ocular lens housings.
The Ruger Gunsite Scout is a rifle that also has desirable features, to the extent that it might prove to be superior for the intended purpose, only time will tell. I have two concerns regarding the Ruger rifle, the first is that I don't like the feel of the stock, and the cost of upgrading to an aftermarket stock is significant. Secondly, there are questions concerning the resiliency of the Ruger magazines, but neither of these concerns is insurmountable, if the individual who chooses one of these rifles is prepared to make the investment in upgrades. Although the cost of these upgrades might well push the rifle into the cost of a custom rifle, it would fill the requirements of a light weight .308 carbine having both the accuracy, and reliability that is appropriate for a rifle that would see tough duty. If I were to start with a Ruger action, I might prefer a hinged floorplate magazine using aftermarket bottom metal, I might want to have the receiver milled to accept stripper clips, I might prefer to choose a custom barrel, and I might prefer to choose a high quality fiberglass stock over laminated wood. But instead of a thousand dollar rifle, mine could easily run 2X to 3X as much, but would still be less than half the issue cost of the Canadian Ranger rifle.
It would also be nice if Tikka provided a flush mount magazine as an option - I could live with a 4 to 5 round mag.
