"Scout Rifle - An optimized general-purpose rifle designed by Jeff Cooper". Bullcrap! Cooper and/or one rifle company has designed one rifle and called it something they have no copyright to. That sounds like the definition of the Winchester 94 to me and Jeff Cooper had nothing to do with its design.
I think that's inaccurate, and unnecessarily harsh. The scout rifle (general purpose rifle) came out of a number of conferences where the discussion was centered around making a better rifle. "Better" can be defined as:
...conveniently portable, individually operated firearm, capable of striking a single decisive blow, on a live target of up to 400 kilos in weight, at any distance at which the operator can shoot with the precision necessary to place a shot in a vital area of the target.
The conference came up with a number of criteria for an ideal general purpose rifle, but the goal was to design an arm that was handy, quick to use, reliable, accurate, and powerful enough to take most everything but dangerous game (this includes wartime use). Overall, the rifle is a compromise, designed to do most things well, but nothing as well as rifle designed for a specific task (hence, "general purpose").
Now, you might not like some of the compromises that were made, but that doesn't invalidate the concept. And you should note that the Steyr Scout doesn't perfectly match the definition either, but it's Good Enough, and available Right Now (if at an extortionistic price).
With regard to the Winchester 94, if you mount a good sight on it (peep sight or forward-mounted low-power scope) and kludge around until you can use a sling without affecting the impact of the bullet, I think Cooper would call it a scout rifle (even if the 30-30 is underpowered compared to the .308 and 7mm-08).
There's no single "scout rifle" out there, it's simply a concept that you can draw from or ignore as you like.
And no, I don't own a Steyr Scout. I have an Oberndorf Mauser-98 that's in Scout configuration that I spent $300 for (Santa donated the scope last week) that qualifies as a Pseudo-scout due to weight, but I can tell you right now that it's the fastest, handiest rifle I've ever used. I never liked scopes as I could use a peep sight faster, but the low-mounted IER 2.5x is the fastest thing I've ever seen.
As to bias, here's a quote from Cooper on the concept that might get you to lighten up some:
Have you noticed in recent advertisements that the excellent Enfield No. 4 battle rifle is now available in the larger stores for $70 a crack! This is a very superior utility weapon, and you should snap it up while it lasts. If you have a safe place to store your weapons you ought to buy at least two of these pieces, together with a satisfactory supply of ammunition. As it comes out of the box, the piece will do ("for government work"), and if you want to play around with customizing it, you can turn it into a pretty nice approximation of a Scout. Take heed!
Sounds like any rifle that meets most of the criteria qualifies, rather than just expensive imports, doesn't it?
I was going to post the criteria for a "ideal" scout rifle as came out of the scout rifle conferences, but you can follow the link at the top of the topic if you have the interest.
an idea that dates back to the late 19th century.