First Scout Rifle World Shoot Turns a Skeptic Into a Believer

American Rifleman sent a writer to Gunsite Academy for the first-ever Scout Rifle World Shoot, an eight-stage match built by scout-rifle champion Richard Mann to put Col. Cooper's old concept through its paces, and the self-described skeptic came away understanding the rifle in a way no spec sheet ever explained.

Key points

• The rifle: The author competed with a Franchi MULE bolt-action in .308 Win., wearing a Burris 2-7X scout scope, Dead Air RXD30Ti suppressor, Magpul bipod and Crossbreed sling, loaded with Hornady 168-grain ELD Match ammo.
• The course: Stages ranged from close-range iron-sight work to unknown-distance targets out to 350 yards, plus "battlefield pick-up" stages using other shooters' guns.
• The scoring: Cooper's criteria penalize rifles for excess weight and length while requiring a minimum power factor, and the suppressor-equipped MULE took its biggest hit on length.
• The lesson: According to American Rifleman, good gear doesn't fix a lack of practice — the author's offhand and iron-sight shooting exposed weak spots that bench and prone work had hidden.
• The verdict: Mann's description of the scout rifle as a "Swiss Army knife" versus a precision rifle's scalpel stuck with the author, who now sees it as a genuine answer to the one-rifle question.

Quick take

This is less a gear review than a conversion story, and that's what makes it worth a read if you've ever dismissed the scout rifle as a solution looking for a problem. Running one through scenarios it was actually designed for apparently makes the concept click in a way reading about it never does.

Read the full story: americanrifleman.org