scout rifle

Retrieved: December 07, 2013

I've been reading a bunch of pages about Jeff Cooper's "Scout Rifle" concept. There's a Wikipedia page that details his final specification. I also found a site (Jeff Cooper's Commentaries) with Cooper's newsletters from the 1990s where the concept was evolving.

Basically, the specs were:

Light weight; between 6.5 and 8.5 pounds empty

Bolt action, though he said he had no objection to an autoloader

Short barrel, 16.5 to 19 inches

Powerful cartridge, .308 class or better

Bisley or Ching shooting sling

Overall length 40" or less

Forward-mounted 2x or 3x optic, or "ghost ring" or peep sights

The idea was basically for a "single rifle" that would be light, handy, and powerful enough for combat or large game. Not necessarily optimal for anything, but good enough to do the job.

The optic part took a while to figure out. Cooper was a fan of snap-shooting or wing-shooting, and his working scenario was that you'd be shooting at 50 to 100 yards max. The forward-mount optic (about where a standard AK rear sight would go) was partly because he felt you should be shooting with both eyes open and looking toward the target, and the long eye relief would make that practical.

Cooper's specifications changed over time. The interesting thing is, an AK-47 and an optic meet most of the specs. So would many leverguns.

The other thing is, a lot of the "truck guns" and "hog guns" I've seen people build meet at least the spirit of Cooper's concept. Short, light, forward sights or optic, healthy cartridge.

I haven't shot a rifle with a long-eye-relief scope yet, so I'm still dubious about the whole "both eyes open" thing. (or maybe I've been shooting "wrong" the whole time...) I thought I saw a 1.5 Burris pistol scope in one of the boxes last time I was cleaning... I might whittle out something to mount it on an AK and see how it works out.

TRX
10-01-2011

Originally Posted by BHP
This definately leaves the AK out as it is typically heavier and has far less power than the .308 level of performance he establiched.

Valmet, Galil, Molot, and Saiga made AKs in .308. Civilian-market AKs have been made in a lot of calibers. It's a very flexible design.

Weight could be addressed. Cooper didn't insist on strippers; in his Commentaries newsletter he said a detachable box magazine was fine.

I'm still reading the newsletters in order. He might have fossilized a final spec after he made the deal with Steyr. Where I am so far, he was flexible on what would constitute a "scout rifle." In fact, he even made a specific case for building one in 6.5x55 instead of .30 or larger.

There are whole forums out there for debating the "true scout rifle" question. (really.)

ScoutRifle.org - The Scout Rifle Community

I'm mostly interested in Cooper's "rifle you point like a shotgun" concept that underlies the whole "scout" thing. At least, that's what I see as the important part.

TRX
10-04-2011

Get rid of the FSB and RSB to start with; they're not needed with an optic. Use a Saiga-style handguard screwed to the gas block and you don't need all the quick-release bits. You could take a lot of weight out of the stock by boring holes up from the buttplate, or windowing it like a Tabuk.

TRX
10-06-2011

I'm still reading the Cooper stuff. He mentioned the purpose of the forward- mount, low-power optic was you were supposed to shoot a scout rifle like a shotgun. Instead of sighting in with the reticle, you were supposed to swing it up like a shotgun, and when you could see the target through the optic, you fired.

Pretty interesting stuff. He mentioned guys shooting clay pigeons with one of the prototypes. In .308...