Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Elmer Keith & Jack O'Connor Scout Rifles:

FWIW, I tried a scout scope briefly on of all things, a TC Strike ML, which can be problematic to mount a regular scope on without extension rings or the replacement setup from Dead Nutz (which I find unacceptably oogly). The little Burris 2.75 was nice, but I soon realized that the low Xs combined with the forward position made it tough to differentiate between deer and vegetation even at 100 yards, so down the road it went, replaced by a Hawke 2-7 with 4.5 inches of ER and an illuminated reticle. Closer in, or in the open it was okay.

Old eyeballs may have been a factor.

When I was 18 I had a Win 94 with a 2X Redfield EER? mounted out where the rear sight was. Some time after that era I sold the scope and realized I didn't like those holes in barrel so 10 years ago I found the same scope on Ebay and bought it and put back on the 94 then gave the rifle to my son. I could hit a 12" bell at 300yds with that rig but had to hold 4' high. You could take a dime, loosen a screw and the scope would slide off and you could use the open sight that was included on the mounting base. It was fun to hear the gong ring at 300 yds with a 30-30 though. lol I still have one of these 2X Redfields scopes but it has rings on it and not sure what it was intended for?

Interesting comments. Elmer's comments refer to shooting one off of a bench. I don't recall him ever hunting with one. But Bob Hagel did. Set up just like the rifle Keith described. And, as pointed out, Jack's comments were just in passing. BTW, Jack liked not only the 71 Winchester, but the Marlin in .35 Remington as well.
I like the Scout Rifle idea for certain things. My M1A Squad Scout is set up to take either the Leupold 1.5-4X Scout Scope or their 2X model. The 2X, I've found, has a much longer eye box, which I prefer.
Scout Scopes do vary in characteristics I've found. I had a 2.7X Burris on my first Scout Rifle, custom Model 7 Remington. Not very bright, and the reticle was hard to see in bad light. The above Leupolds don't have that problem. E

Mainer have you been to the scoutrifle.org ? Check it out if you haven't. Be Well. Rustyzipper.