Ruger Gunsite Scout

JOttum

JOttum

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Any of you have any experience with one of these? I'm speaking of the 16" barrell wood lamenate stock, 10 round mag azine bolt action rifle. Seems like a good bush gun as it is compact, in a good size round but..I don't know...needless to say I am intrigued by them.
 
JOttum said:
Any of you have any experience with one of these? I'm speaking of the 16" barrell wood lamenate stock, 10 round mag azine bolt action rifle. Seems like a good bush gun as it is compact, in a good size round but..I don't know...needless to say I am intrigued by them.
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Sorry, I missed post. I thought you were asking about the Marlin Guide gun.

'drif
 
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Desert Drifter said:
Sorry, I missed post. I thought you were asking about the Marlin Guide gun.

'drif
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No worries. I love the Marlin guide guns. I will one day pick up an 18" big belly .45-70.

I read about the Rugers in the October or maybe November issue of Field and Stream and like I said, they intrigued me.
 
It received good reviews. If I could get a dealer around here to sell me one below MSRP I'd have one. Looks like I will have to order one from the Internet and I hate not touching it first.
 
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I don't own one, but have handled and shot one 150 rounds. Overall it is a decent rifle, the thing that bothers me the most is the magazine. It is a proprietary ruger type box magazine. In my opinion it should have been designed to accept M14 magazines since they are widely available. Using handloads it is accurate, my target was a 20oz coke bottle at 150 yds. I use those filled with water, and hit 8 of 10 consistently. For a ruger they are excellent guns, but for what they cost, I would buy a Tikka.

http://www.tikka.fi/t3models.php?laminatedss
 
I have the Ruger Frontier Rifle, which is the predecessor to the Gunsite Scout. I like mine quite a bit. It's accurate, light, and easy-handling. The only thing I'd change is the barrel length. I think the 16.25" barrel gives up too much in the ballistics department.
 
I've got one. I love it :dblthumb:

It's not a target gun. It's not a lightweight mountain rifle. It's not a high capacity AR. It's somewhere in between.

shoot and scoot - YouTube

40807ec4-1.jpg
 
I have shot one. Very accurate and reliable for the # of rounds (40) we shot.


But i can't see paying $800+ for it with the mags being $40+ a pop. I don't know what this rifle will do that a #4 Lee-Enfield couldn't do for a lot less cash other than the ammo availability...
 
My brother has one (left handed) he paid 750 for it, and you can get aftermarket mags for 25 - 30.

Personally, I didn't like it that much. The bolt seemed to get hung up when cycling it. At first I thought it was because it is left handed and I'm a righty, but then I saw it hang up a bit during cycling when my brother was shooting. it's just snags a little due to vertical and horizontal slop in the bolt. I'm guessing this would be minimized the more you get used to cycling it.

It is solidly build, accurate and shoulders well. Overall, i wouldn't mind owning one, and I think the cycling would get better with practice (and with a right handed one for me), but it is expensive.

I'm not down on Ruger at all, they make great firearms, for the money though, I have to say I'd go with the Savage 10FCM.
 
If you really want to know, you can read a very interesting discussion here: http://www.scoutrifle.org/index.php?topic=889.0

askari said:
I have shot one. Very accurate and reliable for the # of rounds (40) we shot.


But i can't see paying $800+ for it with the mags being $40+ a pop. I don't know what this rifle will do that a #4 Lee-Enfield couldn't do for a lot less cash other than the ammo availability...
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I'm really intrigued by these. Its the magazine that worries me. Now if they made it to take M14 mags I'd be at the front of the line. It baffles me why no one has come up with a bolt gun (that doesn't require an expensive conversion) that will accept M14 magazines. It seems like a no-brainer to me.
 
Ruger said they went with the Accuracy Int. type mags because the M14 mags on the market have too much variation.
 
Col. Copper's concept was mean to fire a stouter round than a .308. I would think a .338 Short Magnum you be superior for the concept than a .308. However better a .308 than a .223.
 
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Cooper specified the .308. You must be thinking of the Lion Scout, Super Scout, or the Thumper. His prototype was built on a Remington 600 chambered in .308.

I own TWO Ruger GSRs and love the rifle!
 
tnrdnck said:
I don't own one, but have handled and shot one 150 rounds. Overall it is a decent rifle, the thing that bothers me the most is the magazine. It is a proprietary ruger type box magazine. In my opinion it should have been designed to accept M14 magazines since they are widely available. Using handloads it is accurate, my target was a 20oz coke bottle at 150 yds. I use those filled with water, and hit 8 of 10 consistently. For a ruger they are excellent guns, but for what they cost, I would buy a Tikka.

http://www.tikka.fi/t3models.php?laminatedss
Click to expand...

I would love to get a Tikka Hunter with a 5 round magazine when I get back from deployment, mainly because I can't afford a Sako.

Thanks for all the great replies everyone!
 
From internet buddy Walt Kuleck. We were both wrong...

"Actually .308 is not a requirement. The requirement is for a cartridge with enough power to take down a 500 lb. animal, and which also is readily available worldwide. Some might argue the .303 British, 7.92x57 or 7.62x54R fit the first requirement just as well as the .308, but of all the alternatives no cartridge can be found in more places than can the .308/7.62x51.

That's why the .308 is the default. You are free to choose your own chambering, and chase your own ammo .

Regards,

Walt"
 
I have owned mine for a couple months now.

I love it.

After tinkering with reloads I have a cast boolet load, a solid hunting load, a accuracy load (sub 1 inch 100 yard groups ; 5 rounds) and am working on a top end load for whatever I want that capability for.

I have the 10 round mags and a 3 and 5 round mag for it. After a bit I just carry the 10 round in the rifle and 2 spare 10 round ones and spare ammo. I don't plan on fighting a war, that is not the purpose of it.

For me it is my woods loafing rifle, and pretty much goes everywhere with me. It was a present from my kids to give me that "one" rifle that I would use the rest of my life. Seems likely to be this one.

I have many rifles, most of which I am passing on to my kids, but this one just fits me, does all I ask of it, and well I like how it feels and looks.

The short barrel is a nice thing to me.

The only thing I have contemplated would be perhaps replacing the barrel with the 338 federal, but 308 is easy to get, I am set up to reload, and it gets er done.

I suspect cost will come down and maybe some people will end up selling them for the used market eventually.

Don't be looking for mine. It will be near me when I die, and one of my kids will get it to carry or pass on as they choose.
 
I really like the looks of Ruger's product, but I think I'd be more inclined to get Savage's version. Seems like a better value to me. I especially like the late Col. Cooper's reminder that the good old turn bolt gun is far from dead. :)

PC
 
I echo the sentiments of several others desiring a rifle that would use M-14 mags. I's also prefer a 20" barrel. Oh, and dare I say it... some decent iron sights... ?
 
Using M-14 magazines is such a huge advantage, I can't believe nobody has done it. I don't buy the argument that having proprietary magazines protects quality and therefore leads to greater sales. The variety of magazines, some of poor quality, available doesn't seem to be hurting the sales of 1911s much.
 
WarDoggy said:
From an industry guy that was involved in parts of the GSR, there was too much variation in available M14 mags to make the gun reliable.

And yes, I asked him that same question.;)

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I have no doubt that's what they'll say; I'm just not buying it as a viable response. They could just as easily warn the consumer not to expect reliability with non-OEM magazines, and leave up to the end user.

For example, lots of manufactureres recommend against using steel cased ammo in their guns, it doesn't stop them from making it in the first place.

The whole concept of a Scout rifle -- lone recon scout needing to scavenge ammo & mags -- begs for the use of the most common magazine in that caliber to be used. I know it would make it alot more attractive to many consumers.
 
No offense, but whether you buy it or not doesn't change the fact that they tried it, and couldn't get to work well enough to suit them. Any 'use only with...' warning doesn't help them when customers call complaining about their POS rifles not feeding reliably.

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WarDoggy said:
No offense, but whether you buy it or not doesn't change the fact that they tried it, and couldn't get to work well enough to suit them. Any 'use only with...' warning doesn't help them when customers call complaining about their POS rifles not feeding reliably.

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Probably a good bet that the allowances for magazine fit on a combat rifle are quite a bit broader than on a sporting rifle such as the Ruger. Notwithstanding, I have always wanted a high quality bolt action .308 with a 20" barrel, good reciever mounted iron sights, uses M-1A mags, built rugged like a combat/working rifle. I'm currently building something along those lines (minus the M1A mag feature) on an Ishapore action, rebarreled with an A&B F34 contour barrel.
 
I looked at them and while I liked the overall design of the rifle I have shot plenty of "scout" rifles to know that, for me, the long eye relief scope is not the way to go in a hunting rifle. If you have never used a scout rifle I would suggest you at least try to find someone who has one and shoot it. Some people love the scope being out there, I don't. I also don't like having to buy an extra mag to make it legal to hunt with in the States I hunt. It comes with a 10 shot magazine from what I have read on Ruger's site. The barrel length bothers me a bit although for its intended use it is probably okay. Its going to lose some velocity compared to 20 and 22 inch barrels but I doubt the animals will notice.
 
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