Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Jeff Cooper - Styer Scout - just don't get it?

Skalkaho:

go to:

www.e-gunparts.com/productschem.asp?chrMasterModel=1990zNO.4%20MKI

THis site has an exploded view of the SMLE including the aperture sight at part number 3.

Good Luck.

BMT

bmt, all: i just got back from my dad a no. 4 mark 1/3, ftr'd 1951 (my birth year). super condition on all the metal parts. bore brand new. usual 52 years worth of BOL build-up, dings, scratches, etc., on the wood. it'll keep three HXP mil-surp shots in an inch at 50 yards (it'll do even better with handloads). i've got only $100 invested. doubt i'll alter it. not that many 1/3s made, at least not on savage action bodies (that's a receiver to american nomenclature) like mine is (yep, it's marked u.s. property). at 9 pounds, i suppose it's a load. but it balances like it should right in front of the mag. carries far lighter than it ought to. i've owned several rifles in the 303 british persuasion. it's a great old round. i reckon the no. 5 is the closest to a cooper-style scout rifle ever used by any military. but i do like the no. 4's lines better, and the ballistics of 5 additional inches of barrel length - and the L*O*N*G sight radius.
ahhh ... smells like eau de scout to me.

Yep, the No. 5 Jungle Carbine was a pretty good scout rifle. Mine is a psuedo jungle carbine conversion from a no 4.

I am glad you like that old rifle. It has a great reputation in the field (both for war and hunting).

BMT

Hey Hunter Jim,
I hunt with a Steyr Prohunter in .376 and was wondering what load you recommend for Whitetail deer. I currently use the 225 gr. Hornady at around 2,500 fps.
I tested some of the Barnes 210 gr. X-bullets at 2,600 fps. in wet phone books & wet sand and find these bullets a little tough to expand. Any suggestions ?
Thanks, Chrome

I really do not know what the Styer guys were thinking with the scout and the 376 cartridge. The 376 is not a bad idea but is commercially doomed from the start. The 375 h&h owns that market and most folks in the USA simply do not have much use for anything that big. why not simply open up a 300 win mag to 375 and then you would have a "short" 375...now that's something I could be interested in...

I really do not want to hurt anyone's feelings but...the styer scout is a novelty at best. if you really desire such a rifle, you could do much better going the custom route with top quality components...pick your action, barrel, stock, accessories, etc...

The late Gale McMillan once described the scout rifle as "a pistol shooter's idea of what a rifle should be."

Well. I saved up and got two of these suckers. I've just got a new job after being out of work for six months and so may have to sell some of my armory to pay some back bills. I will sell my two scouts at the very last and only if I have to. I like the scout action. Mine are slick and very accurate. I am partial to light rifles and .308 has been my favorite caliber. I don't (usually) use the bipod but I buy into the scout concept. I am a hunter as well as a martial artist and the scout fits me.

The scout concept is for a general purpose rifle. That is to say one used for trophy hunting, filling the cook pot and for combat. yes, that's right, combat. If you read Mr. Cooper's original articles on the concept, he explains this clearly enough. Basically if you could have only one rifle for any purpose this is the rifle he (and I) would choose.

Note that a blind magazine may be the best for hunting but it would absolutely suck in combat. You need detachable boxes for that purpose. I am not saying it is the best hunting rifle, just the best all-around rifle if you really mean all-around to include all uses of a rifle.

The scout is not an extremely long range rifle, but it can be used accurately at all practical ranges. It is meant to be a very quick-pointing accurate rifle. I practice on taking quick offhand shots and this rifle excells at such.

Did I mention that the action is slick. It is (almost) as slick out-of-the-box as any custom-tuned action I have handled. The rifle's accuracy is regularly under 0.5 moa (not my accuracy, but the rifle's).

I liked it so much I set up a Professional Ordnance carbon-15 .223 with a scout scope for practice and that is one great little plinker !

I'll spare ya',despite the door bein' WIDE open................

C'mon Bob, tell us how you really feel . . . . . .No disrespect intended, by the way. I always enjoy your posts. And maybe Charlie Sisk could produce a well balanced rifle that meets all of the scout parameters. But $2,200 with scope out of the box (if I have the Steyr price correct) probably won't keep Charlie's kids fed.

I agree that the Steyr Scout is a very specialzed rifle that is built to fit a very small niche, but every report from the field has been that Steyr hit the nail on the head.

As stated earlier, I don't own one. But I have constructed a Scout Rifle to fit my needs.

Sceondly, this discussion makes me wonder if a person who doesn't have the opportunity to scout the West's back woods will ever appreciate the concept. There be smugglers in AZ, NM and TX. There be dope growers in National Forests here in the Northwest. Poachers are everywhere (Maine, Utah, California, and Florida).

I don't read Soldier of Fortune, but I pay attention in the woods. I scout off the beaten trail where the bears raise their cubs and where the cash crop has funny shaped leaves.

I have never fired a shot at another man, nor at a mama bear. Not many people do. But real people get into tight spots every year. Their stories are reported in real newspapers (occasionally as obituaries).

The point is that there is a real reason for this rifle. The fact that you have no need for a scout is good. But here in the Wide Open West, millions of acres of public land provide millions of chances for trouble.

My biggest fears in the woods are: (1) getting lost <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />; (2) stumbling upon mama bear and her cubs; <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />; and in a far distant third place: (3) Undesirable humans.

If you haven't carried the Steyr scout for a weekend in the woods, I respectfully request that you don't knock it. If you don't like the concept, don't build one.

But, if you ever get out to Oregon, gimme a call and I will take you out where wolves don't fear man (Sawtooth Mountains of ID) or where there is more Black Bear scat than squirrels (Siletz River Basin, Oregon - OK--It only seems that way). Its only when I am R-E-A-L-L-Y alone that I start appreciate the scout rifle.

OK-I wrote W-A-Y too much again,

Just my 2 cents . . . .

BMT

hey BMT and Hunter Jim

Hear it goes from the bear again. everyone sit down because this is a long one. The scout gun is a great all around gun. I wanted one, but the steyer, forget it. I dont have that kind of dollars. I bought 3 m44's at the gun show for 35 us dollars ea, and found a 20 US dollar scope mount for a M44 hungarian. found on E-Bay a pistol scope for 38 Us dollars shipping included. With most of the parts I went to work. I cleaned the cosmoline off the gun and disassembled the whole thing. Cleaned and inspected it then rasped the club they call the stock at the trigger area so it fit my hand ,trimmed the but end so it fit my strange body. Where the pig sticker went I put a nice bi-pod, home made of course, made it retract and everything then I painted it camo, put it all together and built a scout gun. Oh ya I installed a spoon bolt that I also made.
the 7.62X54R is ok, looks like it is about equal to the 308
My eyes cant shoot open sights very well unless it is fiber optic sights. Ok, I know what all of you are thinking by now how does it shoot??? 1.5moa to 2.5 moa at 100 yds, not bad,
this is my hobby doing this to old military guns. Oh ya the wolf ammo is cheep I might close the gap a bit if I hand loaded good luck!!! one more thing I can now shoot good with both eyes open, the more I shoot it the more I like it. all for about 125 US dollars

Bearbeater

I hear ya loud and clear. I really do not know how you guys in the west do it. I thought about this last sat and sun am as i was crossing the creek that bisects my property in the dark, trying not to flood my rubber boots and thinking "there is nothing on this place that can really harm me (except for the 10' gator that lives in the pond that adjoins the creek) but I would not even think about wandering about my place in the dark without a rifle. put me in bear country? forget it. my guide in canada told me one am, in the dark, to load my rifle as we were going to walk past a bear den and the bear had growled in the past. I said "you have got to be kidding me". I guess you get used to these things but bow hunting in bear country, without a gun? count me out. at least I don't have to worry about the snakes in the dark as it is usually to cold for them to be aggressive, the warmer months, that's another story. oh yea, the point of my thread, that's why I always carry my mossberg pump 3" with 00 buck. it's cheap, durable, handy and powerful. if I have to shoot past 40-50 yards, that's too far for defense anyway. on the boat? I'll take a stainless ruger mini-30 anytime.

Holy Toldeo Bob. . . . . Gators!?!?!?!

Geez, I think I will stay in rainy old Oregon. I concur that a good shotgun is a great way to go. But my little Enfield is actually "thinner and lighter."

I like the Mini-30 as a carry weapon, but its a little light for Mama bear. If I had unlimited funds, I would get the AR-10 (but it is a little much, 99% of the time).

Have a good day 257 Bob, and stay away from them gators!

BMT

Chrome,

I would stick with the 225 grain Hornady Interlock for deer, although I have only shot the 270 grain factory load so far. I used it on a huge eland (2,200 pounds) and a wart hog. The bullet opened on a heart shot on the wartie, and was not tough enough in the shoulder of the eland (it took three shots for that huge guy).

I just got back from a whitetail deer hunt in Saskatchewan where I spent the week sitting in elevated box blinds. The smaller unit was about 40" by 40", although it was 6 foot tall inside. I had my Steyr Scout along, and that 1 meter length was great in the blinds. I had a low-power variable scope mounted over the action though. The SS worked fine -- again.

The important part of the scout concept is the package, and not the sights. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

jim