Burris Scout Scope: Reviewed By A Whitetail Hunting Guide

I tested the Burris Scout Scope and was quite pleased with its performance. Here's my hands-on review, along with some pictures and tips.

FYI, prices and ratings are accurate as of time of writing.

Burris is one of my favorite manufacturers. I have used one on a .44 Magnum Redhawk, and the scope's stainless finish looked incredible. It looked very biblical and awesome, not to mention fun to shoot. For this review, I mounted the Scout scope on my dad's M1 carbine and a friend's Ruger. I also used it on a Savage, which is a bolt-action gun made to shoot sabot slugs (and designed to hunt deer back east where laws do not allow high-powered shotguns). I wanted to see how the Scout scope holds up in different real-world circumstances.

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Burris Scout Scope - Compact Medium-Power Optic

HIGHLIGHT:

The hunting scope can be shot with both eyes open.

OVERVIEW:

Not everyone knows a Scout scope, so let me give a quick overview. The Scout scope is designed to be mounted ahead of the action, but some folks will say it is a mid-way mount. This allows fast target acquisition and shooting with both eyes open after the shooter gets used to using one.

PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY:

As mentioned, I mounted the Scout scope on an M1 carbine, and finding the right mount proved to be a challenge. Ruger made a model that was born as a Scout rifle, and Steyr developed its Scout Rifle based on Jeff Cooper's Scout Rifle concept. I have a friend I used to work with who went with the Ruger, who loves it for big game hunting.

EYE RELIEF:

The main point of the Scout scope is eye relief: about 12 inches. Some folks use these with heavy-duty handguns for hunting. I have a customer who had me mount one on an old shotgun that shoots 3" magnum 12 gauge for whitetail. I did not hear back from him on how it worked. I can tell everyone that it looked funny and felt weird to look through when I shouldered it.

MOVING TARGET PERFORMANCE:

I shot my friend's Ruger with the Scout scope, and it was great to pick up the target. Keeping a moving target in this scope is easy once you get used to the setup. I could shoot with both eyes open, but when it came to actual target shooting, I closed one eye due to over 50 years of training the other way. When I close one eye or use both eyes open, the scope works like a champ, just as it should. I noticed the same advantage when using a shotgun. The setup lets me shoot with both eyes open and follow the game as it moves. At that close range, a shotgun for deer or turkeys will move many feet to yards nearly immediately, and trying to follow that animal with one eye looking through the scope is almost impossible.

HEAVY PLEX RETICLE:

The Heavy Plex reticle is my favorite. The heavy crosshairs allow me to get on target and stay there as the critter moves. The reticle can also work as an in-motion range finder if anyone has been taught to use the multi-thickness crosshairs.

MOUNTING CHALLENGES:

The only issue I had mounting this scope on the Savage 20 gauge was getting the mount to work. But all I had to do was look a little harder and use a little ingenuity, and it was mounted and zeroed in about an hour total.

WARRANTY POLICY:

The fantastic warranty is the last thing I want to mention. All heavy hitter scope makers offer the no-questions-asked warranty now, but Burris was the first. I have been told that a Burris scope can be recovered from a fire and sent back, and a new one is in the mail within a week. I don't plan on tossing my gun in the campfire to check this claim out, so I will ask everyone to take my word for it.

Get it from Amazon now: $389.99 & FREE Returns