The practicality of a scout rifle in South Africa.

**pbuitendag** · 20-08-2023, 19:03

Very cool. Now if only any of them were available here ( I think the Ruger is here though at a cool R30000 +). Seems like the best route would be the KK20 and Cordite Crazy route.

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**Heath Robinson** · 20-08-2023, 19:06

I recently made a scope mount for a friend's SMLE. He wanted to mount it without doing any permanent modification to the rifle.

The mount replaces the rear sight but extends backwards further and has a strap around the barrel which fits in one of the grooves where the spring clip for the upper rear hand-guard fits.

The scope he chose was Vortex's 2-7 scout scope. I think it's a very nice scope as scout scopes go.
But he has yet to take it to the range...

**flyinggun** · 20-08-2023, 19:46

I have a plan to make a boere scout rifle from a Troy PAR 308. Will see if I can get the Col's idea to fit the Troy. Scout/Minute Man/DMR, will see where I end up. Mighy also just end up as being a IPSC Comtemporay Manual Action Rifle. Again, not cheap to start with.

**Skaaphaas** · 20-08-2023, 23:00

Originally Posted by Heath Robinson

I recently made a scope mount for a friend's SMLE. He wanted to mount it without doing any permanent modification to the rifle.

The mount replaces the rear sight but extends backwards further and has a strap around the barrel which fits in one of the grooves where the spring clip for the upper rear hand-guard fits.

The scope he chose was Vortex's 2-7 scout scope. I think it's a very nice scope as scout scopes go.
But he has yet to take it to the range...

Small world. He has shown my the pictures of it. I asked some questions and from his answers it was clear that whoever was doing the work knew his craft and the world of firearms.
I’m also keen to see how it performs!

**Heath Robinson** · 21-08-2023, 14:29

Thanks for the compliment.
It's not my first scout scope fitment.
Did something sort-of similar for another friend many years ago. In that instance, it was an already-sporterized Portuguese Vergeuro Mauser. On that one, the concern was not so much not doing a permanent mod but the fact that that rifle has a split bridge and straight bolt handle, and the scout scope seemed a much better option than either a side-mounted scope or a very high mount. This mod was also accomplished without modification to the metal parts and served the owner well for a long time, but in those days scout scopes were all very low magnification (I think this one was about 2.5) which was quite limiting.

Unfortunately the rifle was stolen in a home invasion robbery a couple of years ago.

My personal opinion is that, if you have a particular design element to work around like the above two examples, or the need to fire more than one magazine's contents in a hurry, and have a rifle equipped to use stripper clips, then a scout scope makes sense. But if you have the option of detachable or high-capacity magazines or a rifle not set up for stripper clips and capable of mounting a scope in the normal location, a modern LPVO with a good Christmas-tree reticle is probably better in all performance metrics.