Scout rifle why

Cooper loved both the Winchester lever-action chambered in. Both rifles are lightweight, easy to handle, and a pleasure to shoot, but Cooper wanted something with a little more juice. As a child of World War II, he preferred the. So, according to Mann, he turned to the Remington Model in. The short barreled bolt-action came in at 6. The advantages of a light, quick-shooting deer rifle are obvious, and the scout concept is especially attractive to hunters in the eastern and southern parts of the United States.

It is light, handy, accurate, and powerful. If you train with it, first round hits at reasonable ranges are extremely fast. I can't think of a better choice in Virginia Piedmont farmland. That situational awareness allows hunters to see if another buck is emerging from the tree line.

There are, of course, disadvantages to the scout design, and they mainly involve the scope. Scout scopes feature long eye relief and often small-diameter objective lenses. Only a few of the high-end manufacturers have invested heavily in the design. But he pointed out that the 2x scout scopes can hinder deer identification. They were all up and feeding, and as I transitioned from binoculars to scope, they all moved and switched places.

He eventually hit his intended target, but after missing a shot on a buck during his next trip, he swapped his 2x for a x.

That checklist of scout criteria 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 published in Coopers excellent book The Art of the Rifle to be the primary canonical source, we end up with something like this:. Looking at the list today, there are some attractive features to have in a rifle, but there are some serious drawbacks to the concept as well.

They have some advantages, but are pretty lousy in low light, and can be rendered useless by glare when the sun is low in the sky… which just happens to be prime time for hunting many types of game. They also tend to throw off the balance of a rifle, putting too much weight at the front. And a conventionally mounted low-power scope has most of the same advantages of the scout setup with fewer downsides.

I think if Cooper could have seen a modern x scope with illuminated reticle in , he would have appreciated the advantages it offers over what we now call the scout scope.

Today, most scout or scout-like rifles available use detachable box magazines, which many people find cumbersome and make the rifle more difficult to carry. Rifles using stripper clips are few and far between, unless you look to pre retired military rifles. I personally really appreciate light weight, quick handling rifles, but they usually come with drawbacks, too. Two of his fellow student which he bested received expert diplomas.

Because they used bolt rifles and he did not. On the Gunsite List I once challenged anybody if they could name one soldier or marine in the last 30 years who ever willingly went on a solo scouting mission in enemy territory.

The Scout Rifle is useless in trying to gain fire superiority if you are ambushed. Yes, I know in a perfect world of Ninja Scout Rifle shooters you never will be ambushed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know an expert rifleman with a Scout Rifle can just walk through those walls. If one gets wounded in an arm at least with a semi-auto you can keep firing until the magazine is empty.

Elites such as himself were possessed of remarkable rifle craft skills and abilities best utilized by the precision tool of the bolt action rifle. People in classes and stations on lower rungs in his mind did possess the necessary mental skills and disciplines required to be proper riflemen.

Cooper believed that cultural, political, technological, economic forces were all being driven in support of and pursuant to the masses i. In his mind deference to the mediocrity of the masses instead of excellence which was the milieu of the patricians and elites , had denigrated the more high-brow pursuits of art, literature, consumerism, film, music, culture, and yes, even rifle craft. Therefore the lower classes were not pursuing excellence of marksmanship with semi-auto firearms but rather firepower.

If these lower classes used rifles such as semi-autos which made them more effective the elites were challenged. As an aside Cooper had nothing but contempt for the AK the ultimate weapon of the masses. That is the. My point is that applying Coopers same logic regarding rifles to pistols he should have been against carrying a automatic pistol.

You say that when an adversary is close even the briefest amounts of delays can cost you your life? Well-if you had been situational aware utilizing the proper Cooper color code this would not be an issue. Also the standard Single Action is more accurate than a therefore why carry a less accurate pistol? So what if you only have six rounds? When the Steyr Scout came out there were some readily apparent problems with the rifle which Cooper brushed aside.

When the rifle was adjusted to impart more force to the firing pin the trigger pull became much heavier. All during this time Cooper still clung to the belief the SR was a combat weapon first and foremost. Then came the War in Kosovo during the summer of When a Kosovo Liberation Army rebel armed with a Scout rifle had his photo taken Cooper was ecstatic.

Hallelujah, praise Jesus! However that validation was at best spurious. Having spent a good part of time of my life in some dangerous areas of the world I saw irregular forces armed with all manner of goofy shit. This is for all you Scout Rifle lovers who say the SR was never intended to be a combat rifle.

On a table next to him he had his Scout Rifle. In the ensuing years I have watched how the true origins of the Scout Rifle have been obscured, glossed over, and rewritten like Soviet history. Over time people finally acknowledged, tacitly or otherwise, that the SR as a military rifle is a dimwitted concept. As a hunting arm it does what it should.

On one side was a long work bench and on the wall were mounted a dozen or so long arms, most predictably of the boltish type. There was a wall dividing the room and I peeked my head through the open doorway to see what was inside. I noted this part of the vault was a storage area for boxes, and gun cases, things like that.

It was the poster child the kind of rifle Cooper hated. So why did he have that HK? Why indeed……………. Mann himself is an interesting character. At heart, he is a self-proclaimed West Virginia villager. He is a former police officer, railroad detective, firearms instructor, army tank commander, several GunSite alumni, an internationally renowned big game hunter, and editor-in-chief of the widely published 13th edition of Ammo.

He also has a yellow pickup, which I have not seen anywhere else, and a Rhodesian Ridgeback that killed and ate several people. He is a ruthless hunter and his own Scout rifle is a very cool custom version based on the Forbes rifle. Since hunting there is unthinkable. And our hunting experience is simply shocking. You may or may not be a supporter of the Scout Rifle for the record, me , but there is so much information here about weapons, accuracy, lack thereof, hunting, snipers, and Jeff Cooper in general that you will find it worthwhile and then a little.

And if you find yourself in the West with the Virginia God, stay away from the dog. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Site developed by Cardinal Acres Web Development. Contact Ian. Share this: Reddit Twitter Facebook. Previous Chinese 7. So a high-capacity pistol would be very much in line with their thinking. DAs were very uncommon in the s, though that is when they began to appear.

Yep — and more prevalent in the UK than the US at that time. Or I could be wrong, as our friend says. Looks like some kind of chicken. At 7 pounds, it exceeds the 6.

Check availability here. Over the years, Savage has manufactured a variety of Scout Rifles. However, it does incorporate the excellent Savage AccuFit stock, which has an adjustable length of pull and comb height. The latter is critical with a Scout Rifle to get a proper cheek weld when shooting through the optical or open sights. In addition to. It too has a threaded muzzle with a large but recoil-reducing muzzle brake.

Now known more simply as the Ruger Scout Rifle , it comes in multiple variations chambered in. The bare rifle weighs as little as 6.