It bears mentioning that there is a wide range of scopes which are referred to as "scout" scopes but which exhibit huge differences in eye relief...and of course eye relief is the only real difference between a traditional scope and a scout scope.
The "classic" scout scope, as envisioned by Cooper, is exemplified by the Leupold 2.5x scope that came as part of the Cooper package when the Steyr Scout first came out. This scope and a few others has an eye relief that allows mounting on the rifle so that the eyepiece lens sits just forward of the front edge of the receiver opening; Leupold called this "intermediate" eye relief. Cooper insisted on this so that stripper-clips could still be used, or at least completely unobstructed loading-port access allowed very easy loading entirely by feel, without needing to look down at the gun. I don't care about this feature at all, but these were the first scout scopes I played with and I became quite comfortable with them. I keep and still occasionally use the one I have that is marked "Steyr Scout" on the side turret cover.
Like most folks, I eventually tried using handgun scopes..."extended" eye relief in Leupold-ese...and some of them worked okay as long as the mounting rail on the rifle extended far enough forward to accommodate them. More and more scout rifles fail in this regard and simply won't let a true handgun scope be placed far enough forward to work properly.
I like the use of QD rings that allow a scout rifle to be quickly and easily switched between a scout scope and regular scope mounted in the traditional location. I often have 3 or 4 different optics all sighted-in and ready to go on my Steyr at any given time.
Most recently, I've grown fond of a new eye-relief range that hasn't even gotten its own name yet from Leupold.
These scopes have eye relief much shorter than "real" scout scopes, but still longer than a traditional scope. I think I first saw one being used in scout style years ago in a post by CGN member caramel; since then I've seen and read more about them in posts on the Scout Rifle Forum. I thought the idea was great, and when I tried it that proved to be correct.
My two favourites in this in-between class are the Bushnell Elite 6500 1.25-8x and the Leupold VX2 1.5-4x Scout. When mounted on a bolt gun, these allow the eyepiece lens to land somewhere between the trigger and the rear of the loading port. They are wonderful on leverguns or other hammer-guns, as they allow the eyepiece to sit in front of the hammer spur rather than forcing you to use extra-high rings to lift the scope up and over the hammer. Looking through them and sighting has a very familiar feel, similar to a traditional scope, so those folks who get all dizzy and queasy and discombobulated by true scout scopes can use these quite comfortably.
The Bushnell has outstanding optics, a great magnification range and a nice wide eye relief range, and in most mounting positions allows one to easily zoom right from minimum to maximum power and still get a full field of view. Its only wart is its weight and bulk; IMHO, it's 30mm tube and enlarged objective are just too big and fat to balance nicely on most of my hunting rifles. I once owned several but eventually moved them down the road entirely because of this.
The Leupold mounts just as easily but it's much more compact and lighter and less obtrusive; it balances beautifully on light guns like the Steyr. I can even mount it on a Marlin SBL 1895 without removing the rear aperture sight; the scope sits just in front of that sight, nice and low on the receiver. You can actually see the rear aperture at the bottom of the field of view while sighting through the scope, but I find it easy to ignore. This scope has a slightly more restricted range of eye relief while still allowing a full field of view than the Bush 6500 but overall I am liking it better.
