two rifles, 3 scopes
I've been a "scout rifle" fan for some time, having followed the concept since first introduced by Cooper in the 1970-80's. When Savage introduced their 10C Scout, the first one without all the gadgetry, I bought one, early 90's I'd guess.
Germans in WWII had a long eye relief scope for their squad marksman. My Dad, always a tinkerer and a bit eccentric, put a pistol scope forward on a M94 30-30 about 1970. So the intermediate eye relief scope is not new, but Cooper bundled it into a concept that persists, despite its detractors. Interesting that despite all the negativity from some, Scout Rifles, or psuedo scouts are still being produced.
I put a Leupold 2.75x IER scout scope on the Savage and hunted it a good bit for a few years. I had trouble picking up the reticle against dark backgrounds and game in poor light, as in looking down on deer from a high treestand in early AM/PM. I could see the animal, but not the crosshairs. I also had issues seeing thru the scope when back lit by low sun or glare. I sent that Leupold off to the factory for a chunky German #1 reticle. The #1 is far more visble than the original duplex and if all my shooting was done inside say, 200 yds, I might have been fully satisfied. But the low powered #1 comes up a bit short on small targets at longer ranges and I searched for alternatives.
In the mean time, I bought a scout mount for the M1 Garand and plunked a Burris 2-7x IER ballistiplex on top. The rig added weight and effected balance. but really improved my ability to shoot the Garand well, especially past 200 yds. My 60+ eyes just didn't run the peep like when I was younger. I liked the Burris 2-7x so well that I bought a second one for the Savage.
I've also put an Ulti-mak rail on an AK clone and ran the Leupold 2.75X on it for a bit. That set up gets about the most accuracy from the AK that can be had, but I did not like the arrangement and the Leupold returned to the Savage 10C. Thus the 10C has two IER scopes, the 2.75X with the chunky low light #1, and the more versatile 2-7x with ballisti-plex. Both scopes ride in Leupold QRL mounts and can mount and dismount with only a wee bit of deviation from zero, about 1MOA at worst. On deer sized targets to the distances I normally shoot at them, that deviation really doesn't matter much. The Garand uses a set of fixed rings, I think they are Warne's.
I zero the German #1 for a POI 2MOA high, which allows holding "on" to around 200 yds without worry of drop. The ballisti-plex reticles get zeroed on at 100 and the hold off points come in very nicely close to 200-300 yds. I've run the Garand out to 600 yds using all the hold offs and a spotter.
The Savage 10C sees use as a truck gun, wearing the German #1 most of the time. I use the 2-7x if I know I am going to daylight hunt on longer opportunities such as ROW's. I've hunted the Garand a bit, but it's dang long and heavy and for more of a hoot than anything.