"how about a pic, willie? what are the specs on your rifle, being that you seem so adamant and ridgid about what a scout rifle is or is not"
I'll post a pic later, I am flying in the desert and am 1000's of miles from my rifles at present.
A Scout Rifle, by agreed definition of the founders of the concept, is a lightweight bolt action carbine shooting a short-action sized full sized (.30 caliber minimum) cartridge available with ease worldwide, optimized for maximum carriability, and clasically featuring a forward mounted scope of low power. it is designed to be shot with both eyes open, and with one a good shooter can reliably hit thrown clay birds with regularity. Should you not believe this, I suspect that a visit to Gunsite would relieve your skepticism. The classic definition includes a carbine of less than six pounds, non-protruding box magazine allowing carry by the balance point without a magazine interfering, and reliable backup sights to the scope (if fitted). It is invariably fitted with three flush mounted sling swivels mounts, allowing use of a loop-sling attached to forward and middle fittings for precision slung shooting. Desirable characteristics include stripper clip loading and an integral bipod. The latter two features have not yet been fully found in any design built to date. These are the basics set forth by the people who developed the concept. You can build and shoot many other fine designs, but unless the conform to this general description, they are not conformal to the Scout Rifle concept.
Cooper envisioned the Scout mainly as a hunting rifle for the true rifleman. It was designed to be carried a lot, shot once, and then carried a lot. There was an obvious link to military "scouts" but there was no practical connection. It's a hunting and general utility rifle. It is flexibly employed to reliably hit large game sized animals at the ranges expected for such a tool, as well as to be useful for short range snap-shooting without modification or adjustment. it is a jack of all trades, master at none, and allows the trained rifleman a tool with which he perform the tasks of a rifle with minimum fuss and maximum reliability. Any feature not seen as essential has been removed.
Many actions were examined. The Krag Jorgensen actually was a favorite for many reasons including the butter-smooth action, magazone cut-off (another one of Coopers desires), and it's ability to be topped up without opening the bolt. I actually had one made for msyelf with the fulll Scout Rifle specs, but the .30-40 Krag cartridge was not available on the world stage and the action is not adequate for the .308. Copper loved this rifle. BTW. Another examined and admired and carefully studied was the Enfield Jungle Carbine. We used for some time the Remington 600 and 660 rifles as prototypes. Then we used Sakos. And then some CZ's, and finally Remington Model 7's. Finally Steyr built the Scout to Jeff's specifications and he felt it to be nearly perfect.
My own "Gunsite Super-Scout" is a bit of a seque built during the time when we were working on prototypes and concepts. My Krag had already been built, and suited me and Cooper (save for the caliber), but it was "mine" and so I already had a "deer cartridge" Scout and was not going to immediately build one in .308. My next one, built by John at Gunsite to specifications set forth by me and with discussions and advice from Jeff, was to be a "Super Scout", built when we were all enamored with the .350 Remington Magnum "Fireplug", with which Cooper and many of us were very happy with. Having a "deer caliber" Scout in the .30-40 Krag prototype, I decided to see how a .350 Rem Mag Super-Scout would work, hoping along with Jeff that it would be adequate for "most" of Africa as well as all of North America as a medium-bore rifle. Basically Cooper thought that we should each have three rifles: Scout, Super-Scout, and a Heavy (such as his "Baby"). My Super-Scout is the prototype of the 'Medium Scout" designed for General North American use in areas where a .30 caliber Scout would be inadequate for the game of the area. Bottom line is that the .350 was seen as fine for deer "anyplace" when correctly loaded, and would be a thumper for Moose, Bear, etc..
So:
My "Super Scout" started as a rare factory kevlar stocked Remington Model 7 in .350 Remington Magnum. Starting at the back, the recoil pad was rounded to allow a fast shouldering while not snagging on bush-clothes. The stock is fitted with three Pachmeyer flush mounted sling swivels, the third being forward of the magazine to allow proper sling-up using a basic carry sling with the sling re-attached to the middle stud for shooting. a Ruger Mini-30 aperature rear sight is milled into the rear ring of the action., with the aperature drilled out to Ghost Ring specs. The bolt has a Sako extractor fitted. No conventional front sight is fitted, that sight being provided as a milled on stub-sight integral to the silver-soldered on front scope base. That places a front sight sufficiently forward for use, but maintains a perfectly snag-free barrel. Both the forward and rear scope mounts are silver soldered to the BBL, and accept lever-mount rings holding a Scout-Scope, which is a Burris IER with duplex reticle. Note that at this time there was only one IER scope on the market, and this was it. The Rifle weighs in at six and a half pounds, a half pound over perfect-spec. No bipod is fitted, and obviously we never figured out stripper clips. Balance is at the magazine and it can be carried one-handed all day without difficulty. With it I have shot game ranging from Groundhogs to Pennsylvania Deer, to Moose, Pigs, and Bear, all with aplomb and grace. Handloading the cartridge has been very enlightening. At one time I wanted to take it to Africa to hunt Ngati, but a spectacular failure of the .350 Rem Mag for just that job by Cooper caused me to reconsider. A 9.3mm CZ is now joined by a John Wilkes .450 Nitro Express Double made in 1906 for Africa... along with a .30-06 which is still the best general purpose cartridge that has ever been designed. None are "Scout Rifles". They are just "good rifles", the point being that there are many good rifles that do not deserve the name "Scout". Similarly I do not call my Boykin Spaniel a Springer Spaniel, and I note that a Ruger GSR is not a Scout Rifle.
My rifle is a true "Scout Rifle", albeit THE prototype for the Super-Scout. If it were in .308 it would be a pure Scout. Several were built to the same spec at about the same time by John in .308 and were tested exhaustively at Gunsite.
The "rigid" definition of "Scout Rifle" is an Orange Gunsite definition, set forth by mutual consent of the parties involved with it's evolution. Orange Family members do not recognize other definitions. Many things can be changed, and the concept was prototypical, but some things are rigidly set. Deviation from them might produce a fine rifle, but the result is not recognized by the "Breed Standards Comittee" so to speak as a Scout. I'm pleased that the true Scout Rifles have influenced other thoughts and designs, and have influenced manufacturers like Ruger, etc., but these are not seen by purists as the real deal. Close... but... not... really.... "right".
Maybe you needed to have been at the time there to truly get it....
Willie
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