A couple of weeks ago there were several questoins regarding the Scout rifle from Savage. I commented that I had one ordered and would post a report when it came in. Came in Friday and took it to the range this AM. The rifle comes with a 20" barrel with a forward rail for a scout scope and a receiver mounted peep sight. Since I do not have a scout scope I took the rail and peep off and mounted a 2-7X Pentax on the receiver. I had an old Remington rear sight in my box of spare parts and it fit perfectly for a rear sight. Savage only drills and taps one hole for both the front and rear sights. The Remington sight is made to work with 2 holes, but it held fine with only 1 screw. Some will not like this but I can convert it back to the origional configuration in 15 min. if I decide to get a scout scope later.
If you have seen one of the older scout rifles Savage has made a few changes. The new ones come with the accu-trigger and a soft recoil pad similar to a limbsaver pad. The old gun had a large bolt handle while the new one has a standard size bolt handle. The detachable magazine has been improved and is probably the best design I have seen. Savage uses a steel insert that goes inside of the stock for the magazine to fit into. It is solid and secure. Someone needs to make a 10 round magazine for this gun. The trigger guard on this gun is steel instead of the plastic I have seen on other Savages. Instead of a matte finish on the barrel and receiver they are a polished blue. I think Savage used to offer the Scout in 7mm-08 as well but .308 is the only choice now.
Savage lists the Scout at 6 1/4 lbs. but mine weighs 7 lbs. I believe this is because of the steel insert and triggerguard that have been added. I fired 10 groups of 3 shots with it today. With loads it liked it came close to 1" grouips a couple of times but most groups were 1 1/2" to 2".
There are a lot of things I like about this rifle and a few things I don't. I like the accu-trigger, the recoil pad and the newly designed stock. The detachable mag as I said earlier is the best design I have seen.
I don't like the long actions that Savage uses. Even though this is Savage's short action I have scopes on my long action Remingtons and Winchesters that are too short to use on this short action. I am also disapointed in the extra weight. I bought this gun to use as a carrying around light weight gun. I was willing to give up a little accuracy for portability. My Tikka weighs the same with a scope on it as the Scout does without a scope. At this time I own several guns that are both lighter and more accurate.
I did not try it with irons today and will probably put the peep back on it for my next range trip. Hopefully after a good cleaning the accuracy will improve. I have read that Savages are bad about the barrels fouling quickly.
If you have seen one of the older scout rifles Savage has made a few changes. The new ones come with the accu-trigger and a soft recoil pad similar to a limbsaver pad. The old gun had a large bolt handle while the new one has a standard size bolt handle. The detachable magazine has been improved and is probably the best design I have seen. Savage uses a steel insert that goes inside of the stock for the magazine to fit into. It is solid and secure. Someone needs to make a 10 round magazine for this gun. The trigger guard on this gun is steel instead of the plastic I have seen on other Savages. Instead of a matte finish on the barrel and receiver they are a polished blue. I think Savage used to offer the Scout in 7mm-08 as well but .308 is the only choice now.
Savage lists the Scout at 6 1/4 lbs. but mine weighs 7 lbs. I believe this is because of the steel insert and triggerguard that have been added. I fired 10 groups of 3 shots with it today. With loads it liked it came close to 1" grouips a couple of times but most groups were 1 1/2" to 2".
There are a lot of things I like about this rifle and a few things I don't. I like the accu-trigger, the recoil pad and the newly designed stock. The detachable mag as I said earlier is the best design I have seen.
I don't like the long actions that Savage uses. Even though this is Savage's short action I have scopes on my long action Remingtons and Winchesters that are too short to use on this short action. I am also disapointed in the extra weight. I bought this gun to use as a carrying around light weight gun. I was willing to give up a little accuracy for portability. My Tikka weighs the same with a scope on it as the Scout does without a scope. At this time I own several guns that are both lighter and more accurate.
I did not try it with irons today and will probably put the peep back on it for my next range trip. Hopefully after a good cleaning the accuracy will improve. I have read that Savages are bad about the barrels fouling quickly.
