The Steyr Arms Scout rifle has been one of the premier guns designed with Col. Jeff Cooper’s “scout rifle” concept in mind. The Steyr Scout has been widely appreciated for its shooting characteristics including its reliability, accuracy and light weight.
Taking the concept a step farther, Steyr announced a new version of the Scout for the US market earlier this year. It is called the Scout RFR. While in development, Steyr nicknamed the project as the “Cub Scout.” The name appears to have been a fitting one.
While generally following the scout rifle concept, the new Scout RFR is not a classic Cooper-style rifle. To start with, the new gun is a rimfire rifle that is available in .17 HMR, .22 LR, and .22 WMR. This makes the gun much easier to shoot for new riflemen, but also gives it a great degree of utility both as a training gun and as a camp rifle.
Another variation from the original scout gun concept is that the rifle is not a bolt-action gun. Rather, Steyr elected to use a toggle action based on the proven SPA action designed by ISSC for Olympic biathlon competition. As one might imagine, the action is both very fast and reliable.
Of course, the gun does maintain a number of features that will make the scout rifle purists happy. For example, Steyr uses the same stock on this gun that is used on the original Scout. According to Steyr, Col. Cooper himself gave continuous input to the Steyr engineers when they first developed the stock.
Part of the scout rifle concept is a forward-mounted optic. The Steyr RFR makes it easy to mount glass in this configuration through the use of a Picatinny-type rail along the top of the stock. However, if you prefer to mount a scope in the more traditional location, an integrated dovetail base runs along the top of the receiver. Weaver bases are also included with the gun.
According to Steyr, the company opted for a 20” heavy barrel on these guns for the best possible accuracy. The .22 LR and .17 HMR versions both have a threaded barrel (1/2”-20) while the .22 WMR gun does not have a threaded barrel.
Going with the idea of this being a survival or outdoors rifle, the gun has an optional knife available that stores in the gun stock.
This rifle feeds from a metal 10-round box magazine. One is included with the gun at purchase. All three versions of the gun have a suggested retail price of $599. Local pricing may be cheaper.
