Even the gunnie gurus can be wrong
Jeff Cooper is viewed as, basically, the gunnie guru, the father of modern firearms technique, and a host of other things. But he occasionally got it wrong. I submit as evidence the concept of the scout rifle. Seriously, that rifle does nothing great and only does some things OK. He also got Glocks wrong. I know, the 1911 die-hards will tell me why their kung-fu is better than mine. But, I don’t care. The 1911 is a fine weapon. The Glock is too. So is the Sig, H&K, and a host of other combat pistols. It’s a matter of preference, really.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:13 am
You should maybe read more of what he wrote on Glocks. You do realize that his daughter carries one?
November 20th, 2006 at 11:17 am
No, didn’t know that. I took his rather backhanded way of talking about them as, well, condescending.
I could be wrong, of course.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Reading what he said, it seemed like a pretty even-handed opinion of Glocks. He said several really nice things about them, but he just didn’t think they were the best choice.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
I agree it’s a matter of personal choice. Personally, I prefer the balance and trigger of a 1911, but I would be the last person to say that it is “better” than other types. It just works better for me.
November 20th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
The Scout Rifle works well for the mission he described. It’s just that that mission is unlikely to come up in most of our lives.
November 20th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Even as a Glock guy, I think he was fairly even-handed and spot on. A highly accurized 1911 clone (or some of the others like Sigs) will be more accurate. The Glock, on the other hand, almost never requires cleaning (even if it is a good idea) and is unsafe enough that it will go BANG when your hands are numb from adrenaline dump and you forget things like how to work complex things like manual safties. And expert pistolero has enough muscle memory that he doesn’t have to think about thumbing the safety off, so a manual safety is a wise investment for him. For a guy like me, that manual safety might get me killed because my gun turns into a real short club because I forget how to work it.
November 20th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
He tended to write condescendingly about many things. That doesn’t mean that the tone is undeserved. Go to the local shooting competition and see how many GLOCKs are there. You’ll see some, particularly in the smaller comps, but just as often if not more, you’ll find. The same can be said for other places pistol fanatics meet. It’s not a bad pistol, as Cooper noted: it “is obviously satisfactory in most uses.” It’s just not going to go as far as some alternatives if you spend the same time and money on it.
And I like the Scout. It’s not useful for tree hunters, and I probably wouldn’t take it as my first choice for predominately ranged combat, but it does have its place. It remains small, easy to carry, fast to aim, and easy to reload. While it loses a bit of utility due to the decreased power of the shell from the short barrel, that’s not a significantly problematic flaw for most use.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
I thought the Styer Scout Rifle was WAY overpriced, and I understand that there was a problem with light primer strikes on a large percentage of them (Source: Boston’s gun bible 2nd edition). I did like the ergonomics and the bipod.
The problem with the flavors of homemade scouts seems to be that most of them don’t make weight. You really need to hike ten miles with 30 pounds of gear to truly see that you don’t want a Garand for the Scout Rifle role, even if you have a neat-o cool large eye relief scope mounted on it.
November 21st, 2006 at 11:33 am
The general concept of having one good rifle to do everything you need isn’t new. 30-30’s of various types have been used that way for generations.
As for the specific idea of the scout, I rather prefer the military surplus route. I would think that most who have the expendable cash to drop on a Steyr probably: 1. has a full gun safe at home and 2: doesn’t really need a jack of all trades for anything other than the novelty factor.
http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2005/mosinscoutrifle/index.asp
http://home.earthlink.net/~hwsportsman/CheapScout.html
November 21st, 2006 at 6:51 pm
And they would be the ones to get it in .223