The Scout Rifle

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Meph

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Now I've been looking for a scout rifle, within a low price (Steyr scout is pretty expensive, 1k monies+ iirc) To me that's a very light, short rifle chambered in .308 Winchester with a barrel of 20"-22" and a weight of less than 7lbs, with a loaded magazine (detectable or internal) and a carry sling. Peep/aperture sights (even a ghost ring type sight) are great, but the addition of a scope, long or short eye relief, depending of how the bases are set up, would be cool as well. I'd likely run it on iron sights, though.

I've seen a few that seem to fit the bill, the first choice would be the Savage Scout, but a friend of mine said that it's over 7lbs bare now, as they've changed the stock. He got the old stock for it, and had to grind it down to fit the gun's updated action. So I'm not all that convinced I should get Savage now.

Any other options?
 
If you want cheap, you can make a very useful scout rifle from a Lee-Enfield No. 4, preferably one that has already been bubba'ed.

Use the military peep sight, cut the barrel down to 20", put on a new foresight, a synthetic stock and you're in business. Should be able to do it for under $350 if you are handy.

Hugh
 
I have the Ruger M77 compact stainless/laminate as well (7mm-08 though). Looking for another in 308. Nice little gun, very maneuverable, though not as nice as the Steyr Tactical Scout I had way back when (want one of those again too). Then again, the M77 is about 1/3 the price of the Steyr....
 
The Savage 10FCM Scout if you can find one.

Caliber
308 Win
Barrel Length
20.5"
Weight
6.25 lbs
Magazine Capacity
4 rounds
Stock
Synthetic Accustock™ with three-dimensional bedding system
Sights
Ghost Ring Sights and Barrel-mounted Scope Mount
Rifling Rate of Twist
1 in 10"
Features
AccuTrigger™, Accustock™, matte-blued barreled action, free-floating and button-rifled barrel, Oversized bolt handle detachable box magazine, nylon sling
Suggested Retail
$760.00

10FCM-Scout-DBM.jpg



*edit* I'm a dolt and didn't read your post fully, sorry OP. But still, likely your best choice for what you're looking for.
 
Jeff Cooper's Scout Rifle is one of the grandest notions to come down the pipe in a long time! Some of the fellers have had a ball with those Mosin-Nagants or whetever those russian things are.

Can't comment on the Steyr, and I am sure it is a great gun but I just don't care for the looks of it. I really like those Ruger shorties though...

The Marlin Guide Gun can now be kitted out as a 'scout rifle' with extended eye relief scopes and such...but that 45/70 has a trajectory that ain't that great. Plus with full power loads it can kill on both ends too.
 
Ruger and Savage appear to be your best options over the counter, but Winchester and Marlin lever actions can be set up in a scout configuration, meet the weight and length definitions of a scout, and actually handle better than many bolt guns.

If you are set on the .308 cartridge you might also consider a custom or semi-custom rifle. It is not difficult to find a bolt action with a 20" barrel these days, so the trick then is to arrange a way to mount the extended eye relief scope and/or the ghost ring. If I was going this route I would choose an older Brno 601 or a CZ 550 in .308. A custom quarter rib could be attached to the barrel as a scope mounting platform, mine was inletted for Talley rings. NECG offers a very nice receiver sight that attaches directly to the Brno/CZ integral base. The aperture can easily be opened up to a ghost ring configuration, I have one on my Brno ZG-47 .30/06 and love it. I would finish the rifle off with a Safari Ching Sling from Galco. This option will be slightly more expensive than the over the counter rifles you might consider, but IMHO you will have more rifle when you are done.

Here is a pic of my Brno 602 with a custom quarter rib for a scope base. The sling is a Safari Ching Sling from Galco, and the ghost ring is a Talley, but the NECG sight is better as it mounts directly to the integral base. Click on the pic to see better detail.
 
the original and best scout rifle was defined years ago- it's the savage 99 in 308- nuff said
 
I would consider something like a 1-4x variable mounted conventionally over a forward mounted scope. At low magnification, this will give you even quicker target acquisition than the "scout" scope with the ability to crank up the magnification for longer shots.

From what I have read, the Steyr Scout (or any other Steyr SBS actioned rifle) aren't all that great for what you pay for them.
 
Armco (Gunnar) has a Remington 600 in .308, they make excellent Scout rifles if you trick them out with scope and mounts and a bipod stand. the basic gun is $690 and they are excellent carbines with all the accuracy you need.
 
t-star said:
the original and best scout rifle was defined years ago- it's the savage 99 in 308- nuff said
Click to expand...

Once you hack 4 inches off the 24" barrel :rolleyes: where do you mount an EER scope on a 99?
A little research on Coopers' "Scout-concept" would find the Savage 99 hard pressed as a scout platform. ;) After some serious mods and D&T'ing many rifles could be made to fit the bill. It all depends on how close or far the poster wants his rifle to fall within Jeff Coopers "Scout" concept.
 
DATAM said:
Armco (Gunnar) has a Remington 600 in .308, they make excellent Scout rifles if you trick them out with scope and mounts and a bipod stand. the basic gun is $690 and they are excellent carbines with all the accuracy you need.
Click to expand...

I believe that Cooper's original Scout rifle was a modded M600 in 308. The idea of the trap in the butt for spare ammo and the handling charachteristics of the rifle were, and still are, brilliant.
 
Sun_and_Steel_77 said:
Once you hack 4 inches off the 24" barrel :rolleyes: where do you mount an EER scope on a 99?
A little research on Coopers' "Scout-concept" would find the Savage 99 hard pressed as a scout platform. ;) After some serious mods and D&T'ing many rifles could be made to fit the bill. It all depends on how close or far the poster wants his rifle to fall within Jeff Coopers "Scout" concept.
Click to expand...

my 99 wears a 20 inch tube from the factory- not a 24- and while i do consider a lot of his stuff as bible, i disagree with him on the scout rifle concep- if the 94 winchester was made in 308, ( and not the 307) with decent bullets, again, -but i disagree on ANY scope on a rifle over a peep sight
 
I have two built on Rem 600's. Good idea, and a great little packing around rifle. A 788 carbine would work as well (yup, have one of those as well), but they are heavy little rifles compared to a 600. Still, if the Savage had been available back when I built mine, I probably would just have bought one of those. I've used at least a half dozen of the Steyr versions in 223 and 308, nice guns, but I personally consider them overpriced. FWIW - dan
 
.30 Carbine isn't really compatible with the scout rifle concept. The scout rifle is supposed to be a general purpose rifle suited to taking large game, hence the choice of .308. .30 Carbine is marginal for that sort of thing.
 
Can't say I'm a big fan of Remington bolt rifles. I've handled a lot of them and I honestly have no idea why people like them at all. There's not much apart from the new Winchester Model 70s with the synthetic stocks, and I don't know how good those are. I'll go check out Weatherby Vanguard, see if they have lightweight models...
 
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