This is a rifle I am very fond of, though I don’t use it as much as I used to. It is mostly a product of all the research I conducted when I was writing The Scout Rifle Study. This rifle, with no accessories attached, weighs 6 pounds 1 ounce. With the Burris 2-7X Scout Scope and quick detach rings (16.0 ounces), three sling swivels and Galco’s modified RifleMann sling (7 ounces), and the VersaCarry AmmoCaddy (2.5 ounces), it weighs 7 pounds 10.5 ounces.
When Cooper wrote about the Scout Rifle he suggested field ready weights from between 6 pounds 9.6 ounces (3 kilos) to 7 pounds 11.2 ounces (3.5 kilos). This rifle comes in at just under the maximum weight Cooper stipulated for a Scout Rifle. But then of course there’s the bipod question. If you add the 7.6 ounce Spartan bipod—which you can carry in your pocket—to the rifle, it then weighs more than eight pounds. Of course if you’re using the bipod you’re not holding the rifle because it’s rested on the ground.
I only mention all this because weight has always been the hardest element of Cooper’s Scout Rifle concept to meet. Bipod or not, there has never been a commercially produced Scout Rifle that would meet Cooper’s field ready weight of 3 kilos. Maybe someday we will see that rifle…
