Rick's Remington 700 scout was built by Fred Sinclair back in 1982 or so for a deputy friend of ours. This friend decided he needed another AR-15 last year and sold his scout to Rick.
Sinclair and Clint Smith were/are pals. While working at Gunsite, Clint frequently used a Sinclair-built rifle (not a scout). Folks saw and liked Clint's rifle and pestered Sinclair to build scouts and he did a few (he loathed the forward-mounted scope). Sinclair no longer builds rifles. He sells precision loading and cleaning tools.
At the time this rifle was built, Burris had not yet introduced their scoutscope (and, obviously, the recent Leupold version wasn't available). Cooper's early scouts used the Leupold M8 2X pistol scope, which had the proper eye relief of 9"-10". Leupold later changed this to about a 14" eye relief, which better suited the scope to pistol use, but forced scout builders to have to mount it WAY out on the barrel. (Jeff Cooper complained about the scope being so far forward on our friend's rifle, but when pressed for the basis of his objection, he could only say that it "looked funny").
Our friend had the flash suppressor (an M-16 birdcage, drilled out for .30 caliber) added by a local gunsmith later.
The rifle is superbly accurate, with a smooth action and delightful trigger. It carries like a little Ruger 10/22. I'm sure our friend regrets selling it from time to time, but at least it stayed in the "family".
Rosco
