When the Ruger Gunsite Scout came out I wasn't interested..a 16.5" barrel seemed really short...but now they offer it in stainless with an 18.7" barrel. I've been needing an all weather rifle for a while....and the general purpose idea of a scout rifle is appealing, plus I like the combination of features in the ruger...so...

1. has anyone ever hunted with a rifle with a forward scope mount and is it a reasonable setup out to 125 yards or so?

2. Does anyone have a ruger gunsite scout and how do you like it?

3. Does anyone have any other kind of "scout" rifle and how do you like it?

Had one. Not very accurate. Very inconsistent. Traded it off to friend on this forum. He tried it for a while and found the same problem with factory and reloaded ammo. I think he has traded it off as well. You can find way more accurate rifles for the same or less money.

Did not buy but handled one for a while and considered it. I was checking it out because it's a readily available LH rifle.

Fit and finish was good.

Bolt was not nice but I'm spoiled to the tikka now.

Trigger. See above comment.

The dang thing is heavy with that good looking laminate stock. If one is going to carry a rifle that heavy it better be accurate.

Edit: most scout rifles have provisions for conventional scope mounting if you don't like the forward mount.

Check out the steyr. <- don't know if I spelled that right

What are the benefits of a scout rifle over a standard lightweight rifle with a barrel cut down?

I ordered one for my wife last year for deer season. It had the shortest LOP of any rifle I looked at without chopping a stock. I like the gun , it shoots 1moa or better, feels solid, and is compact. I ordered the 18" barrel, took that clusterF off the end of the barrel and put a thread protector on it. When it warms up I will pull it out of the stock and bed it but theres no real reason as it shoots good and consistent already. I don't like the plastic trigger guard DBM setup so I will be ordering a CDI unit sooner or later when I get around to bedding it.

Side note we are using it as a regular hunting rifle. The forward scope base is in the box it came in.

I had a Steyr Scout Tactical model before. It was a good gun but I didn't like the stock.

I don't see one. I think the idea of the forward scope is fast target aquisition. I looked for some long eye relief scopes for a friend's Ruger Scout rifle and the choices were limited. There's plenty of options for mounting what ever you want on a regular action mounted scope.

As far as inconsistent, he and I were pinging a 12" plate at 300 yards with irons. That's all I've shot one. I'd like to build some test loads for it to see what it'll really do. May be a 1" gun with the right load.

This.

I shoot Tikka and Browning now. All aforementioned issues are no longer issues.

I once owned an M1A Scout Squad and mounted 2x pistol scope in the forward position. Rapid target acquisition is definitely the advantage to be had, there.

The range I use has four 6" steel swinging targets at 100 yards, using the Scout Squad, I had no trouble keeping all four swinging as long as my magazine held out. Very positive and fast target acquisition.

It might be a good way to go for pig hunting, where one addresses multiple targets within a tight time-frame. It would be ideal for whitetails at the ranges stated. - Not all that great for longer shots as higher-power extended eye relief scopes in general are not known for giving you much field of view. At longer ranges, the rapid target acquisition goes away, one way or another.

2 or 3 power scopes seem to work best. Some like the holographic sights, but I like to have a bit of magnification.

I haven't had an expensive scout rifle, but I had a Mosin with a 17" or so barrel and a scout mount, and I wasn't impressed. The "rapid target aquisition" with one is a load of bull if you ask me. I'd rather have a 1-4x standard-eye relief scope.

I have a Ruger Gunsite Scout. Picked it up a couple years ago. Not a bench rifle by any means but for general hunting it's more than accurate enough and the size of the rifle is very handy. I have my scope mounted traditionally, over the action, so can't speak to the scout setup. I have a half-dozen .308's and, from my experience, it's a round not too picky about barrel lengths. I do hand-load all my .308 ammo but nothing special. Most end up just a tad on the warm side. Basically I like the rifle a lot and have no regrets getting it.

My brother bought the Steyr Scout in 308 years back. I kinda picked fun at him for buying a "silly rifle". Well I had to eat crow because it is a very functional and accurate rifle. He has two scopes sighted in for it as it allows for traditional scopes as well as long eye relief scopes. And it's kind of like a Swiss army knife of rifles. With a magazine carrier in the stock and and integrated bipod. He's had all kinds of fun with it. Not the Ruger for comparison but in talking scout rifles they can be handy.

Well, I'll toss in my $0.02, for what it's worth.

I bought a take down BLR specifically for use with the forward mounted scope. With the BLR, the scout style mounting attaches directly to the barrel rather than the receiver. Unlike the receiver mounted scope, you can remove the barrel and then replace it, without changing your point of impact and needing to re-zero. It makes for a great, compact traveling hunting system.

However ... there were a few wrinkles.

The first wrinkle was that the forward mounting totally changes the balance of the rifle. What was once a trim, compact rifle with a very ergonomic feel, became a clumsy board when the scope weighed anything at all. I could have lived with that, but I ran into another, deal killing, issue. I could shoot moa groups at 100 yards without problem. The rifle was very consistent, and I was very pleased, as you might imagine. When I moved out to 200 yards, I discovered that my groups would shoot to one of two locations, about 5 inches apart vertically. I was really puzzled and tried very hard to shoot consistently, but still had the two points of impact. I tried using 4 different scopes, and still had the same problem. My final conclusion is that the issue was a combination of my eyesight (mediocre) and the fixed parallax of the scout scope. I had complete confidence in my ability to hit anything that I wanted at 100 yards, but I couldn't, in good conscience, shoot at game at 200.

In an earlier post in this thread, "inconsistency" is mentioned. That could be the rifle, but it might also be the parallax problems that I encountered.

In the end, I pulled the scout scopes and mounted a low profile conventional scope. My rifle is now accurate and feels good, but my goal of having a traveling take-down rifle that can be assembled without re-zeroing is toast. At some point, my scout scopes are probably going to end up in the classified section, or on eBay.

FWIW, I also have a 1x scope forward mounted on a 12 lb dangerous game rifle. With one minor exception ( the scope bell can interfere with rapid reloading, if you don't pay attention ), I like it very much indeed. It's safe to shoot, dramatically improves my aiming consistency and has rapid target acquisition; it's everything that I could want for shooting out to 40 or 50 yards. Also, the scope is so light and the rifle so heavy that there's no meaningful effect on the balance of the rifle.

My conclusion is this: the scout scope concept works out to 125 yards or so, at least for me. It can also destroy the balance of your rifle if you aren't careful. If you know that you'll shoot at 200+ given the temptation, then go another direction.

I had a Savage 10fcm scout rifle and liked it very much. It was as accurate as any good Savage, had the Accustock and Accutrigger, and handled very well. However, I did not use the scout mount. I ran it with iron sights and liked it a lot. If they made the same rifle in left-handed, I would own one now. If I were going to put a scope on one, it would be a traditional mount. The ONLY advantage I can see to a scout mount is not having the scope in the way for stripper-clip reloading from the top.