As further evidence that apparently the only thing holding Ruger back from actual R&D was the still-breathing Bill Ruger, they have now got this as an offering. Jeff Cooper, whom I think lost his relevancy several decades ago, was fond of talking about guns he disliked as being an ‘answer in search of a problem’. The Scout rifle concept that he pioneered was one of those things, in my opinion.

THeres no denying the rifle is handy, it’s the precise function of the gun I question. As originally described, the Scout rifle was designed to fit within a certain weight, length, range and power criteria. It was for the individual, the scout, who wasnt expected to get into a shootout but might need to provide harassing fire, shoot at targets of opportunity, etc, etc. From a hunting standpoint, its a nice lightweight carbine but there are better choices.

Still, I’ve always kind of liked the concept even if it made no sense. I had a Ruger 77 in .308 that someone converted into a Scout-type rifle and it was quite handy even if it never filled any role perfectly, but filled several roles adequately. A friend of mine has one built on a 98 Mauser and while I enjoy Rugers products I think the Mauser build was the way to go. (The old FR-8 Mausers were excellent candidates for this sorta thing). It has a short barrel, the forward mounted scope, backup sights, and is fed easily from cheap an plentiful stripper clips. And it costs significantly less than what the Ruger is MSRP’ing at. Savage made a Scout rifle for a while as well and although many people thought it was a good gun (as most Savages are) Savage limited production and finally reduced it to being a special offering outta their custom shop. (What…Savage has a custom shop? Yes, they do.) Some sneak into the mainstream vendors but theyre still pretty hard to find. The only real drawback Ive heard about the Savage is that the magazines need to be handfitted for reliability.

Anyway, it appears this new offering from Ruger is to take up the slack from their discontinued Frontier rifle. Its a good looking gun, no two ways about it. Im just not sure what niche it would fill for me.
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Finally used up all the ground beef that was in the deep freeze so Ive been replenishing the supply. My local supermarket sometimes has ‘remaindered’ ground beef for around $2/# if you catch ‘em late at night when theyre closing up the meat counter. I buy four or five pounds at a time and repackage it. Lately what Ive taken to doing is using an old square Tupperware container as a mould and using it to make ‘bricks’ of about 1.5# of ground beef. These get frozen for a couple hours to firm them up and then they get vacuum sealed. The result is a very orderly stack in the freezer that takes up less space than when I did it in a more cavalier style.

If Santa didnt bring you a nice FoodSaver and you don’t have one yet, get one. You can search my previous posts for my experiences with the one I have. It is probably the one piece of gear that every preparedness minded person should have. It makes buying in bulk much more sensible since too often people buy bulk because its a good deal and then wind up throwing out the spoiled food they couldt consume quickly enough. (Im looking at you, CostCo shoppers). The vacuum sealer lets me buy twenty pork chops at a time and repackage them individually, that sorta thing. I’ve had my vacuum sealer for, oh geez, at least seven or eight years and its the best $150 I ever spent on a ‘kitchen gadget’. Which is not to say that its uses are limited to the kitchen. It excels at compacting and protecting spare changes of clothes for outdoor adventures, making waterproof packages of firestarting equipment, etc, etc.

Seriously, man….go get one.