{"id":2734,"date":"2020-07-14T08:16:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-14T08:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/?p=2734"},"modified":"2025-12-02T20:43:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T20:43:39","slug":"a-brief-history-of-the-scout-rifle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/a-brief-history-of-the-scout-rifle\/","title":{"rendered":"Frederick Russell Burnham &#8211; History of the Scout Rifle"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frederick Russell Burnham: The Man Who Inspired A Rifle\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We all know the great legends from the American West. Wild Bill Hickok. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Chances are, you\u2019ve heard about these men and their exploits through a movie or a classic adventure novel of the American West. There is a lot of romanticism that surrounds the history of the American West. This, in turn, leads to some exaggeration of what actually happened as Americans made their way towards the Pacific Ocean. There is one man, however, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/truewestmagazine.com\/scout-for-two-continents\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">whose life actually lived up to the legend<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a man named Frederick Russell Burnham. He was a significant figure not only in American history, but in the history of South Africa as well. His legacy continues to echo through our society, and in fact is still affecting American gun culture to this very day. Here&#8217;s a little background on this remarkable and relatively obscure figure from history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2732\" style=\"width: 233px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-magnific_type=\"image\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2732\" class=\"wp-image-2732 size-medium\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham-223x300.jpg\" alt=\"Frederick Russell Burnham\" width=\"223\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham-223x300.jpg 223w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham-761x1024.jpg 761w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham-768x1033.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham-1141x1536.jpg 1141w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham-610x821.jpg 610w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham-1080x1453.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham-627x844.jpg 627w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham.jpg 1189w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frederick Russell Burnham, DSO.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burnham was born in Minnesota in 1861. He and his family moved to the west coast in 1870. Due to a series of unfortunate events, Burnham found himself alone in California at age twelve. He quickly gained work as a messenger for Western Union, riding all over California and the Arizona Territory. At age 14, he became a scout for the U.S. Army, pursuing Geronimo all over the Southwest. During this time, Burnham learned tracking, scouting, and fieldcraft from the scouts who had been tracking the Apaches for years. He soon mastered the art of pursuit and tracking his quarry no matter what the terrain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An Adventurer Goes Overseas<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burnham was also involved in the Pleasant Valley War in the Tonto Basin region of Arizona and spent some time in Tombstone while Wyatt Earp was there. However, the \u201cwild\u201d west soon became very tame, and Burnham looked for adventure elsewhere. He joined the British expedition in South Africa and soon gained renown for his ability to locate and follow enemy forces no matter the terrain. As the war in South Africa wound down, Burnham moved to the Klondike to seek his fortune. However, in 1900, the British Army requested his help in the Second Boer War, and Burnham travelled halfway around the world to fight in that conflict.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grievously injured in the fighting, Burnham was made a Major in the British Army and sent back to London to recuperate. While in London, he was presented with the Distinguished Service Order, Britain\u2019s second-highest military award for his service, even though he was an American citizen. While in Africa, Burnham befriended Robert Baden Powell. Powell is best known for being the father of modern scouting. Powell based his ideas for the Boy Scouts on Burnham\u2019s skills and abilities. Burnham survived his injuries and went on to strike it rich when oil was discovered on land he owned in California.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Truly Larger Than Life<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extraordinary only begins to describe a man like Frederick Russell Burnham. His exploits drew the attention of another iconic man in American history, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/jeff-cooper-turning-shooting-into-a-science\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Colonel Jeff Cooper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Col. Cooper is a legend in American gun culture. He was a passionate fan of history. A former military officer himself, Cooper developed an interest in the duty of a military scout in general and Major Burnham\u2019s exploits in particular.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2730\" style=\"width: 207px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/jeff_cooper.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-1\" data-magnific_type=\"image\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2730\" class=\"wp-image-2730 size-medium\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/jeff_cooper-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"Colonel Jeff Cooper\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/jeff_cooper-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/jeff_cooper-671x1024.jpg 671w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/jeff_cooper-768x1172.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/jeff_cooper-610x931.jpg 610w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/jeff_cooper-627x957.jpg 627w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/jeff_cooper.jpg 859w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2730\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colonel Jeff Cooper<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cooper was an avid hunter, and spent many days pursuing game in the same parts of Africa where Burnham once trod. In the early 80\u2019s, Cooper began to muse on the idea of a rifle that placed an emphasis on portability and usability in the field. Something that a scout like Burnham might put to use in Africa as both a weapon of war and a means to hunt big game. In 1994, Cooper wrote,<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cProbably the first scout one is likely to think of today is Major Frederick Russell Burnham, the American who distinguished himself in both Arizona and fighting the Apaches and later in Rhodesia and South Africa. His definitive work, Scouting On Two Continents, gives us a dramatic and enlightening picture of what a scout was and how he operated.\u201d (1)<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frederick Russell Burnham: The Man Who Inspired A Rifle<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;What kind of rifle would a man like that need?&#8221; thought Cooper. The job of a scout is to work alone, in advance of an army. Suppressive fire or similar tactics don\u2019t work if you\u2019re by yourself. One shot would have to do the job. If you&#8217;re alone, your defense isn\u2019t in the volume of return fire, it\u2019s in not being around when the enemy is firing in your direction. A scout needs to move quickly. Weight becomes important when you\u2019re traveling by yourself, as does portability. A big, long rifle is hard to carry in the brush of South Africa, and it\u2019s hard to carry one through the scrub pines of Arizona as well (ask me how I know this). A good rifle for a scout, then, should be lightweight, easy to carry for hours on end, and capable of engaging any target from 30 feet to 300 yards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or as Colonel Cooper wrote,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSuch instruments are short, handy, .308, bolt action rifles, generally fitted with plastic stocks and featuring strong, low-power telescopes mounted well forward &#8211; total weight not to exceed seven and half pounds.\u201d (2)<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The modern Scout Rifle was born from those ideas. The actual parameters of what is and is not a \u201cScout Rifle\u201d can vary. Cooper himself said at various times that the weight should be 3 kilograms (about 6.6 pounds) up to 3.5 kilograms (7.5 pounds, or so). The length of a scout rifle should be around a meter (40-ish inches) and it should be chambered in a cartridge big enough to hunt for major game out to 300 yards. The optic should be forward-mounted so it doesn\u2019t interfere with your vision when not in use, and it should be capable of 2 MOA accuracy. A bolt action is preferred over a semiautomatic rifle like the AR platform because they are legal for ownership and hunting in both America and in Africa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Gun For All Reasons<\/span><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_2731\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/steyr_scout_rifle.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-2\" data-magnific_type=\"image\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2731\" class=\"wp-image-2731 size-medium\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/steyr_scout_rifle-300x105.jpg\" alt=\"Steyr Scout\" width=\"300\" height=\"105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/steyr_scout_rifle-300x105.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/steyr_scout_rifle-768x269.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/steyr_scout_rifle-610x214.jpg 610w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/steyr_scout_rifle-627x219.jpg 627w, https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/steyr_scout_rifle.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2731\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Steyr Scout, the first commercially available scout rifle<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I first heard about the scout rifle concept when the original <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.steyr-arms.com\/us\/steyr-scout\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Steyr Scout<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was rolled out in the late 90s. I have to admit, I didn\u2019t get it. &#8220;What was the point?&#8221; I thought. There were plenty of rifles out there that were more accurate, and rifles that were much more capable as defensive firearms. What was the big deal about a lightweight rifle with a weird scope mount?\u00a0 Then, in 2011, Ruger came out with the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ruger.com\/products\/scoutRifle\/models.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gunsite Scout<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and it clicked. Simply put, a scout rifle is the gun to have when you can have only one. Is it the most accurate rifle on the market? No, but it\u2019s accurate enough to take any game you can see with your naked eye. Is it the most powerful hunting rifle on the planet? No, but it will handle just about anything you\u2019d want to have for dinner. It\u2019s not the rifle to do any one task exceptionally well. It\u2019s the rifle you have with you in order to perform a wide range of tasks to a satisfactory result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is not a new concept. In fact, in many ways, it has its roots in the firearms used to found the United States. The rifles used by the Minutemen were quite often their own personal guns. They relied on those guns to defend their lives, provide food for their families, and, when necessary, defend their freedom. The scout rifle, in many ways, is the latest iteration of a general purpose rifle. Namely, a gun that is meant to do a variety of functions well enough to ensure success. The scout rifle, like all other rifles, is a product of the technology of its day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Time For A New General Purpose Rifle?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our next article in this series, we\u2019ll look at how recent changes in technology have affected the features of a general purpose rifle such as a scout rifle. How have things changed since the days of Fredrick Russell Burnham and Colonel Cooper? Is the scout rifle concept still valid? What happens if you take Africa out of the equation? What does today\u2019s military teach us about the general purpose rifle? Finally, in the last article in these series, we\u2019ll look at what a modern general-purpose rifle might look like, and how it compares to Jeff Cooper\u2019s concept for the scout rifle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay tuned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the personal notes of Jeff Cooper, as quoted in \u201cThe Scout Rifle Study\u201d by Richard Mann\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeff Cooper, Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip 3.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frederick Russell Burnham: The Man Who Inspired A Rifle\u00a0 We all know the great legends from the American West. Wild Bill Hickok. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Chances are, you\u2019ve heard about these men and their exploits through a movie or a classic adventure novel of the American West. There is a lot of romanticism [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guns-101","category-guns-201","category-rifle-shooting-tips","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Frederick Russell Burnham - History of the Scout Rifle - AmmoMan School of Guns Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The scout rifle is now a fixture in American gun culture, but few people know of Frederick Russell Burnham, the man who inspired the idea of the scout rifle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/a-brief-history-of-the-scout-rifle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Frederick Russell Burnham - History of the Scout Rifle - AmmoMan School of Guns Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The scout rifle is now a fixture in American gun culture, but few people know of Frederick Russell Burnham, the man who inspired the idea of the scout rifle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/a-brief-history-of-the-scout-rifle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AmmoMan School of Guns Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-14T08:16:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-02T20:43:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/media\/Frederick_Russell_Burnham.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1189\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin Creighton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin Creighton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/a-brief-history-of-the-scout-rifle\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/a-brief-history-of-the-scout-rifle\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin Creighton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ammoman.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9da785d0ad23a192dbbca7720dba0b58\"},\"headline\":\"Frederick Russell Burnham &#8211; 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