The Steyr Scout () is an
Austrian
bolt-action rifle
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...
manufactured by
Steyr Mannlicher
Steyr Arms () is a firearms manufacturer based in Sankt Peter in der Au, Austria. Originally part of Steyr-Daimler-Puch, it became independent when the conglomerate was broken up in 1989. Prior to 1 January 2019, the company was named Steyr M ...
, and chambered primarily for
7.62 NATO (
.308 Winchester
The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...
), although other
caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
options in
5.56 NATO (
.223 Remington
The .223 Remington (designated as the 223 Remington by the SAAMI and 223 Rem by the CIP) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed in 1957 by Remington Arms and Fairchild Industries for the U.S. Continental Army Command ...
),
.243 Winchester,
6.5 Creedmoor,
.376 Steyr
The .376 Steyr cartridge is a rifle cartridge jointly developed by Hornady and Steyr for use in the Steyr Scout rifle.
Introduced in 1999, it is based on the 9.3×64mm Brenneke case, necked up to accept a diameter bullet. The case is also sh ...
and
7mm-08 Remington are also offered commercially. It is intended to fill the role of a versatile, lightweight all-around rifle as specified in
Jeff Cooper's scout rifle concept. Apart from the
barrel
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...
and
action, the gun is made primarily of
polymers and is designed to be accurate to at least .
Overview
The Steyr Scout has the following features:
* Removable
box magazines with a
magazine cut-off, individual rounds can be manually loaded through the ejection port, allowing for the magazine to be kept in reserve.
* Second spare magazine stored in the butt of the rifle.
* Light weight due to aluminium
receiver housing, hammer forged fluted
barrel
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...
, and extensive use of polymers.
* Top integral
Weaver rail.
* Bottom
UIT rail at the forend.
* Roller
tang safety with "Locked Safe", "Loading" and "Fire" positions.
*
Bolt handle locks downward against receiver in "Locked Safe" mode.
* User-adjustable
trigger, factory set at .
* Reserve flip-up "
ghost ring"
iron sights
Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers (usually made of metallic material) used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons (such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow or even compound bow), or less commonly ...
.
* Integral folding
bipod.
* Third attachment point for a "
Ching sling".
There were early reports of problems with the Steyr Scout rifle relating to breakage of the bipod pivot pin. The affected part was subsequently redesigned to improve its strength. Some shooters complained that the bipod was too tall.
The Weaver rail above the action and barrel allows either for conventional positioning of a scope with normal 1.5–3.5 in
eye relief or for the forward placement of an intermediate/long eye relief "scout scope". The latter is more faithful to Cooper's Scout concept, and the Steyr-Mannlicher rifle can be ordered from the factory with a low-magnification
Leupold scope with long eye relief.
Variants
Steyr Elite

A variant and effectively the successor of the Scout is the Steyr Elite (previously known as the Steyr Tactical Elite), a more robustly constructed model with many of the same features of the Scout, but designed primarily for the law enforcement market for an urban tactical role. Differences to the standard Scout include an extended
STANAG type mounting
rail, an enlarged bolt knob of the
SSG type, an adjustable cheek piece, and a height-adjustable buttpad. It is fitted with a heavy barrel, and can produce high muzzle velocities due to a "fast" internal profile. The additional features of the Elite give it a weight of over , which makes it fall outside the definition of a
scout rifle. Although intended for intermediate ranges, with match grade 7.62 mm (.308 inch) ammunition and 10.0 g (155 grain) projectiles, entirely acceptable performance at up to has been recorded, making it a good all-rounder. It is standard with a synthetic 5-round magazine, but an external adaptor kit can be attached to fit a 10-round magazine (not available on 5.56 NATO). It is normally available in two calibers;
5.56 NATO and
7.62 NATO, but can be specially ordered in 7 mm-08 Remington upon request.
Steyr Scout RFR
Also referred to as the Scout Survival, the Scout RFR is the
rimfire version of the Scout, with three caliber choices of
.17 HMR
.17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, commonly known as the .17 HMR, is a rimfire rifle cartridge developed by Hornady in 2002. It was developed by necking down a .22 Magnum case to take a .17 caliber (4.5 mm) projectile. Commonly loaded with a 1 ...
,
.22 LR
The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smooth ...
and
.22 WMR. It is a new addition to the lineup, formally introduced in the 2017
SHOT Show
The SHOT Show , which is an acronym for "Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show", is an American annual trade show for the shooting sports, hunting, outdoor recreations and firearm manufacturing industries. The show is owned and sponsored by ...
. The RFR has an ISSC SPA-style "toggle"
straight-pull action
Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed).
Most bolt-action ...
and a
UNF 1/2"-20
threaded (except the .22 WMR version) heavy
blued barrel, with an overall rifle length of and weighing . It comes with a 10-round metal box magazine, and an optional
survival knife that can be hidden in the storage cavity in the
buttstock. It has a full-length
Picatinny rail over the
handguard in front of the receiver, which has
dovetail grooves but includes two Weaver-style adaptor bases for mounting optics. Unlike the
centerfire models, which have three attachment points for using
Ching slings, the RFR only has two attachment points for using conventional
sling
sling may refer to:
Places
*Sling, Anglesey, Wales
*Sling, Gloucestershire, England, a small village in the Forest of Dean
People with the name
* Otto Šling (1912–1952), repressed Czech communist functionary
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ...
s.
References
External links
Steyr Scoutat steyr-arms.com
The Steyr Scout Rifle PageFan site
patent 403,043patent 5,852,892
{{Steyr Mannlicher
5.56 mm firearms
7.62 mm rifles
7.62×51mm NATO rifles
Bolt-action rifles
Rifles of Austria
Sniper rifles of Austria
Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1999