Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The Steyr Scout rifle....why?

LOL, I tried to help him out as much as I could.. I actually believe he was suffering from dementia when he came up with the scout rifle concept.

The technology of the scout that's most amazing is unseen.
The receiver is aluminum...even in the 376 Steyr.
A chamber extension provides the ability to force all gas forward. No gas escape holes in the action.
They are actually proofed to 120,000 psi.
Too many people focus on looks and don't give credit to the fact that it's an aluminum action centerfire rifle.

Yes, thank you for pointing that out.

I'm not a fan of the forward mounted scope, at all. But this rifle has some serious engineering and innovation The futuristic appearance takes some getting used to but as an engineer I almost always put function over vanity.

Copper's scout rifle concept OCD is not a symptom of dementia.
Worship of Jeff Cooper may lead to dementia. Some of his Groupies can be insufferable.

For a lot of people who make the mistake of shooting with one eye closed, the scout rifle has some merit. For those of us that shoot the right way with both eyes open, it has less. But a short, light and fast package that can be loaded quickly with strippers without the unsightly and balance ruining detachable mag, is always a good thing in and of itself.

In low light a scout scope bites,,,

with the sun over your shoulder a scout scope bites,,,

when you are picking a shot through brush at any range a scout scope bites,,,

that said I did kill a deer with one, at 20 yards when my handgun would have worked,,,,,

I no longer hunt with a scout scope.

Sorry, but the fact that they have an aluminum receiver may be interesting and result in a lighter rifle, but I don't consider it a virtue. Lots of other rifles use bolts that lock into a barrel extension, combined with a light alloy receiver to save weight and money. Offhand, I can think of other bolt actions, levers, and autos. There's also at least one break action that has steel breeching enclosed in alloy.

The Steyrs are good rifles, excellent even, but ugly as sin IMHO. Enjoy yours, but I like my rifles a little more comely.

Never got the scout rifle . I always thought if you wanted a handy neat handling carbine then those were called the model 94 and 336. I am aware that the bolt action can accommodate hotter rounds capable of longer range shooting but if long range is what I have in mind then I don't want a light whippy short barreled carbine to do it.

I have a safe full of carbines.
With the exception of some older family guns and my weatherby mkv's everything is 20 or less.
Many, many are Steyr.
And if I was heading out today to target shoot at 500+ I'd be taking a 20" 308. And doing well with it.
Short barrels are not at a disadvantage in long range usage.
There's nothing IN THE SCOUT RIFLE that negates its long range use.
They are, surprising to most, very accurate.

Mostly what people on this board consider long range, really isn't. A 30-30 is going to be iffy past 200. With practice, you can easily double that out with a scout. You don't need a 14x scope with a BDC to shoot at intermediate range like that.

I had a Scout some years back but never warmed to the akward stock (for me anyway). It was accurate.

Now my 308 carbine is a T3 Battue.

Why?
Because Jeff Cooper wanted it.

Cooper grew up in an era not as affluent as ours. Shooters made do with one rifle, one shotgun and one pistol, plus possibly a .22.

Read the American Rifleman and the outdoor magazines from the 1930s through the early 1960s, and every other article was about the "all round gun."

This was Cooper's idea of this. For what it is, it works.

No less valid a concept as any other nitch weapon.
223 HBAR
Short bbl 12 ga pump
Big bore lever actions
All designed around a single use.
The scout only varies in that its "single use" is to be a general purpose rifle that replaces other hitch weapons.
Kinda like using dynamite to put out a fire.

The Steyr is just an effort to sell a product in a saturated market where having something new is not easy.

At least it's in 308 which is useful.

To me it's ugly, others like that theme.

Its a design that came to market in '96...19 years ago.
Not exactly a flooded market when it came out.

Wait, that's a Ruger, not a Steyr...

Sure is fun, though. Daughter #1 likes it so much she wanted to use it for elk this year. I convinced her to buy a lefty Ruger Hawkeye in .308 instead. That will giver her another 170fps or so at the muzzle due to the extra 6" of barrel.

Not a very good picture, but here is the Hawkeye.


Can't wait for my hip to heal up a bit more so I can get her to the range with her new rifle. Hopefully next weekend.

There is always the question of "Why a Scout?" For me, the answer was simple - I wanted a compact .308 and something with iron sights. (Yes, I've temporarily removed the rear peep for load testing with the scope.) Eventually I hope to get a can and the Scout allows me to do so with no mods. I do lose about 170fps over published .308 velocities but it doesn't matter - velocities are still well above where I need them.

Forward mounted scopes have never done much for me but I may get one for the Ruger, in QD rings, so I can use irons when I want and glass for load development, without removing the rear peep.

Probably not a dimes worth of difference between those two rifles in real world use.

I always thought Ruger went a little too far with their 16 inch Scout. IMHO a 20 inch makes more sense and that's what my Steyr Scout has. With 150 grain Hornadys I'm happy on critters up to Caribou. Above that, 150-168 Barnes. Big bears, 180 Barnes. One bullet for all-round? 180 Partition.

I have one that I picked up for $1450 shipped to Alaska. It's become my go to gun for hunting. The gun just fits me well. The stock looks strange but the ergonomics make it fast pointing and I get a really good cheek weld. I like the bipod because I mostly shoot from the prone when hunting. I've always carried 10 rounds when hunting and the second magazine in the butt stock keeps spare ammo handy and easily accessible. The trigger is amazing and both stages are easily user adjustable. The barrel is nitride treated, so it will last a long time. The back up sights are just that and useful in an emergency.

I have a Nightforce compact NXS on mine in the conventional position for longer shots and an Aimpoint in the scout position for shorter shots. I have a 180 grain Partition load for moose and bear, and a 168 Berger Classic Hunter load for light skinned animals. The 180 is 1 MOA for five shots and the 168 is 1/2 MOA for five. They both shoot to the same POI and have very close trajectories so I don't have to worry too much when I switch back and forth. I have no qualms about shooting the 168 load out to 500 yards in the right conditions.

It does everything I need it to do for a rifle.

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