“The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely upon the moral stature of its user.”
- – Jeff Cooper
I’ve always had an affinity for everything Jeff Cooper. Honestly, it is because he seemed so practical and undyingly traditional all at the same time. I think maybe he would have thought my opinions about the continuation of aesthetics in both development and procurement would either have been noteworthy, or he would’ve thought I was out of my gourd. Either way I consummately reasoned to myself that my first pistol would be a 1911.
But that’s not what I am going to talk about here. Here we delve into the development and procurement of the Scout rifle in the modern era and into the yet to come. I believe, and I am surely going to receive some chin-music for this, that there is a modern conversion into the use of a long gun that goes beyond coopers definition of the scout rifle. As a matter of fact, I am dropping the term, and maybe all terms, for an intended rifle “to rule them all”. The reason? Because it is up to the user. If you are the user, and you are going to pack it, it should be YOURS. Hands-down it should be what YOU want it to entail, not what everyone else wants it to. Never forget, you have to fight with it, hunt with it and most importantly, protect what you hold dear with it. I think that’s a good start for my rifle Omnibus….Oh, and one more thing, you might have to fend off a Xenomorphic something-or-other with it.
Chapter 1ish