Semi-Auto & Caliber & Weight Limit
1) Semi-Auto:
Cooper's Commentaries Vol. 1 No. 11:
I am sometimes asked why we have not given more thought to the concept of a self-loading Scout rifle. The fact is that up `til now no self-loading action has been produced which is light, simple, and compact enough to meet the weight requirements of the piece. A second point is that semi-automatic fire is of little concern to a man acting alone unless he is in danger of being overwhelmed by a hoard of iron-age types armed with edged weapons. I would never be opposed to the concept of a self-loading Scout, however, if I thought I could get it without drawbacks.
Given the present climate of public opinion worldwide, it may be as well not to jiggle the scales. Perhaps we had best let the crazies on the other side scream and yell about "semiautomatic" weapons and not tell them about a bolt-action Scout. What they don't know won't hurt them - in this case at least.
Cooper's all for semi-auto. If you can get the weight down. Though he does remark that a well trained man can fire a bolt almost as fast as a semi-auto, and certainly as fast as a less well trained person with a semi-auto, as the Brits demonstrated to the United States with their Enfields vs our Garand.
But... Cooper is something of an old-school military man. Hence his pre-occupation with single-round feeding. And his serious compunctions about wasting ammunition. But he has remarked that the Scout is not a general-infantry weapon. For that purpose he'd prefer the use of Semi-Auto. The Scout is for one man operating alone.
2) Caliber:
In "The Art of the Rifle":
The ideal cartridge for a general-purpose rifle is the 30-06. The 308, however, offers nearly the same performance in a shorter package, reducing the total amount of metal necessary in the action. Additionally, the 308 cartridge is universally available. This is not significant in Texas but may be in Kosovo. And, as to power, the new factory loadings of the 308 cartridge raise to the full potency of the 30-06 (which pretty much ends the discussion).
The 6.5 Mannlicher was used quite effectively to fell elephants by one Karamojo Bell, always with brain shots. The .308 is certainly more powerful than the 6.5 Now... Cooper doesn't condone its being used as such, but the point is that it CAN if need be. Placement, placement, placement.
3) How Big?
The weight limit for the .308 Scout is "about 500lbs" as stated in the
1st Scout Conference . Or "up to 200 kilos" in "The Art of the Rifle". This works out to 440.92 lbs (near the surface of the earth
) Which is certainly an acceptable weight limit for the .308 especially if you're a good shot, and an ethical hunter.
Further, we're getting off track, as I was merely trying to gauge what other people think Cooper would think of the Kimber 84M as a scout rifle platform.
Further, I'll agree with statements about the glory of Capitalism being that we can all buy our own ideal for a General-Purpose rifle. I like Jeff's ideal a lot, but you'll note I'm not as smitten with the Steyr creation as he is, though it does have some finer points.
Anyhoo... just clarifying this that and the other.
-Morgan
