Ruger Should Have Introduced This Years Ago!

I received an email from Ruger a couple of hours ago announcing their new Gunsite Scout Rifle. This is the rifle that Ruger should have introduced when they first came out with their M77 Frontier a few years ago.

The Gunsite Scout Rifle is based upon Col. Jeff Cooper's scout rifle concept. It is a bolt-action .308 rifle with a 10-round detachable box magazine. The rifle features the integral forward scope mount typical of all scout rifles along with a ghost ring rear sight and a Mini-14 style protected front sight. It also have a flash suppressor with standard 5/8-24 muzzle threads allowing the use of other .30 caliber accessories such as different flash suppressors, muzzle brakes, or a sound suppressor.

The only thing I see missing is the third sling stud for the requisite Ching sling from Andy Langlois. Ed Head at Gunsite had this to say about it according to the Ruger press release:

"Ruger has taken an in depth look at the intended purpose of a Scout Rifle and developed a full-featured rifle designed to meet the Scout Rifle criteria of hunt, fight, defend," says Head. "This firearm offers outstanding features in an affordable, versatile and reliable rifle designed to deliver .308 Winchester performance in a variety of situations. It is compact, lightweight, offers 10-round box magazines, can be fit to the individual shooter, and accommodates a host of optics. It is a serious rifle for those serious about rifles."

I may not buy this rifle as I have the Ruger M77 Frontier which I have been slowly building up over of the years. If I had to do it over again, I'd go with this. Heck, I still might do it!

UPDATE: Michael Bane has a long blog post about the rifle and his impressions on shooting it out at Gunsite. He is buying one.

UPDATE II: DownRange TV has put up two videos on the new Gunsite Scout Rifle. The first includes an interview with the Colonel himself and the second continues the discussion with Dave Spaulding on how this rifle came to be.