Been kicking this idea around for a while. Make a Scout rifle al la Jeff Cooper . Got a good donner platform in and old Mauser 98 I acquired at a local gun show. I'll be keeping it in the original 8 mm because I'm very stocked up this round. Any tips,tricks and suggestions that would help? Anyway thanks in advance.
Would recommend the brassstackers mount, or maybe an archangel. Got a Savage I am building now, but have not had enough time on it to comment.
Those Brassstacker mounts get very good reviews. Scooch OO did a video on YouTube about them. Good luck with your project.
I built one with an old Moisin-Nagant. Shortened the barrel to 18”, cut down the stock to match, had a friend powder coat the exposed metal satin black, and added a 4-12x40 long eye relief scope. Probably should have stopped at 20” for the barrel. Makes one of my favorite guns!
I prefer the more useful Stalking Rifle made in the 20s and on. Barrel length was just under 24 inches and used barrel mounted sights. I am finishing up just such a rifle. It' a 1903 Springfield, has a spotter barrel of 20 inches, a bubba brake that extends the bore to 23 inches to the first port and has a custom front sight ramp with a tritium pistol sight blade and a shade. The fear sight is a marbles semi buck horn with full adjustments for range and windage, and the bolt handle was replaced with a Winchester mod 70 type with a larger ball for fast handling. All else remains standard Springfield, including the stripper clip feeding which is about the fastest reloading rifle on the planet. One other detail, the bubba brake was turned down at the muzzle to be able to fit an oriional type bayonet. The whole project is ment to give me a fast handling rifle when on walkabout in predator country, and it works very well. Bonus it the rifle really likes hot hand loads and shoots better then most factory built rifles.
I converted an old sks into a scout rifle see thru mount and optic short stock I have a folder but I like the shorter wood stock myself I also have a 5 round box for hunting but have never used it yet
Here are some new scout rifles: The 6 Best Scout Rifles For Today's Shooters Any one of them looks like a good "truck" gun - not sure why most are only offered in 7.62x51 - I'd think .223/5.56 would be plenty good, but I'm probably missing something tor their usage...
For 8x57 don't buy US made factory ammo, its loaded weak, like 30-30 power levels or less. Use surplus or load your own. Shoot a few non corrosive rounds if you are shooing corrosive ammo, 5 shots of modern non corrosive ammo at the end of your shooting day will blast away about 98% of the corrosive stuff.