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There I was, lying on the ground, snugged up into the sling and looking through the 2.5 power scope as the target came into view at exactly 200 yards. As I pressed gently on the trigger the rifle bucked and I heard the bullet impact the target as I ran the bolt to chamber another round, fired again, then yet again. In less than 10 seconds three bullets had smacked into the steel target, printing a 2\u00bd inch group. Okay, I guess this little rifle shoots.<\/p>\n
Several years ago when Michael Bane, Dave Spaulding, Gunsite owner Buz Mills and Ruger\u2019s Ken Jorgensen met with me at Gunsite to discuss the idea of a modern Gunsite Scout Rifle (GSR), one of the things we all wanted was a synthetic stock to cut down on weight. At the time this wasn\u2019t feasible if we were to keep the rifle within the targeted price range because Ruger wasn\u2019t making synthetic stocks. We had to \u201csettle\u201d for a beautiful laminate stock that\u2019s practically indestructible. Recently, Ruger has gotten into the synthetic stock business in a big way, particularly with their very popular line of American Rifles, so we probably shouldn\u2019t be surprised they have introduced a synthetic stocked version of the .308 GSR. The rifle is available in blued or stainless steel and I would be surprised if a left-handed version isn\u2019t in the works.<\/p>\n
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Ruger listens to their customers and one of the things some customers wanted was a scout rifle that \u201cmakes weight\u201d. You see, back when Jeff Cooper advanced the idea of a Scout he laid out a set of criteria that included a bare weight One of the features of the scout rifle concept is the ability to mount an intermediate eye relief scope forward of the receiver. This helps out in a couple of important ways. First, there is no danger of being smacked in the eyebrow by the scope, a painful and bloody injury shooters experience if the scope is mounted too close to the eye. Second, with the scope mounted forward both eyes can be left open when shooting. This eliminates squinting through the scope and is much faster and more effective when making snap shots on close targets or when tracking moving targets. The Leupold Scout Scope with a fixed magnification of 2.5X is the classic scout scope. I ordered one and the folks at Leupold added a Gunsite logo. This is a service they provide through their custom shop, where they can add logos, artwork or lettering to scopes and scope turret caps to personalize your purchase.<\/p>\n Before mounting the Leupold scope I did a little experiment. I have long believed these short-barreled rifles are every bit as accurate as longer barreled rifles but it\u2019s a little hard to prove with my old eyes and a low powered scope. The Scout Concept<\/strong><\/p>\n For those of you who are interested in Jeff Cooper\u2019s scout rifle idea, how it came together in the Steyr Scout rifle, and how this new Ruger stacks up to the ideal, please read on. If worrying about concepts developed in the early 1980s doesn\u2019t do much for you, then you might want to tune out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To my mind, the Ruger GSR, and especially the lightweight GSR synthetic meets Jeff Cooper\u2019s idealized criteria for the scout rifle, but more importantly, the GSR is an excellent, versatile general-purpose rifle for the modern shooter.<\/p>\n For more information:<\/p>\n www.ruger.com<\/a><\/p>\n www.leupold.com<\/a><\/p>\n![\"RugerSyntheticScout6\"](\"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/RugerSyntheticScout6.jpg\")
<\/a>of 3 kilograms, or 6.6 pounds. The original GSR weighs 7.1 pounds. I don\u2019t see this as a problem because having a little more weight on a compact rifle chambered in a powerful cartridge like .308 Winchester makes it more comfortable to shoot. The new Ruger synthetic GSR makes weight, and then some, weighing in at a scant 6.25 pounds. Does that make it uncomfortable to shoot? Well, it could, but Ruger has added a muzzle brake to the free floated, threaded 16.1inch medium contour, cold hammer forged barrel that is very effective in taming recoil. There\u2019s a barrel nut\/thread protector included with the rifle so you can shoot it with or without the muzzle brake or add flash or sound suppressors. I don\u2019t have a way to measure the difference but subjectively the recoil is definitely sharper without the brake in place. As a matter of fact, the muzzle brake works so well I hope Ruger will offer them as accessory parts \u2013 because I want to put one on my original GSR.<\/p>\nThe synthetic stock has aluminum bedding blocks, just like the laminate stock, and the torque values for the stock bolt are the same: 90 inch pounds for the front bolt and snug but not tightened down for the rear trigger guard bolt. Listening to customers again, Ruger has added a swivel stud boss to the stock forward of the front stock bolt that will allow customers who wish to use a 3 point Ching Sling to install a third sling swivel stud. Like the original GSR, the synthetic stock has a soft recoil pad and can be adjusted from a 12.75\u201d to 14.25\u2019 length of pull by adding or removing the included stock spacers.<\/p>\n<\/a>Using the Ruger scope rings included with the rifle I mounted a Burris 3-9 compact scope in the conventional position on the receiver and headed to the range. Shooting from the bench at 100 yards I was rewarded with numerous 3 shot groups in the 1\u201d range or less. My best groups were with 168 grain Federal Match at .69\u201d and Hornady Match ammunition at .68\u201d. Everything was going fine until I started missing the paper altogether because the scope bases had loosened and the scope was practically falling off the rifle. Tightening the bases didn\u2019t help, as they soon shot loose again. The lesson here is that I should have used thread locker on the bolts when I mounted the scope. I didn\u2019t because I intended to remove it after the range session and it came back to bite me.<\/p>\nWhen I mounted the Leupold scout scope you can bet I didn\u2019t neglect to properly secure the screws on the low Leupold PRW rings and the scope stayed put. I decided to shoot the rifle with the scout scope from prone off a Harris bipod and with a Rhodesian sling made by Andy\u2019s Leather. This sling is a favorite of mine, as it gives me the advantages of a three point sling \u2013 I use the front loop to sling up \u2013 while retaining the convenience of a carry strap, all without the need to install a third sling swivel. I wanted to zero the rifle at 200 yards so I started by shooting on paper at 25 yards then refined the zero shooting on steel at 100 and 200 yards. To my considerable delight I fired a 3 shot group at 100 yards that went into an inch and a group at 200 that printed into 2.5 inches. Any way you look at it, that kind of accuracy proves this rifle is a shooter. With its light weight and the low powered scope the rifle is a joy for making quick snap shots. It\u2019s easy to carry and satisfies all the criteria we were after when we designed the rifle to be an affordable, accurate, general-purpose rifle. I like it a lot.<\/p>\nCooper felt the scout rifle was the ideal general-purpose tool for a lone person \u2013 a scout \u2013 who would need to move quickly with a short, handy, powerful rifle suitable for fighting or hunting. After examining semi-automatic rifles Cooper felt they were too heavy and complex to satisfy his criteria, and, he felt the need for rapid fire was not nearly as important as the ability to get fast, first round hits.\u00a0 He specified an overall length of less than one meter (39 inches), a maximum weight, unloaded, with scope attached of 3 kilos (6.6 pounds) and the ability to carry extra ammunition on the rifle, up to a capacity of 10 rounds. He suggested a Mauser action with controlled feed and extraction might be best and that a round, smooth bolt handle was desirable (these traits are present in the Ruger but not in the original Steyr). He thought a built in bipod, or the ability to easily attach one was a good, but not necessary idea and he felt the rifle should have iron sights as a back up to the telescope. Early on Cooper suggested a loop sling he called the CW sling, but later he became enthused with the 3 point sling invented by Gunsite instructor Eric Ching.\u00a0 Of course, the low powered, forward mounted telescope as later made by Leupold and Burris was considered to be central to the whole concept.<\/p>\nI weighed and measured my Steyr Scout rifle with Leupold scout scope and compared it to the Ruger synthetic GSR. For the purposes of this evaluation I removed the muzzle brake from the Ruger and screwed on the thread protector, as the Steyr has an unthreaded barrel and no provision for attaching brakes or suppressors. The Steyr comes with two plastic 5 round magazines. The Ruger comes with a single, 10 round metal magazine; 3, 5 and 10 round plastic magazines are available from Ruger (I used a 10 round plastic magazine for this comparison). Here\u2019s what I came up with:<\/p>\n\n\n
\n <\/td>\n Ruger GSR<\/strong><\/td>\n Steyr Scout<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Overall length (no stock spacers):<\/td>\n 35.25\u201d<\/td>\n 39\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Capacity:<\/td>\n 3,5 or 10 rds.<\/td>\n 5 rds. 2 ea.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Sights:<\/td>\n ghost ring<\/td>\n ghost ring<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Weight, bare with scope:<\/td>\n 6 lbs, 13.5 ozs<\/td>\n 6 lbs, 14.5 ozs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Weight, with scope, sling, magazine(s)
\nand 10 rounds of 168gr. ammunition<\/td>\n8 lbs, 1.5 ozs<\/td>\n 8 lbs, 4 ozs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n