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Ruger Scout

The History of Sturm, Ruger & Co.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., more commonly known as Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company headquartered in Southport, Connecticut. Founded in 1949 by Alexander McCormick Sturm and William B. Ruger in a rented machine shop in Connecticut, the company has since become one of the largest firearm manufacturers in the world - shadowed only by Remington and perhaps Smith & Wesson.

Ruger is widely recognized for producing firearms that span a broad spectrum of uses such as bolt-action rifles and pistols, semi-automatic rifles, single-shot rifles, shotguns, and revolvers. As recognition of its quality products grew so did the public’s interest in investing in the company’s shares. Ruger went public in 1969 and grew exponentially since then, and it is on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:RGR) since 1990.

In 2020, Ruger made another big move with their acquisition of Marlin Firearms from Remington Outdoor Company.

For decades now both newbie and seasoned shooters have been consistently trusting Ruger’s guns for their excellent accuracy and superior long-term performance as evidenced by its continued success over all these years.

Today, Ruger’s most popular products include the Ruger 10/22 semiautomatic rifle, the .22 rimfire semi-automatic pistol Ruger MK IV, the bolt-action Ruger American rifle, the tried and tested Ruger No.1, and, of course, the timeless Ruger Security-Six revolvers.

Ruger Scout Rifle Review

Ruger Scout Rifle, chambered for .308 Win.

Figure 1: Synthetic stock Ruger Scout Rifle in .308 Winchester (Source: Ruger)

Ruger Scout Rifle “the one rifle to have if you could have only one”, as Ruger puts it, is your typical scout rifle with a touch of the Ruger M77 feel to it.

It has a forward-mounted Picatinny rail and a built-in sighting system with an adjustable ghost ring rear aperture. The latter can be removed if needed and the standard Ruger rings can be mounted instead.

The action is of the controlled feed style. It is based on the Mauser-type controlled round feed extractor, which seemingly remains some sort of an idol for Ruger rifles to this day. The stainless-steel bolt runs and operates smoothly. It has a rounded bolt handle and two opposing locking lugs.

As mentioned above, the standard Ruger rings can be mounted on the receiver since just like other Ruger rifles, Ruger Scout Rifle, too, has an integral scope mounting system machined directly on the solid-steel receiver. The rings are usually included when the rifle is purchased.

 The barrel is free-floating and is cold hammer-forged. The length varies depending on the variant, and it ranges from 409 mm to 475 mm (16.10 and 18.70 inches, respectively). The stock material also depends on the variant. The base model of the rifle came with a durable laminate stock, but synthetic and even American walnut options soon followed. The rifle can also be fitted for different-sized shooters since three spacers are included to make the best use of the soft-rubber buttpad.

The safety of the rifle is ensured by the three-position winged safety on the right side of the action, behind the bolt handle. The safety wing is easy to operate, and its accessibility is especially welcome on the “all-purpose” rifle. 

Of course, the box magazine is detachable and has a capacity for up to 10 rounds. It is detached with the push of the trigger guard-mounted mag release revel.  As with the M77 model, the trigger of the Ruger Scout Rifle is also standard. The rifle doesn’t feature the Ruger Marksman AdjustableTM trigger, which is a shame, but understandable for a scout rifle that must stay true to a certain level of pedigree, at least to some extent.

Ruger Scout Rifle Calibers

According to Colonel Jeff Cooper’s guidelines, a proper scout rifle should be chambered for a .308 Winchester. Well, as the years passed, manufacturers started increasingly interpreting these guidelines in their own way. Today, there are just as many different scout rifles as there are gun manufacturers, and one thing is for sure: Cooper’s .308 Winchester guideline is at least to some extent forgotten. While the majority of rifle manufacturers still offer scout rifles chambered in .308, they usually also offer variants that deviate from this rule.

The same goes for the Ruger Scout Rifle, which can be chambered for:

  • .308 Win.

  • .350 Legend

  • .450 Bushmaster

Ruger Scout Rifle Variants

There are several Ruger Scout Rifle variants available, usually differentiating only by stock material or chambering. As with the other Ruger rifles, these variants are only separated by different model numbers, except for the distributor exclusives, which are named after the distributors.

Ruger Scout Rifle receiver

Figure 2: The forward-mounted Picatinny rail on the Ruger Scout Rifle

Scope Mounts Interchangeable with Ruger Scout Rifle

Rifles That Have One-Piece Scope Mounts Interchangeable with Ruger Scout Rifle

The necessary condition for rifles to have one-piece scope mounts interchangeable is that the mounting surfaces of these rifles match in every dimension.

Therefore, all rifles that come with a Picatinny rail will have one-piece scope mounts interchangeable with Ruger Scout Rifle.

Rifles That Have Two-Piece Scope Mounts Interchangeable with Ruger Scout Rifle

There’s a similar situation with two-piece scope mounts. Any rifle that has a Picatinny rail mounted on its mounting surface will have two-piece scope mounts interchangeable with Ruger Scout Rifle, too.

Best Scope Mounts for Ruger Scout Rifle

Fixed Scope Mounts for Ruger Scout Rifle

We would recommend these 30 mm Optik Arms rings if you are looking for a quality fixed scope-mounting solution. They are made of steel and come with a 10-year warranty:

Detachable Repeatable Scope Mounts for Ruger Scout Rifle

The great thing about detachable repeatable scope mounts is that you can easily detach and re-attach your optics without any tools while retaining zero the whole time. This is why some rifle owners are prepared to pay top dollar for these mounts.

We recommend the EAW QD Roll-off Mount for Picatinny, 30 mm for your Ruger Scout Rifle. It is made of still, is manufactured in Germany, and has a 30-year warranty:

Scope Mounts for the Ruger Integral Scope Mounting System

As mentioned above, you can choose to ignore the forward-mounted Picatinny rail and instead mount a more standard scope mount on the Ruger Scout Rifle, since it also has the Ruger system machined into the receiver.

If you are looking for scope mounts to mount on the Ruger integral receiver, you can view Scope Mounts for Ruger M77 (SA). These mounts will fit on the Ruger Scout Rifle.

Help Us Build Our Riflescope Mounts Database

If you happen to own this or any other rifle, we would appreciate it if you could help us expand our database by sending us some photos of the rifle receiver (the bare mounting surface of the rifle without the mounts installed). For your help, our company offers a fair return in terms of practical rewards.

Please send us an email for more information. You can contact us here: info@optics-trade.eu

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Airguns or pellet guns (the name comes from projectiles they shoot – pellets) are popular among all generations of people with a variety of different interests.

They are used for

  • plinking,

  • hunting,

  • sport competitions etc.

All these activities demand variety of different airguns. A lot of these applications do not require a rifle scope for using an air gun, but some of them do – especially hunting or long range shooting.

Hawke 9-11mm Match Mounts, 30mm, high

Hawke 9-11mm Match Mounts, 30mm, high

 

General Features of Airgun Scope Mounts

It is common to almost all airguns that they have 11 mm dovetail on the receiver. This dovetail is full length and it is used for mounting a rifle scope or diopter. Such dovetails are basically the same as on the rimfire rifles (.22 calibre). It is important to know that they share the same mounting platform and this is why we can found airgun scope mounts also on rimfire rifles and normally, similar scopes are used on both types of rifles.

When thinking of mounting a rifle scope on the airgun, we have to consider that spring powered airguns have strong recoil in both directions. This is why the robustness and rigidness of the mounts is extremely important (especially with spring powered airguns). This problem is not the case with rimfire rifles, where recoil is very mild.

Mostly, these mounts are made from aluminium and can also have a screw that serves as recoil stopper. The screw can be placed vertically, but with the two part design scope mounts, screw can be placed horizontally. Although, majority of airgun scope mounts comes without recoil notches. There are two options available for mounting the scope on the airgun monoblock scope mount: 25.4 mm (1’’) or 30 mm rings. Other dimensions can also be found, however - they are extremely rare.

Normally, airgun mounts are affordable and in most cases fixed. Detachable airgun scope mounts are usually very rare. However, the most affordable airgun mounts are also the ones from the lowest quality (although, sufficient) and high quality mounts can be expensive, too.

Adjustable inclination on the rifle scope mounts is advisable, usable and a lot of times needed (because of the imperfections of different parts – rifle, mount, rings and dovetail). Some of the mounts also have recoil buffer available. There are also available shock absorbing recoil buffers that can be bought separately and installed behind the scope mount and help to absorb recoil.

BKL 0.6" Long Dovetail Rings, 30 mm

BKL 0.6" Long Dovetail Rings, 30 mm


Monoblock Scope Mounts for Airguns

Monoblock scope mounts for airguns are definitely more reliable than two piece scope mounts. This is normally because they can handle recoil much better. They are robust, rigid, hard and they offer great clamping surface for the dovetail. However, with monoblock scope mounts, setting the proper eye relief might be an issue in some cases. Also, monoblock mounts are almost always more expensive than similar two piece mounts. Clamping surface on the rail which is connected to the rings in one piece is usually higher than it can be with comparable two piece mounts. This might also be an disadvantage, worth mentioning.


One Part and Two Part Design of Airgun Scope Mounts

When we are talking about two piece solutions of airgun mounts, we should not forget to mention some of the differences between one part and two part design of these mounts. One part design is easier to produce, therefore these mounts are cheaper as a rule. Versatility with one part design of scope mounts is normally poor. More options of mounting a scope are normally available with two part design scope mounts. It is good to know that airgun scope mounts for rifle scopes with rail systems are not usual (actually, they are rare). If they are available, they are normally available with two part design of scope mounts. Example for such mount could be Recknagel’s tip off mount for 11 mm dovetail on the bottom and with Zeiss rail option (ZM/VM) on the top. They also offer a LM rail version of these mounts.