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Does anyone own and/or shoot a Steyr Scout? I have often thought about one in .308 however never actually got beyond looking at one and certainly not shot one. If I did go for one it would be with a long eye relief 'scope and used for woodland stalking and some occasional paper punching.

I have used one in the past and liked it but the recoil was stiff in 308 to say the least, fine as a sporting rifle when only taking the odd live quarry shot.

So other than an exercise in trying to come near Jeff Coopers original concept brief I couldn't see it supplanting my BSAs and PHs for live quarry shooting, they are also available in more interesting calibres.

My club has one as a club gun in .308 and I used it quite a bit when I first started and found it had quite a bit of felt recoil due to being fairly light.....to me it seemed to have more felt recoil than my Dragunov!.Also the thin barrel heated up pretty quickly, but this wouldn't be a problem when stalking.

I owned one for about 10 years and had it fitted with a Leupold 2.bowl Scout Scope and an original Ching sling. I would not hesitate in putting another in my cabinet.

I also used it for club shooting. That pencil thin barrel does not wander like you think it will either. Pete Moore in Shooting Sports ran 30 rounds through one as quick as possible then shot it for a group trying to get it to wander. It didn't.

I wouldn't screw thread one though. There's not much meat to thread and even though they are short and stiff I could see a mod on the end cause all sorts of issues with harmonics.

I had a 308 one , loved it , loved the concept , but could never get it to shoot consistently which was a real shame as I loved it !

tackb wrote:but could never get it to shoot consistently

Really surprised to hear that. In fact the first time I've heard that and I've known a few blokes who owned Scout rifles and lack of accuracy or consistency has never been a complaint...

Sim G wrote:

tackb wrote:but could never get it to shoot consistently

Really surprised to hear that. In fact the first time I've heard that and I've known a few blokes who owned Scout rifles and lack of accuracy or consistency has never been a complaint...

yes, I've heard that

mine however would be within 6'' of poa at 100m and after about 12-15 frustrating random rounds it would kind of settle down , not a tack driver but usable for thumping deer in the chest at moderate range , but and it's a big but next time I took it out it would pattern for the first 12-15 rounds again ? I tried clean , dirty , different ammo , me (obviously) , different scopes in fact pretty much everything I could think of to no avail sadly as I loved the concept ! I will say I've not met anyone with a tack driving 308 version yet mostly 243 so maybe it was just 308 that was an issue ?

anyway , all I can suggest is making sure you try the rifle for group before you buy it ?

I have read mixed reviews of the .308 accuracy. Personally I would expect/hope for around 3" at 100m with a 4x long eye relief 'scope however that might be a tad optimistic... Tackb do you think heat in the barrel had a positive effect to the accuracy of the rifle you owned?

Forgotten Weapons has just done a review of one. YouTube video was added yesterday and Ian explains Jeff Coopers philosophy behind it. It's a rifle designed for carrying a lot and shooting little based on his experiences hunting in Africa when you might only take one shot all day. Long eye relief was good situational awareness when out in the bush where there might be dangerous game nearby. The gun certainly wasn't designed to be tack driver target rifle.

Watch the video and decide if it's the right gun for the wild frontier of East Anglia.

Ovenpaa wrote:I have read mixed reviews of the .308 accuracy. Personally I would expect/hope for around 3" at 100m with a 4x long eye relief 'scope however that might be a tad optimistic... Tackb do you think heat in the barrel had a positive effect to the accuracy of the rifle you owned?

I really don't know , it was that inconsistent ! I tried everything and there seemed to be no common theme to it , most frustrating !