Embracing The Scout Rifle (Part 1)

By Bob Owens

Once upon a time not so many decades ago I was a lot more of an outdoorsman than I am now. I fished nearly every day, and hunted whitetail deer in the swamps and woods of eastern North Carolina as frequently as I could. By necessity I was sometimes relegated to hunting from a tree stand or ground blind, but what I enjoyed most was still hunting.

Ghosting along the edges of swamp thickets required good eyes, patience, a feel for prevailing winds, and soft feet in order to see the deer before the deer heard, spotted, or scented you. The post WWII .30-’06 Remington 721 I carried on these forays belonged to my father. It was mounted with a department-store 3-9×40 Tasco scope and a padded nylon sling. It was solid from a treestand or ground blind, but was a little too long and a little too heavy for long stalks, with an annoying tendency to seemingly snag on every briar or vine.

At roughly the same time I was stalking deer in the Carolina swamps, Jeff Cooper was developing his concept of a short, light, fast-handling rifle that would excel in field conditions such of these.

Flash forward almost 30 years.

Today …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms