Gunsite Scout Rifle, Pt. 2

by David E. Petzal

 


The Scout can’t accommodate a conventionally mounted scope and its rear ghost ring at the same time, because the ghost-ring sight screws into the receiver where the rear scope ring sits. This means you have to find somewhere to keep the sight and its mounting screw. I put them someplace where I would never lose them and then could not find them despite months of looking.
When I finally admitted that they were lost I discovered that Brownell’s, which carries everything, does not carry Scout Ghost Rings, and that the manufacturer, XS Sight Systems, doesn’t either. So I swallowed my pride and called Ruger.
If you’d like to use a rear-mounted scope and keep the ghost ring in place, XS makes the Gunsite Scout Rifle Rail, which extends from midway up the barrel to the rear of the receiver, and includes a permanent ghost ring, which can peaceably coexist with a rear-mounted scope. You remove the factory Picatinny rail and install the XS in its place. It’s $90, and, from the comments on the Internet, works perfectly. (xssights.com. You can also get it from Midway. Do I really have to give you Midway’s URL?)
Magazines. The Scout originally came with blued-steel magazines, but these seem to have fallen by the wayside, as they were expensive and would rust on you if you neglected them. They’ve been replaced by glass-filled nylon magazines that are much tougher, much less expensive, and which require no maintenance. These mags come in 3-, 5-, and 10-round versions. For hunting, the 3-round is the best, because it’s legal everywhere and fits almost flush with the bottom of the stock, letting you carry the rifle at the receiver like a Model 94. Five is nice, but what for I’m not quite certain, and 10 is the way to go if you’re tactical. The polymer magazines, by the way, come with a cap, which is a very good idea because it protects the most damage-prone part of the box.
Triggers. Having been the recipient of its share of idiot lawsuits, Ruger solemnly enjoins us not to replace any of its parts with anything not made by them, so be advised, but I have a Timney trigger in my Scout, installed by a gunsmith, and it’s a very worthwhile alteration. If you’re not fussy about triggers, you can get by fine with the factory version. If you are fussy, spend the $125 plus whatever the gunsmith charges.
(My favorite Ruger lawsuit story concerns a woman who caught her husband slippin’ round, as they used to say in the South, and maybe still do, confronted him with a loaded, cocked, single-action Ruger revolver, laid the muzzle against his chest, and proceeded to tell him the Way it Was. Unfortunately, the handgun went off in mid-speech with fatal results. And who did she sue? Sturm, Ruger. This story was told to me by someone who testified at the trial, and I believe I have the details correct, but I can’t swear to them.)
To be continued.

More on the Scout Rifle, Pt. 1

 

 by David E. Petzal
Although the late (and much missed) Jeff Cooper was primarily a handgunner, he devoted a good deal of thought, experimentation, and writing to the development of an all-around rifle which he called the Scout. Not because it was trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent, but because it was highly portable, handy to use under all conditions, accurate to 300 yards and a bit, powerful enough for anything short of dangerous game, and light kicking. He envisioned it as something that a highly mobile Marine or soldier would carry if he had to move a lot, and quickly.
The first company to produce a Scout was Steyr. Their rifle debuted in 1998 and was an odd-looking duck with a synthetic stock and a hefty price tag. I got to shoot one. It was very, very accurate, and more or less everything Lt. Colonel Cooper claimed it was.
By the time he went to that great range where the wind never blows and there is no mirage, the Scout concept was well established. But it was Ruger that really picked up the Scout and ran with it. In 2011 they introduced a version that was developed in conjunction with Gunsite Academy, which Cooper founded.
That Scout took off. It’s essentially a .308 carbine, but with bells and whistles, mostly of a tactical nature. There are now ten variations on it, including left-hand, .223 (which would have given Jeff Cooper a seizure), stainless, synthetic-stocked, flash hider or recoil suppressor, two barrel lengths, and steel or synthetic magazines of 3-, 5-, or 10-round capacity.
What follows are some random observations on the rifle, based on mine, which is one of the early versions, a blue-steel, .308, southpaw gun. Ruger is now advertising the Scout as the one rifle that will do it all, and they are pretty much correct. The .308 is one of the most highly developed and popular cartridges around. There’s a literally endless variety of ammo available for it, and components if you’re a handloader. So:
While the Scout’s short barrels (16.10 and 18.70 inches) are a big convenience in many ways, they cause you to lose velocity. In my rifle, which has the 16.10, I see speeds in the 2,450 fps range with 150- and 165-grain bullets. The real-world velocity of a 150-grain .308 slug in a 24-inch barrel is 2,700 fps, and if you chop 8 inches off the barrel you’ll lose about 25 fps, per inch, or 200 fps.
If this concerns you greatly, you can get a Scout with an 18.7 inch barrel, which will put some speed back, or you can handload. I’m able to get 2,700 fps out of 150-grain Barnes X-Bullets via handloading, and there are no pressure signs at all.
The Scout is a very mild kicker, and I don’t see why people would want a recoil reducer. Maybe it has something to do with the Millennial Generation, which also feels the need for Safe Space, whatever that is. In any event, I much prefer the flash suppressor. In case you feel the urge to remove it and replace it with a cap, don’t. Because of the short barrels, you are bound to get considerable muzzle flash, and even if you’re not using the rifle tactically, that doesn’t help your shooting. Ruger’s flash suppressor works; leave it alone.

Read the rest @ Field & Stream here