- Location
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
i saw a pic of this in the photo gallery. i love it! i'm really tempted to pic one up in a year or so. any cgn sponsors carry them? how much would i be looking at for one? how are they for quality and accuracy?
Steyr Scout
- Thread starter FlyingHigh
- Start date
- Location
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
wow. well, that's not a good start. lol. anything similar to that that's worth the moeny?
Pretty much sums it up...
Great idea...so, so execution.
I've had both .223 and .308 iterations....mediocre accuracy, pretty snappy recoil in .308.
Great concept...not so hot in the flesh.
Unless it sets your pants on fire, I would pass.....
- Location
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
thanks for the warnings guys. guess i'll stick with Remington. 
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
If you want a scout rifle and can manage a large budget, consider having a custom rifle built. If I was going to take on such a project I would use the Brno 601 illustrated in Jeff Cooper's "Art of the Rifle" as a guide line.
The first step therefore would be to acquire a Brno 601 ().308) or Brno 600 (.30/06). I would have a notch milled into the receiver to accommodate stripper clips. The action would be smoothed out, the locking lugs checked for equal contact, and the trigger would be adjusted for a clean 3 pound break. I would get a CM light contour barrel from a good maker, I believe that cut rifling is superior to button rifling, and I like Krieger. I have come to prefer fast twist barrels and this rifle would be no exception; so I would go with a 1:9 twist. A McMillan would be my stock of choice, cut to my LOP and finished with a Decelerator pad. I would have the stock pillar bedded to prevent compression by the action screws. A Leupold EER 2.5X scope would be the primary sight.
Once the barrel was chambered and attached to the receiver, I would have a quarter rib inletted for Talley rings made and installed on the barrel. A quarter rib from a Ruger #1 might be lighter, less expensive, and would allow the use of Ruger rings. But the Ruger quarter rib might have to be attached to the barrel well ahead of the receiver for the scope mounting points to work with an EER scope. This would require a filler to make up the space from the receiver to the quarter rib. If the quarter rib was steel, it would be sweated in place as well as screwed and if aluminum, it would be epoxied as well as screwed. If the quarter rib idea doesn't work for you, you could have pedistals installed on the barrel to hold the scope bases, the quarter ribs are just more pleasing to my eye. Install a Ruger or NECG barrel band for the front sight post once the barrel was cut to length, or attempt to salvage the Brno barrel band and install it on the new barrel.
The original floor plate could be kept, or a 10 round DBM could be made, with a second made to attach to the underside of the stock behind the pistol grip. If the floor plate was to be kept, a cartridge trap could be built into the stock in place of the DBM. My prefererence would be to keep the floorplate.
A NECG ghost ring would attach to the rear scope dovetail. If flush swivel attachments were to be used, they could be located where ever you wanted them along the forearm, but if a QD stud was used, I would place it on the radius of the forend. The sling would be a Safari Ching Sling from Galco.
Finish the metal surfaces with one of the tough bake on gun finishes.
Much has been made of the use of bi-pods on the scout rifles. Considering how these rifles would be used in the field, I doubt if there are many instances where prone shooting would be likely, and if it were, the vibration from the bi-pod, particularly if the bi-pod is in direct contact with hard ground, to the light barrel could be detrimental to accuracy. If firing from prone, I believe better accuracy could be achieved through a conventional slung up hold, so save the bi-pod for your varmint and target rifles.
The first step therefore would be to acquire a Brno 601 ().308) or Brno 600 (.30/06). I would have a notch milled into the receiver to accommodate stripper clips. The action would be smoothed out, the locking lugs checked for equal contact, and the trigger would be adjusted for a clean 3 pound break. I would get a CM light contour barrel from a good maker, I believe that cut rifling is superior to button rifling, and I like Krieger. I have come to prefer fast twist barrels and this rifle would be no exception; so I would go with a 1:9 twist. A McMillan would be my stock of choice, cut to my LOP and finished with a Decelerator pad. I would have the stock pillar bedded to prevent compression by the action screws. A Leupold EER 2.5X scope would be the primary sight.
Once the barrel was chambered and attached to the receiver, I would have a quarter rib inletted for Talley rings made and installed on the barrel. A quarter rib from a Ruger #1 might be lighter, less expensive, and would allow the use of Ruger rings. But the Ruger quarter rib might have to be attached to the barrel well ahead of the receiver for the scope mounting points to work with an EER scope. This would require a filler to make up the space from the receiver to the quarter rib. If the quarter rib was steel, it would be sweated in place as well as screwed and if aluminum, it would be epoxied as well as screwed. If the quarter rib idea doesn't work for you, you could have pedistals installed on the barrel to hold the scope bases, the quarter ribs are just more pleasing to my eye. Install a Ruger or NECG barrel band for the front sight post once the barrel was cut to length, or attempt to salvage the Brno barrel band and install it on the new barrel.
The original floor plate could be kept, or a 10 round DBM could be made, with a second made to attach to the underside of the stock behind the pistol grip. If the floor plate was to be kept, a cartridge trap could be built into the stock in place of the DBM. My prefererence would be to keep the floorplate.
A NECG ghost ring would attach to the rear scope dovetail. If flush swivel attachments were to be used, they could be located where ever you wanted them along the forearm, but if a QD stud was used, I would place it on the radius of the forend. The sling would be a Safari Ching Sling from Galco.
Finish the metal surfaces with one of the tough bake on gun finishes.
Much has been made of the use of bi-pods on the scout rifles. Considering how these rifles would be used in the field, I doubt if there are many instances where prone shooting would be likely, and if it were, the vibration from the bi-pod, particularly if the bi-pod is in direct contact with hard ground, to the light barrel could be detrimental to accuracy. If firing from prone, I believe better accuracy could be achieved through a conventional slung up hold, so save the bi-pod for your varmint and target rifles.
A good friend of mine has one and he loves it.
He just returned from Africa with it and said it performed
very well in all situations.
I personally don't really like the rifle, maybe it's just how
it looks. He gets 1.0 to 1.5 MOA groups with a 2 - 10
power Nightforce on top and match ammo.
The Shooting Edge carries them.
He just returned from Africa with it and said it performed
very well in all situations.
I personally don't really like the rifle, maybe it's just how
it looks. He gets 1.0 to 1.5 MOA groups with a 2 - 10
power Nightforce on top and match ammo.
The Shooting Edge carries them.
- Location
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
thanks for the info Boomer. i don't think i can afford to have a custom rifle built yet. maybe someday. but i do have one question. what separates a "scout" rifle from a target/varmint rifle? they seem to be able to do the same job, but you mentioned that a bipod would be detrimental to a scout rifle.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
The Scout Rifle can be very accurate, but as it was proposed, it was not considered as a precision piece in the way that a varmint rifle, match rifle, or sniper rifle was intended to be. The Scout concept was based on the premise that a light weight, general purpose rifle could perform a greater range of tasks than rifles that are manufactured for very specific tasks such as the varmint rifle to one extreme and the battle rifle on the other. Jeff Cooper proposed a light weight bolt action rifle, of approximately 3 kilos in weight, a meter in length, chambered for a moderate cartridge that was suitable for game up to 400 kgs at ranges out to 300 meters. He envisioned a rifle that would be equally at home on the game fields, on the battlefield, or in the self-defense role in either an urban or rural setting. Some of these rifles are wonderfully accurate, some are minute of barn.
The idea caught on as ideas will, but the result was that many "quasi-scouts" appeared and were made up from all sorts of things. Often the result was a cheap, poorly conceived rifle that was too heavy, too clunky and not accurate enough to group at 300 meters.
Anyway, light weight means that a light contour barrel is required if the piece is to meet the weight requirement. A light contoured barrel is more sensitive to external vibration than the heavier barrel. If the bi-pod was set in sand, it is unlikely that the scout rifle would have a problem, but if the bi-pod was set up on frozen ground, it could throw the shot, as would any rifle fired in direct contact with a hard surface. That being the case, the question then becomes, "Does the weight of the bi-pod justify it's use on the Scout Rifle?"
The idea caught on as ideas will, but the result was that many "quasi-scouts" appeared and were made up from all sorts of things. Often the result was a cheap, poorly conceived rifle that was too heavy, too clunky and not accurate enough to group at 300 meters.
Anyway, light weight means that a light contour barrel is required if the piece is to meet the weight requirement. A light contoured barrel is more sensitive to external vibration than the heavier barrel. If the bi-pod was set in sand, it is unlikely that the scout rifle would have a problem, but if the bi-pod was set up on frozen ground, it could throw the shot, as would any rifle fired in direct contact with a hard surface. That being the case, the question then becomes, "Does the weight of the bi-pod justify it's use on the Scout Rifle?"
- Location
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
what are some examples of a production scout rifle? also, would using a pack or sandbag or something similar affect the performace of prone shots? you mentioned a "conventional slung up hold". i've never heard of this. what is the technique and how does it work?
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Production scout rifles are typified by the Savage Scout, the Styer Scout and the Ruger Frontier. There is an M1-A scout made by Springfield Armoury.
There are carry slings and shooting slings. A carry sling is a poor shooting accessory, although some improvement can be seen by using the single strap as a hasty sling, whereby the sling is wrapped around the forearm of the supporting arm. Shooting slings are most often military style leather slings with hooks that engage holes along the length of the sling for proper adjustment. The Ching Sling and Safari Ching Sling developed at Gunsite AZ are shooting slings that work on a much simpler and lighter system. The Ching Sling is an old British design of single leather strap which extends between the sling swivels with a second strap that slides on an open buckle along the main strap on one end and fastens to a swivel at the front of the magazine or floorplate on the opposite end. The second strap lies flat against the mainstrap for carrying, but is pulled up on the back of the support arm when shooting. The Safari Ching Sling is a modification of this, in that the mainstrap is split in two parts but goes back to a single strap at each end where it attaches to the swivels. There is a short "U" shaped harness that connects to each side of the main strap, and this harness is simply bulled up on the back of the supporting arm. Both the Ching Sling and the Safari Ching Sling are available from Galco USA.
A military style leather sling, this one from Les Tam.
Safari Ching Sling
The Safari Ching Sling in action on a "quasi-scout"
A shooting sling can improve the marksman's ability to score by some 30% from supported positions. When one slings up, the sling forms a loop that attaches to the back of his support arm just below the arm pit to the front swivel of the rifle. This puts positive pressure from the front swivel onto the support arm which in turn is anchored to the ground (in prone) or to the leg (when sitting or kneeling). Shooting a scout rifle from a sand bag or other soft contact would enhance your accuracy.
There are carry slings and shooting slings. A carry sling is a poor shooting accessory, although some improvement can be seen by using the single strap as a hasty sling, whereby the sling is wrapped around the forearm of the supporting arm. Shooting slings are most often military style leather slings with hooks that engage holes along the length of the sling for proper adjustment. The Ching Sling and Safari Ching Sling developed at Gunsite AZ are shooting slings that work on a much simpler and lighter system. The Ching Sling is an old British design of single leather strap which extends between the sling swivels with a second strap that slides on an open buckle along the main strap on one end and fastens to a swivel at the front of the magazine or floorplate on the opposite end. The second strap lies flat against the mainstrap for carrying, but is pulled up on the back of the support arm when shooting. The Safari Ching Sling is a modification of this, in that the mainstrap is split in two parts but goes back to a single strap at each end where it attaches to the swivels. There is a short "U" shaped harness that connects to each side of the main strap, and this harness is simply bulled up on the back of the supporting arm. Both the Ching Sling and the Safari Ching Sling are available from Galco USA.
A military style leather sling, this one from Les Tam.
Safari Ching Sling
The Safari Ching Sling in action on a "quasi-scout"
A shooting sling can improve the marksman's ability to score by some 30% from supported positions. When one slings up, the sling forms a loop that attaches to the back of his support arm just below the arm pit to the front swivel of the rifle. This puts positive pressure from the front swivel onto the support arm which in turn is anchored to the ground (in prone) or to the leg (when sitting or kneeling). Shooting a scout rifle from a sand bag or other soft contact would enhance your accuracy.
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- Location
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
awesome. thanks Boomer. where can i pick up one of those slings?
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
You can order direct from Galco for the Ching Slings or from Les Tam for the military slings. Google will bring you to their respective sites. Les Tam makes military slings only, but his slings are custom made, and IMHO are the best available. He will need to know you height and weight and the swivel spacing of your rifle. The holes are numbered so that you can quickly adjust to the same place each time. These slings are very heavy, and should be reserved for target shooting. The Ching Sling and the Safari Ching Sling is a much better arrangement for field shooting.
Re Custom Scout Route - This past year I took on a custom scout project as follows:
For proof-of-concept purposes I went with a sporter weight take-off barrel that we cut down to 18.5 inches for length, threaded for the DC vortex, and then turned two bands into the profile, one for the aimpoint mount and the second for a custom front sight assembly which we based off of an M1A Smith Enterprise Dovetail Front Sight assembly. Inspired by the Spanish FR8, we milled a bayonet lug onto the bottom of the sight assembly and soldered/pinned the sight assembly far enough back that if a DC Vortex is threaded onto the end of the gun a bayonet can be affixed. This last touch had little to do with modern utility (and comes at a cost of both decreased iron sight radius and additional weight), however I wanted to somewhat address in her design the "battlerifle" aspect of Cooper's scout concept and as such the flash hider and bayonet lug were added to the scope of the project.
The gun has been out for test firing (very exciting!) and will be zeroed at 300 yards (about 6 inches high in-between 100 and 200 at maximum height trajectory. She is currently being finished (powder coating for barreled action, painting for stock) and should be ready for her first dressed up outing in a week or two. Will post pictures then with specs on total all-in weight (estimate 7lbs) and a detailed range report.
All of my M1As are rigged up in Scout type configurations, however weight wise they are all non-qualifying pigs when held up to Cooper's 3kg weight restriction. Regardless, I LOVE shooting them as scouts and have used them for deer hunting almost exclusively. As such, I'm quite excited about my bolt action scout project and plan on hunting with her this fall.
Brobee
- Host Rifle: Left Handed Remington 700 BDL
- XS Iron Sights for Remington 700 (use rear sight only)
- McMillan Ultra-light stock
- Takeoff sporter profiled barrel provided by gunsmith
- Custom fabricated dovetailed front sight assembly for use with M1A NM sight
- Muzzle threaded for Smith Enterprise DC Vortex
- Aimpoint Comp M3
- HS Precision Detachable Magazine Bottom Metal
For proof-of-concept purposes I went with a sporter weight take-off barrel that we cut down to 18.5 inches for length, threaded for the DC vortex, and then turned two bands into the profile, one for the aimpoint mount and the second for a custom front sight assembly which we based off of an M1A Smith Enterprise Dovetail Front Sight assembly. Inspired by the Spanish FR8, we milled a bayonet lug onto the bottom of the sight assembly and soldered/pinned the sight assembly far enough back that if a DC Vortex is threaded onto the end of the gun a bayonet can be affixed. This last touch had little to do with modern utility (and comes at a cost of both decreased iron sight radius and additional weight), however I wanted to somewhat address in her design the "battlerifle" aspect of Cooper's scout concept and as such the flash hider and bayonet lug were added to the scope of the project.
The gun has been out for test firing (very exciting!) and will be zeroed at 300 yards (about 6 inches high in-between 100 and 200 at maximum height trajectory. She is currently being finished (powder coating for barreled action, painting for stock) and should be ready for her first dressed up outing in a week or two. Will post pictures then with specs on total all-in weight (estimate 7lbs) and a detailed range report.
All of my M1As are rigged up in Scout type configurations, however weight wise they are all non-qualifying pigs when held up to Cooper's 3kg weight restriction. Regardless, I LOVE shooting them as scouts and have used them for deer hunting almost exclusively. As such, I'm quite excited about my bolt action scout project and plan on hunting with her this fall.
Brobee
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