What would be the difference between a Scout Rifle and a Scout Carbine?
What would be the difference between a Scout Rifle and a Scout Carbine?
I can't put my fingers on the citation, but I remember reading an epistle by the Colonel once on what would comprise a significant improvement in the carbine and when a carbine might be preferable to a rifle. I don't recall if they Colonel ever used the word "scout" in association with his thinking about an improved carbine, but I'm sure I remember him giving considerable thought to an improved carbine.
In my mind there is some overlap in the concepts between a carbine and a Scout rifle.
In a nutshell, the primary differences are that the carbine doesn't require the range or power of the rifle, but is faster and handier. It's better for engaging multiple targets a close range be they a pack of scattering coyotes or larger more dangerous predators.
In military application the carbine idea must go back at least to the muskatoons that were issued to dragoons and artillary crews at least back to the tiime of the Napoleanic Wars if not before.
During the Mexican War our Dragoons preferred the Halls Carbine to the rifle because is was faster and easier to handle on a horse than a full-sized rifle.
Then in the Civil War the carbine concept appears to have been embraced by cavalry.
During the Indian Wars in the West we saw Cavalry, Infantry, and Mounted Infantry. That's not my area of history, but I believe one of the distinguishing differences of those troops was that the cavalry rode with carbines and trained to at least to some degree to fight while mounted.
As far as I know the carbine concept didn't gain great popularity among civilians until Winchester introduced the Model 73 in a carbine version as well as a rifle version. The Model 73 was used in pistol calibers while the later models 76 and 86 were made in more powerful rifle calibers. Still the less powerful model 73 remained popular in pistol calibers even among deer hunters. We'll never know how many deer were put on the table with a model 73 in .44/40 but we can be sure it was a lot of venison.
The Winchester 92 seems to me to have at least to some extent helped to distinguish the difference between a carbine and a rifle by how it made it's niche in the the shadow of the model 94 Winchester.
Perhaps it was the model 94 in .30/30 that began to blur the lines between a rifle and a carbine. When the model 94 was made to be carried on a saddle it ramained a carbine, but when it was made in in a longer heavier version it could be argued to be a rifle.
While the .30/30 round is not a great rifle caliber, it is perhaps the best carbine caliber of all time up to this point in history.
Had our military made the M1 carbine in a caliber with the stopping power and versatility of the .30/30 perhaps it would have had more fans and fewer
critics.
Just for fun, go to Remington's homepage and use their nifty online ballistics camparison tool to compare the 6.8 Rem. SPC to the .30/30 and .30 carbine rounds. Then imagine the M1 cabine chambered for the 6.8 SPC.
Back when Cooper was promoting the Bren 10 I seem to recall him postulating that a cabine chambered for the 10mm mag that would take Bren 10 magazines would be a useful tool. While I can't get the least bit excited abotu 9mm or .45 auto carbines, the 10mm mag starts to approach the performance level and range where a carbine would be a lot more interesting. Perhaps if the 10mm mag had been introduced first as a carbine round instead of as a pistol round -- the 10mm mag might have been more successful as pistol round to back up the carbine as the primary weapon.
So Gator, I guess the niche I see for the "Scout Cabine" is for what the Winchester 92 in .44 or the Winchester 94 in .30/30 will still do better than the Scout rifle in .308. When we've reached the potential for growth and improvement of the concept that fits in that Winchester 92 niche and passes the utility of those 100-year-old leverguns then perhaps we'll have what we might rightly call it the Scout Carbine in honor of Col. Cooper's vision of improved utility.
It looks to me like the 6.8 Rem. SPC has the potential to nudge aside the old .30/30 Winchester as the caliber that's on the top end of the carbine rounds and the bottom end of the rifle rounds. It might just do everything that we can reasonably expect a carbine round to do in these post saddle horse days.
. The .30-30 is a great cartridge, the Col. said that a scout scoped .30-30 lever gun was almost what he was looking for when he designed the Scout Rifle. And with the new Hornady Leverevolution ammo the old .30-30 gets new legs.
