ARMOURY: ASG STEYER SCOUT

...SAID NO AIRSOFTER …EVER!

NO MATTER WHAT TYPE OF PLATFORM IT IS, ALL OF US AT AIRSOFT ACTION ARE GENUINELY DELIGHTED TO SEE SOMETHING THAT’S JUST A BIT DIFFERENT AND IN A DEPARTURE FROM HIS USUAL PREFERENCE OF AIRSOFT RIFS, BOYCIE TAKES A LONG, HARD LOOK AT THE STEYR SCOUT BOLT ACTION RIFLE THAT’S COME TO MARKET COURTESY OF ACTIONSPORTGAMES (ASG).

The Scout was designed to fill the role of a versatile, lightweight, all-round rifle that was specified in Col. Jeff Cooper’s Scout Rifle Concept. His concept was that the rifle should be less than 1 metre (40”) long, weigh less than 3 kg (6.6lbs), have iron sights, be able to accept optical sights and be able to accept practical slings to aid in both shooting and carrying the rifle. Also, it should be able to hit a man-sized target at 450m (1476ft) without optics.

The real Steyr Scout is made in Austria by Steyr Mannlicher and its primary calibre is 7.62 NATO. Some also call this the .308 but although the dimensions are close enough to allow them to be chambered and fired, the chamber pressures of .308 are usually significantly higher. Other calibre options for the real steel are 5.56 NATO/.223 (again different rounds), .243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, .376 Steyr and 7mm-08 Remington.

The fully-licensed airsoft version of the Steyr Scout is a collaboration between ASG and Modify, to provide an out of the box rifle that needs no further “upgrades”. When you open the box, the rifle is wellprotected with foam packaging and also visible is the 32 BB magazine and a bottle of 680 x Modify .40 BBs. Also included is a plastic bag with a simple and clear instruction booklet, a Modify Allen Key for adjusting the hop and a Modify PVC patch. I’ll get the basic stuff out of the way first…

SPECIFICATIONS (FACTORY)

• Length - 1000mm • Weight - 2950g • Magazine Capacity – 32rnd • Velocity – 450 FPS (with .20g BB) • Joule Output - 1.82

FEATURES

• Metal piston with dual rotary rings • Silent cylinder head and piston head with airbrake • 9 mm stainless steel spring guide with rotary ring • Integrated bipod • Enlarged volume steel cylinder • Pressure lever and TDC for dual hop up adjustment system • Upgradable to M190 spring power • Hop up bucking for 0.36g or above heavy BBs • Trigger with lightweight trigger pull • Adjustment tools stored inside the fake magazine • Backup magazine storage • Flip-up sights • QD Points • 14mm CCW Thread for Airsoft Suppressor/Muzzle

Brake • VSR compatible inner barrel

OVERVIEW

Before setting up to shoot, a good look round the rifle reveals a dummy magazine (where a real rifle would have one) which holds the hop adjustment Allen Key. A really good feature is that you can adjust the hop by a slider, which is accessible when the bipod legs are deployed. The stock is really comfortable and the butt can be adjusted for length by removing sections to get it to fit naturally and comfortably into the shoulder. The foreend of the stock is really comfortable in the hand and is great for both unsupported and bag-rest firing.

Under the butt there is another dummy magazine cover (in the real Scout this is storage for a further 5 round magazine) which opens to reveal storage for a spare 32 BB magazine; I really like this feature as it means you can carry 65 BBs on the rifle. Under the fore-end of the stock is a button with releases the legs of the integrated bipod; the length of the integrated bipod can take some getting used to as they are non-adjustable but then, as with the real rifle, there is a dovetail section where you can fit a section of Pitcatinny Rail to hold an adjustable type bipod.

At the butt and on each side of the dummy magazine well and under the foregrip are QD points, totalling 5 positions, to allow the end user to fit the sling set up that most suits them. Up front is a really nice-looking fluted outer barrel in which sits a VSRcompatible inner barrel, meaning you can, if you wish, change the length of the inner barrel and even run it into a dummy suppressor. One thing I found when using the spare Modify 30 BB magazines, is that they don’t release properly from the rifle, however, the magazine (32 BB) that comes with the rifle drops out far enough to allow you to grab it and withdraw it fully. After a quick look it seems that one of the

pins on the magazine is a little too long and after a light filing, allows the magazine to fit and release perfectly. Laying prone behind the rifle it sits in the ideal position for you to get a great cheek-weld and eye relief. When firing you get the usual VSR type thwack of the piston hitting the front of the cylinder but it’s not bad and as I shot more BBs through it, this seemed to lessen.

ON THE RANGE

For the longer-range tests, both fellow Red Cell member Stuart and I travelled over to Humber Airsoft Club, where we can test out to 100m plus. We got to the Safe Zone, grabbed a coffee and waited for the safety brief before we were permitted to drive down to the area we had been allocated to do the testing. This was away from the areas that the players would be using during the morning games, so we’d be undisturbed (other than hearing the boom of pyro from the games!).

We set up our table and after unpacking, the first job was to conduct a base line chrono test: 431.44 fps average (432.5, 432.2, 432.5, 430.9, 429.1) using Nuprol RZR 0.20g

For the test we used 60% scale IPSC targets, which are roughly the size of the “centre mass” of a target, or about the size of the front of a plate carrier. The rifle was fired using the integral bipod for support.

The ammo used for the tests was: • Nuprol Rzr 0.20g & 0.25g • Valkyrie 0.32g • Vorsk Bio in 0.36, 0.40 & 0.43g

Aluminium IPSC 1/3rd scaled targets were placed at 20m and 25m along with an IPSC 60% card target at 25m for grouping.

After a chrono check of 5 BBs we engaged the 20m plate and then the 25m plate. The aluminium was being hit hard enough by the ammo to not only make it “ring” when hit but provided a dint in the surface which showed the grouping made by each weight. Next was a 10 BB group on the card target. From this we measured the tightest group of 5 BBs and also the max spread of the 10 rounds fired.

Rzr 0.20

431.44 fps average (432.5, 432.2, 432.5, 430.9, 429.1) = 1.73J Result 3.75” (95.25mm) group of 5, max spread of 5” (127mm)

Rzr 0.25

411.52 fps average (411.2, 410.4, 408.7, 419.3, 408.0) = 1.96J Result 2” (50.8mm) group of 5, max spread 4.25” (108mm).

Valkyrie 0.32

385.48 average (392.1, 381.3, 386.3, 387.3, 380.4) = 2.07J Result 2” (50.8mm) group of 5, max spread 3.5” (89mm).

Vorsk 0.36 Bio

358.28 average (360.4, 361.8, 355.6, 355.6, 358.0) = 2.15J Result 1 3/8” (35mm) group of 5, max spread 3.25” (82.5mm)

Vorsk 0.40 Bio

349.36 average (347.7, 349.8, 347.7, 349.6, 352.0) = 2.27J ¾” (19mm) group of 5, max spread 2.5” (63.5mm)

Vorsk 0.43 Bio

342.76 average (342.6, 345.4, 341.5, 343.8, 341.3) = 2.35J 1 ¼” (31.75mm) group of 5, max spread 3” (76.2mm)

These groups were all shot with a breeze from the right of approx. 6-8mph, low humidity, air temp approx. 22 degrees.

We then set out aluminium targets at 35m, 50m, 60m and 75m. We would fire 10 BBs at each distance and could hear the target “report” a hit with a “ding”. For this test we only used the Vorsk 0.40 Bio BB.

The first BBs at most distances were to gauge the breeze. On the 35m target 8 shots sounded, then we moved back to 50m (prone) gave 9 hits on the target. On the 60m (prone) distance I guessed the hold over for the target and got a hit on the first shot, so as time was getting short (and after Stuart called me a “smart ar*e!”), I moved straight back to 75m prone where 4 shots actually hit the target. However, I could observe the BB path and it would be easy to hit a human size target at 75m. When spotting, Stuart was calling that the BBs were hitting in a smallish area out to approx. 85m at this point. We are confident that with the breeze we were experiencing hits out to 100m+ should be possible. This is rather impressive for only a 360mm inner barrel. To be fair to the lighter weights of ammo, the hop rubber is stated to suit 0.36 and higher BB weights. We took a picture of the aluminium target after shooting the 50m string and saw that 5 of the hits were in the “headbox” of approx. 2.5” square.

Having been a real steel long gun shooter from the mid-80’s through to the present day, I never really got into shooting airsoft bolt action rifles but I’m really impressed with the Scout and am looking forward to putting it through its paces at the skirmish sites in the coming weeks and months.

SUMMARY

For a rifle which, from Redwolf HK, costs $469.99 (approx. £340, plus shipping and import charges), all that is needed is to add BBs and go out and play. The rifle comes with integral iron sights which are good enough to use but if you want to kick it up a gear then you can fit a reasonable scope, like we used in the tests, for approx. £50. Compare this to the TM G-Spec which costs approx. £200 in the UK and would need a fair chunk of cash spending on it to bring it to a similar level as the Scout, it would likely cost about the same all in all. In my view this is a great “out of the box” rifle that needs nothing more than BBs and a couple of spare mags, possibly a scope and sling in order to make it skirmishable.

STUART’S STANDOUT POINTS

It’s reeeeely good! For an out of the box, pre “upgraded” bolt action rifle, this was a revelation to me. Everything works and works very well too. The bolt is really smooth when travelling and despite the quite heavy spring it is really easy to cock. There is none of the “clunkyness” which can often be felt on other rifles. The trigger was nice and once I got used to it, I really found it very user friendly. Although this trigger isn’t adjustable like a zero trigger for example, I don’t think it needs any change made, it’s just a really nice break point.

The rifle in itself is short, well-balanced and pointable. The weight also is really good, I’d be happy carrying this all day, either slung or unslung. Even with the test scope and suppressor fitted it didn’t feel unwieldy. I couldn’t fault the bipod; the fact that it is integral is brilliant and despite being fixed height I quickly found it to be really helpful and there was no need to compensate by hunching myself to get a good sight picture.

At the time of writing we’re unsure when the Scout will be readily available in the UK but it’s already out in the wild in the Far East and we’d certainly say keep an eye out because when they land here they will be really popular. Our thanks go to Herman at RedWolf UK for sourcing the Scout Rifle for us, to Andy and Harry at Humber Airsoft Club for allowing us to test the rifle at their site and to Megan at NUPROL for rushing through the Vorsk Bio BBs for us to use in the tests.

We would also like to make it 100% clear that all photos were taken when the rifle was unloaded and cleared, which is why, in some photos, normal glasses were being worn. Always wear appropriate eye protection whenever you are playing, or testing with a loaded RIF or IF. AA