Crickets at CMP, will try here

I made the mistake of posting this on the CMP forums...clearly wrong attention band width, its not got to do with M1 Rifle . I won't dismiss I might be the last interested in this rifle and the "concept" but I'm not about to be the last to drink the Kool Aid and buy one. Want to believe but can't .

Here goes here:

Jeff Coopers Scout Rifle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BD2tCsV2uA

First, the above is good back ground data to consider in order to understand Coopers concept and focus.

Someone told me this rifle was a pistol experts idea of a perfect rifle and although said jokingly, that might not be too far off the mark 30 some years after Steyr produced it. There are criteria for what a Scout Rifle is and the Steyr model comes closest to that but the real question is what purpose does it really fit and that is where I have always been in doubt.

This is not an inexpensive rifle ..either when it first hit market or at present time. Its a purpose built rifle for a purpose but is that purpose relevant? It was to Cooper for some hunting purposes he had in mind, it was the perfect rife for courses of fire at his Gunsite training school, beyond that, its a 18" Winchester caliber 308 bolt action rifle with 2.5X optic. Nice rifle , nice brush gun but so is a 30 30 Winchester Model 94.

The Steyr Scout fits me perfectly. I had some time training Saudi infantry 8th battalion (The Fighthing 8th ...cough cough, what a soup sandwich they were) outside of Tabuk in NW Saudi Arabia. This battalion had Steyr Scout rifles for their sniper rifle . These were brand new and we trained them to use them, in the course of that , I got a lot of time on the Scout Rifle. I liked it, well made, fast to acquire targets with , ergonomics perfect for me and at best, it might be a DMR rifle for a rifle squad ...but in desert / arid regions the 2.5x optic was useless. The Scout Rifle 18" barrel limits range and the Middle East /North Africa is hardly carbine country. You need a rifle that can reach out and the probable effective range of the Scout is 300 yards. In hands of some (certainly not the Fighting 8th), at 600 yds one could put effective fires on a target . In sum, a carbine has limitations and this is just that , a carbine.

I'd like to have one but not at the price then or today. I have no idea what I'd use it for, I have more than enough deer rifles , I am not going to Gun Site and there are other solutions in 2021 that fulfil whatever the Scout Rifle was envisioned to do by Cooper.

Today we have small DOT optics with 3 MOA reticles. Mounted on the Steyr Scout, they are faster to use than the forward mounted Leupold 2.5x optic. Such modern DOT optics can be mounted on the Steyr or any rifle in the normal location of a rifle scope. Thus the forward long eye relief scope on Steyr Scout is an out dated optic solution for the quick target acquisition criteria that Cooper established.

Cooper wanted fast reloading. Many rifles today take magazines so the Steyr Scout has no advantage there. Certainly in Coopers day, few rifles did but today is today.

Cooper wanted 308 Caliber and certainly many rifles with 18" barrels , 308 Caliber, optic ready exist today.

In fact a M1A Scout or Socom 16 with DOT optic , or a AR 10 ...all 308 caliber, fast loading, Optic Ready, magazine fed and "handy" fast rifles do everything Cooper had in mind. All have iron sighs for back up just like Steyr Scout does. Maybe not in weight, they may weigh a pound more (or less) than Coopers set in stone non negotiable weight limit but as the video explains...Steyr Scout which Cooper declared as the ultimate perfection of his "Scout Rifle" does not make that weight limit either ! Sacre' Bleu

I'm scratching my watch and winding my ****** here. I am down to the Steyr Scout stock fits me perfectly and that is about all the wonderfulness I can find . That worth the market price of $1600 to $1900 ? Certainly it does not as I am fine with other rifles .

Nice rifle, I like it , can't find a requirement it serves. I think the Steyr Scout which is the epic Scout rifle design of Coopers vision is like coastal artillery. Relevant maybe back in the past , for a requirement long gone.

I am back where I started over 30 yrs ago...awesome rifle but what would I use it for.

OK, I'll bite on this. If you want the rifle and can afford it buy it. However:

I agree with your "coastal artillery" analogy. With that out of the way; I gather this is an "in addition to" instead of an "in place of" or a "niche filler" for something you don't have.

For me personally one of these doesn't fit any need I have for either hunting or self defense. Cooper designed this for his needs and then extrapolated it to every body else's needs. The only thing I might use a Scout Rifle for in the future is hog hunting but it isn't enough superior to other options I already own to justify the nearly $2,000.00 price tag. I have plenty of firearms that don't fit my hunting or self defense needs (No 4 Mk 2 Enfield, M1 Garand come to mind) that I have just because I enjoy them for what they are.

If I were to have to justify it on the basis of functionality, based on your OP, maybe I'd pass but I'm not you.

Once again - my devalued $.02 worth

they are nice rifles, I've sold a handful of them and have folks ask for them every now and again,

Steyr does quality, but they do break,

had to send one back due to the pop up front sight breaking,

and the bipod is a bit cheesy, not sure how it would hold up in real world use,


otherwise a very nice, and as Skip says, limited Rifle,


a friend wanted something similar, and ended up making his own, out of a beater 1903 receiver,

30.06 instead of .308, and maybe a tad heavier, but works and covers basically the same bases,
his looks like a cross between a 1903 and an FR-8 wishing to be a Steyr

I decided to make my own a few (?) years ago from the wealth of surplus rifles still coming from Europe. My goal was to build a hunting rifle that could be quickly loaded from clips while wearing a scope for my ageing eyes.
I found an M38 Swede that I figured would fit my needs for $150 at a gun show. With it I couldn't hit much with the Patridge sight setup and I didn't really want to bugger up the receiver with holes and new "in the wrap" barrels were still available so a Burris 2 3/4x scout scope mounted on the barrel seemed like a way to go. I bought a Numrich Arms Swede 96 stock to futz with so the rifle could be returned to issue with only screw holes in the barrel to reveal my butchery. The receiver was glass bedded and the barrel free floated (stock trimmed to fit the m38 barrel).
It turned out to be a <2MoA shooter off bags and thought it met my criteria until I went hunting elk in dense timber and oak brush. I could not see the difference between brush and antlers at slightly less than 100 yds.
I went back and forth between my scope and my binocs for 20 minutes before I gave up and just stood up and spooked them so I could see if they were boys or girls. Boys, both of them and I had a cow tag.

Cooper probably had in mind modernizing the SMLE Jungle Carbine and current generation optics have eclipsed his idea.

THanks for comments all. THe M96 Swede would make an outstanding Scout Rifle.

Went over to my son's house and took out his Socom 16 which has a Aimrpoint optic mounted
"scout style" on the barrel. Asked him when is the last time he had that out on the range and
his response was : "With you in about 2004".

Hmmmmmmmmm, if I needed a Scout Rifle, this will do and since neither of us has a requirement
for a Scout Rifle, this Socom 16 will satisfy any such need. Our "need" seems to be the Socom 16 resides in the back row of Colt's gun safe.

A model 96 is pretty long, but they get shorter: This is a 94 that I salvaged and built into a mini-mauser. I would put a scope on a ready drilled Swede but there are enough of them out there now; I wouldn't harm a fresh one. I'm not a fan of short rifles in .308 I had a Remington "Mountain Rifle" for while. It probably only weighed six pounds. The meanest rifle I've ever shot. It had such a nasty muzzle blast that I couldn't believe I'd actually experienced it. I took it out again and it was just as bad. I sold it right after that. I suppose it serves a purpose.

Attachment 48951