Hunting

Savage 110 Magpul Scout Rifle

By: Mike Dickerson

Savage’s versatile new Scout rifle can put meat on the table and serve well in a defensive role

To my way of thinking, any rifle with the word “Scout” in its name should meet the criteria for a scout rifle.

According to the great Colonel Jeff Cooper, that translated into a light, handy rifle that measured no more than 39.4 inches in length. A scout rifle, he said, should allow for forward mounting of a low-powered scope and have backup iron sights. It should be chambered in 308 Win. and have a crisp, light trigger. Cooper’s goal was to create a do-it-all rifle that could put meat on the table and serve well in a defensive role.

The 110 Magpul Scout comes chambered in either 308 Win (tested), 6.5 Creedmoor, or 450 Bushmaster, and all are equipped with a medium-contour 16.5″ barrel with a threaded muzzle and two-port muzzle brake. One of our favorites, B&T USA’s (www.bt-usa.com) Starlight Compact 30 cal. hunting suppressor, is shown here. The wide, flat bottom of the forend of the Magpul Hunter stock offers a solid field rest as well as eight M-LOK slots for accessories.

The scout rifle concept has evolved since Cooper laid out his vision. A case in point is the new Savage 110 Magpul Scout rifle. It meets most of Cooper’s criteria (except for weight) but offers even more versatility than he could have imagined thanks to its modern engineering and components, such as the rifle’s stock.

As the gun’s name implies, the rifle is fitted with a Magpul Hunter stock. This stock has an aluminum bedding block that free-floats the barrel and doesn’t require bedding. Designed to provide a more stable shooting platform and improved shooter comfort, the stock features a wide, flat-bottomed forend and enhanced ergonomics, including a semi-vertical grip. Length of pull is adjustable, from 13 inches to 15 inches, using four half-inch spacers. You can also attach a wide variety of accessories using the eight M-Lok slots in the forend (three each on the sides, and two on the bottom).

Available in both right- and left-hand versions, the Magpul Scout is built upon the time-tested and thoroughly-proven Savage 110 receiver. Highlights include a large knurled bolt handle providing positive manipulation of the slick-cycling two-lug bolt, the often-copied user-adjustable AccuTriger, and a three-position tang safety. The rifle feeds from an AICS-style 10-round detachable Magpul PMAG magazine, with an ambi paddle-style release located at the forward edge of the trigger guard.

The rear end of the stock has a bar on either side through which you can thread a sling. Just forward of the bar, there are circular plugs on each side that you can remove and install QD mounts using Type 1 (single) or Type 2 (ambidextrous) mounting kits from Magpul. The stock sports a generous one-inch soft rubber recoil pad.

The heart of the rifle remains the strong, time-tested Savage 110 receiver. The push-feed, factory blueprinted action has a slick-cycling bolt with two large locking lugs and twin plunger ejectors. An oversized, knurled bolt handle provides a sure grip in inclement weather. A three-position, tang-mounted safety lets you cycle rounds through the action with the safety in the middle, engaged position. In the rearmost position, the bolt is locked down, eliminating concerns of the bolt accidentally opening when snagged on brush or limbs.

The gun is, of course, equipped with the much-copied Savage AccuTrigger. The pull weight is user adjustable within a range of 1.5 – 4 pounds. As my test rifle arrived from the factory, the trigger broke crisply and cleanly at an average pull weight of 3 pounds, 9 ounces. That’s a bit heavier than I prefer, but I left it at that setting for testing to duplicate a buyer’s out-of-box experience.

Atop the action, you will find an 11.5-inch Picatinny optic rail that lets you mount a red dot sight, long-eye-relief scope, LPVO, or traditional scope of your choice. The gun is also equipped with metal sights in the form of an elevation adjustable, AR-15-style front post sight and a drift-adjustable rear peep sight.

The Magpul Hunter stock features an aluminum bedding block for a solid interface and is packed with useful features, such as ambi QD sling swivel mounts front and rear, sling loops at the rear, length-of-pull adjustments spacers, adjustable comb height inserts (available separately), and AICS magazine compatibility.

The rifle feeds from an AICS-style, 10-round detachable PMAG magazine. It drops freely into the hand when you push the paddle-style magazine release lever located at the front of the oversized trigger guard, which will easily accommodate a gloved trigger finger.

Some of the rifle’s weight can be attributed to its use of what I would call a medium contour, 16.5-inch, carbon-steel barrel. In testing, I found that heat caused minimal point-of-impact shift, which can be pronounced with rifles with thinner barrels. The barrel is threaded (5/8-24) to accept a suppressor and comes with a muzzle brake that did a good job of mitigating recoil. The rate of twist in 308 Win. is 1:10. Both barrel and receiver wear a matte black protective finish.

The rifle sent to me for testing was chambered in 308 Win., but the 110 Magpul Scout is also available in 6.5 Creedmoor (which would pair well with a higher-powered variable scope) and 450 Bushmaster (which would be a good choice for closer work using the iron sights or a red dot optic). For range testing the 308-chambered rifle, I put the gun to the test using a low-power variable optic, the Trijicon Ascent 1-4X24 scope. That made shooting tight groups at the range a bit more challenging, but it also provided a good test of the role the rifle was primarily designed for.

In keeping with Jeff Cooper’s original vision, Savage equipped the Mo. 110 Magpul Scout with an extended Picatinny optic rail, allowing the use of both extended eye relief or traditional optics. Trijicon’s (www.trijicon.com) Ascent 1-4X24 scope proved quick and precise and is a great match to the rifle’s fast-paced capabilities. The fully adjustable and removable rear peep sight pairs with an elevation-adjustable AR-style front post.

Functionally, the rifle did everything it was supposed to. It fed rounds reliably and smoothly from the magazine and fired, extracted, and ejected without issue. The rifle balances well in the hands, but it is no mountain rifle. Its empty weight, without an optic, is 8.4 pounds. The extra weight did give the rifle good stability in shooting.

In testing four factory loads over a Garmin Xero C1 Pro chrono, bullet velocities were somewhat slower than the factory-admitted numbers, but that’s to be expected with a 16.5-inch barrel. Variation from the factory-stated speeds ranged from 123 fps to 172 fps slower, but energy levels were still good enough for most hunting applications at normal hunting distances.

The big surprise was how well the rifle shot with a scope maxed out at just 4X magnification. In that setting, the reticle mostly obscured small aim points. I’m confident a higher-magnification scope would have resulted in tighter groups, but I wanted to see just how well the rifle would perform in more of a Scout configuration with an LPVO scope.

It performed quite well. Three of four tested loads produced average groups measuring just slightly more than one inch. The best groups for each load hinted at the rifle’s real accuracy potential. A Barnes Vor-Tx 168-gr. TTSX BT load turned in a 0.88-inch best group. The best group for a Federal Non Typical 150-gr SP load measured 0.75-inch, and the best group for a Hornady American Whitetail 150-gr. The InterLock load was 0.89 inches.

Mind you, that was with three hunting loads. The fourth load tested, Winchester’s Match load with a 168-gr. MatchKing HPBT bullet, printed 0.71-inch average groups and a best group measuring just 0.65 inch. That’s excellent accuracy for any rifle, let alone a factory gun using factory ammo and a 1-4X riflescope.

Savage calls the rifle the “ultimate multipurpose firearm,” and based on my testing, it’s hard to argue with that. Happily, the rifle is also affordable. MSRP for the Savage 110 Magpul Scout rifle is $1,099. For more information, contact Savage Arms; Tel.: (800) 370-0708; Web: www.savagearms.com.