A fellow poster here and good friend of mine recently purchased a NIB Ruger Scout Rifle. Yesterday we had the opportunity to burn a little powder through it, so I thought I'd post a little informal range report. We didn't have any chrony, spring scale, or other equipment so all impressions are subjective. Also, I haven't scanned any targets so I won't give specific info on performance, because if there are no pics, it didn't happen.
Out of the box:
I'm short, the purchaser is tall, we both felt the rifle balanced well, shouldered well, and had a very appropriate heft for a carbine sized rifle.
Loading:
We shot 40 rounds, the proud new owner did all the loading, so these are merely observations. Typical loading, predictable mag release, very Ruger. The owner observed the last round was hard to load.
The bolt:
The bolt itself was pretty smooth and solid considering it's bone stock NIB, no work done. Of course, knowing the owner, to say it was likely cleaned before shooting is analogous to saying the Biltmore Estate is a nice house. We noticed a tendency for the rifle to not load the first round on a magazine here and there, but didn't notice the trend in time to see if it was related to having a half mag versus having a nearly full mag. Once the first round was chambered there was no malfunction in the feed operation. We are hoping ammo availability improves so we can do further testing. (Insert mischievous smiley emoticon here.)
The trigger:
Recently the only new rifles I have fired have been from big green, which have all come equipped with the twelve pound lawyer sitting on the trigger. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the trigger on the Scout rifle. With no springs to verify an accurate measurement, all I can say is creep and travel were superior to NIB big green rifles and the breaking weight is so superior that the first round came as a slight surprise. Fortunately I was on target before placing my finger on the trigger. The travel is a non-issue for this style rifle, bench shooters and long range shooters wouldn't use this style anyway. For its' intended purposes, I think subjectively this trigger is just fine as is right out of the box.
The sights:
Open ghost ring sights only, no scope.
The ghost ring works as designed: quick sight acquisition with adequate, say, minute-of-deer accuracy, which we verified to a free standing, walked off 100 yards on a gallon jug. (Side note: our observations are that the .308 is adequate for neutralizing the threat of a gallon jug.) Both of us being over forty was evidently no problem with sight picture clarity and alignment, however I do not know how these sights would work with bi or trifocals.
Subjective Accuracy Assessment:
Purely subjectively: two shots, two hits on gallon jugs at 100 yards with a ghost ring was enough evidence for me that this rifle is a shooter. We shot several jugs at varying distance with a very high hit rate. The only misses I recall were mine. On paper, my subjective observations seemed to hold up: for short range work the supplied sights were completely adequate. I'm not going to try to persuade the owner into buying glass for this rifle, but I would be VERY interested to see what he or I could do with this rifle with sandbags and a good scope. I would suspect all we would do is confirm what other people have written about this rifle.
After the shot:
It's a .308. It's not going to be a shoulder buster. However, both of us remarked that for a rifle this small it had very pleasant recoil, easily manageable by a youth shooter. The report was concussive, to put it mildly, but that was to be expected from this barrel configuration. Hearing protection is a must, double hearing protection is recommended.
Overall assessment:
Great value for its' intended purpose, good for easy carry and quick shots. Very very good overall feel and performance, observed ease of follow up shots without leaving the shoulder. With the limited players in this market, it's hard to make direct comparisons, but this one is a FUN gun.
Hopefully next time we can have a chrony and such available and I can give you some actual performance measures instead of all subjective, but I can make this recommendation: shoot a couple of boxes through your friend's Scout rifle BEFORE you try and talk yourself out of one. I like to think of it as the bolt equivalent of a Marlin 336.
Out of the box:
I'm short, the purchaser is tall, we both felt the rifle balanced well, shouldered well, and had a very appropriate heft for a carbine sized rifle.
Loading:
We shot 40 rounds, the proud new owner did all the loading, so these are merely observations. Typical loading, predictable mag release, very Ruger. The owner observed the last round was hard to load.
The bolt:
The bolt itself was pretty smooth and solid considering it's bone stock NIB, no work done. Of course, knowing the owner, to say it was likely cleaned before shooting is analogous to saying the Biltmore Estate is a nice house. We noticed a tendency for the rifle to not load the first round on a magazine here and there, but didn't notice the trend in time to see if it was related to having a half mag versus having a nearly full mag. Once the first round was chambered there was no malfunction in the feed operation. We are hoping ammo availability improves so we can do further testing. (Insert mischievous smiley emoticon here.)
The trigger:
Recently the only new rifles I have fired have been from big green, which have all come equipped with the twelve pound lawyer sitting on the trigger. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the trigger on the Scout rifle. With no springs to verify an accurate measurement, all I can say is creep and travel were superior to NIB big green rifles and the breaking weight is so superior that the first round came as a slight surprise. Fortunately I was on target before placing my finger on the trigger. The travel is a non-issue for this style rifle, bench shooters and long range shooters wouldn't use this style anyway. For its' intended purposes, I think subjectively this trigger is just fine as is right out of the box.
The sights:
Open ghost ring sights only, no scope.
The ghost ring works as designed: quick sight acquisition with adequate, say, minute-of-deer accuracy, which we verified to a free standing, walked off 100 yards on a gallon jug. (Side note: our observations are that the .308 is adequate for neutralizing the threat of a gallon jug.) Both of us being over forty was evidently no problem with sight picture clarity and alignment, however I do not know how these sights would work with bi or trifocals.
Subjective Accuracy Assessment:
Purely subjectively: two shots, two hits on gallon jugs at 100 yards with a ghost ring was enough evidence for me that this rifle is a shooter. We shot several jugs at varying distance with a very high hit rate. The only misses I recall were mine. On paper, my subjective observations seemed to hold up: for short range work the supplied sights were completely adequate. I'm not going to try to persuade the owner into buying glass for this rifle, but I would be VERY interested to see what he or I could do with this rifle with sandbags and a good scope. I would suspect all we would do is confirm what other people have written about this rifle.
After the shot:
It's a .308. It's not going to be a shoulder buster. However, both of us remarked that for a rifle this small it had very pleasant recoil, easily manageable by a youth shooter. The report was concussive, to put it mildly, but that was to be expected from this barrel configuration. Hearing protection is a must, double hearing protection is recommended.
Overall assessment:
Great value for its' intended purpose, good for easy carry and quick shots. Very very good overall feel and performance, observed ease of follow up shots without leaving the shoulder. With the limited players in this market, it's hard to make direct comparisons, but this one is a FUN gun.
Hopefully next time we can have a chrony and such available and I can give you some actual performance measures instead of all subjective, but I can make this recommendation: shoot a couple of boxes through your friend's Scout rifle BEFORE you try and talk yourself out of one. I like to think of it as the bolt equivalent of a Marlin 336.