I've been intrigued by the scout concept since the 80's, never been able to afford one tho.
The only Steyr Scout I can recall seeing at a range was owned by some lady, new to hunting, who put way too much conventional scope on it, I asked why she chose that and she mentioned being a friend of Jeff's daughter. I've never seen one in the wild.
Cooper used to write about a 1X scope being even better for a scout, I thought that was a strange idea, but today, probably the majority of AR's on a pudlic range have a red dot (basically a 1X scope!)
Cooper wanted the scout, which had to meet a weight and length limit, have backup irons, and enough KE for an elk, to be the "general purpose" rifle, the problem is, it was so "general purpose" it became too specialized.
I read somewhere someone writing that the AR has become the "general purpose" rifle of this decade, I agree, and I think the classic hunting rifle has become somewhat a niche product, the scout significantly more "niche".
I still want a scout rifle, but its so far down my wish list its planned in my hobby-money budget for 2023 or 2024.
Poole
