The Savage Arms 110 Magpul Scout is a modern rendition of Jeff Cooper’s scout-rifle concept. Built on Savage’s classic 110 short action, the Savage 110 Magpul Scout also “bends” some of the original scout rifle’s stipulations, and for the better, I’d argue. Besides making these rifles available with left-handed actions, Savage also offers the 110 Magpul Scout in various chamberings—not just the quintessential .308 Win.
Not only does the Savage 110 Magpul Scout ship with a modern and utilitarian Magpul Hunter stock, but instead of having the traditionally slim contour barrel, the 110 Magpul Scout has a slightly thicker barrel which helps with heat and harmonics. The 110 Magpul Scout also comes standard with a threaded muzzle, making easy to host a suppressor on this rifle. Out of the box, it’s accompanied by a straightforward muzzle brake that works rather well. Thanks to the Hunter stock, the Savage 110 Magpul Scout feeds from AICS pattern magazines, which are easy to find.
Savage 110 Magpul Scout Sighting Systems
Savage 110 Magpul Scout rifles come with the requisite pair of peep sights. Its front sight consists of an AR-15 style front post that sits tall in an elevated and semi-hooded front-sight base reminiscent of that seen on most Kalashnikovs. The rear, an aperture sight made by Williams, sits on its own dovetail over the extended-length factory installed Picatinny scope base. The base offers plenty of space to mount a long-eye-relief scope. Mounting traditional scopes or LPVOs isn’t impossible either, but extra care must be taken to set the scope in the rings correctly relative to the base for the correct sight picture. Depending on the scope, the rear sight may have to come off, or taller rings might be necessary.
The Savage 110 action is a push-feed, cock-on-open action that works similarly to most other popular bolt-actions on the market today. The relationship between the action, barrel and receiver does differ slightly in comparison to the typical push-feed action, like the Remington 700-pattern, Tikka, Sako, etc. Whereas on those receivers, the barrel threads screw directly into the receiver, the Savage 110 action uses a barrel nut to securely clamp the barrel in place—just like an AR-15.
These rifles include Savage’s iconic AccuTrigger. Using my electronic trigger-pull scale, the trigger on this unit broke at 2 pounds, 14 ounces.
Taking Stock
The Magpul Hunter stock is a well-thought out product that combines elements from Magpul’s “must-have” SGA Shotgun stocks along with sensible and practical features found along the rest of its structure. Performance or practicality aside, including this stock provides this variant of the Savage 110 Scout with a sleek and modern look that frankly just looks cool.
Seeing how it’s 2025 and long-eye-relief scopes aren’t specifically needed on rifles with detachable magazines, I decided to install EOTech’s new daylight-bright Vudu 1-10X LPVO on a Reptilia AUS 34mm mount. The 1-10X Vudu’s magnification range is congruent with the yardage that Cooper’s concept was meant to cover. As an added bonus, because this optic has a first-focal-plane reticle, the shooter benefits from having a basic MRAD grid and stadia lines at higher magnifications, making holdovers a breeze. On the firing line, shooting with the EOTech cranked up to 10X made life very easy thanks to its easy-to-use central reticle and its crystal-clear Japanese-made optical glass; the new daylight bright Vudu 1-10X certainly enhanced my shooting experience.
Shooting The Savage 110 Magpul Scout
Keeping in mind the 110 Magpul Scout’s shorter 16.5-inch barrel, I included both Nosler’s 120-grain Ballistic and Sierra’s Prairie Enemy 105-grain 6.5 Creedmoor loads. Both are loaded with lighter projectiles, tend to print decent groups and fly out of muzzles with some velocity. Since 140-grain target loads seem to be the benchmark for 6.5 Creedmoor, I shot Remington’s Premier Match 140-grain BTHP.
I put 80 rounds through Savage. First, I shot it off the bench with bipod and rear bags to shoot the review’s required groups. Afterwards, I took the remainder of the ammo and shot the 110 Magpul Scout off a barricade at 200-yard steel. My intention was to shoot this rifle in a more “practical” position while perceiving its synergy with the optic at lower magnification settings. Making hits on the 200-yard B/C-zones of the steel target with this rifle and optic combination was easy, and with the rifle zeroed for the Nosler load, there was no real need to hold. It was like shooting a 5.56 NATO rifle, for all intents and purposes.
Accuracy-wise, the 110 Magpul Scout is tremendously capable. It was quite evident because I was able to achieve one “really good 5-shot group” with each of the three different cartridges mentioned.
Even though it’s at odds with the light-and-handy nature of a swift-shooting scout rifle, I found that in order to wring the most accuracy from this rifle, the shooter really needs to apply themselves. Shooting carelessly can cause groups to needlessly open up. I know because I was able to call my shots in real time thanks to the Vudu’s clear glass.
Savage 110 Magpul Scout Accolades And Critiques
The trade-off with this particular Savage is that the combination of its robust stock and thicker-contour barrel helps absorb felt-recoil, but this rifle isn’t anywhere near Cooper’s ideal of 7.5-pounds. And that’s before adding any optic. Scout rifle? More like stout rifle! The 110 Magpul Scout is not a slender gun. Shooting wise, it’s extremely comfortable; it handles like a full-size and heavy target rifle, yet it’s still fairly compact.
Savage’s iconic AccuTrigger is far from disagreeable, but out of the box, I find it needs some adjustment, which is easily done. It could benefit from slightly reduced travel so as to break sooner. Otherwise, my best groups were printed after very deliberate trigger control. Depending on the mission, it may be worth setting up the trigger to be more forgiving of mistakes, especially under pressure.
Seeing how the receiver and bolt are built, there’s very little doubt in how strong this action is. But cycling the bolt can feel clunky, and depending on the cartridge may require a little more force to open after firing a shot. It’s obvious that this action will need to wear-in long term.
The Takeaway
Scout-rifle purists may possibly have a bone to pick with the exemplar featured in this article because it certainly breaks the rules.
Traditionally, scouts have always been built around the classic .308 Win. round, as it was easily available and decently potent. These rifles also came equipped with both iron sights and a long-eye-relief scope. Cooper also stipulated that these rifles ought to weigh no more than 7 pounds and be no more than 39 inches long. With these dimensional requirements, scout rifles using compact or short actions tend to have barrels under 18 inches long.
Cooper originally conceived the scout rifle to function as a practical bolt-action rifle that was both handy and easy to carry around in the field while still using a cartridge potent enough to neutralize most North American big game; this rifle was also capable of being deployed for personal defense in a pinch.
Not only is this Savage Magpul Scout chambered in a 6.5 Creedmoor as opposed to .308 Win, but its stock might be too bulky and its barrel too thick for that easy-handling and easy-carrying sweet-spot. The optic I mounted is not a long-eye-relief scope. Yet, a modern high-end LPVO like EOTech’s VUDU 1-10X adheres to the spirit of the scout rifle concept.
If you don’t mind the extra weight, the Savage 110 Magpul Scout can definitely function as a do-it-all practical bolt gun. Depending on one’s perspective, its downsides can also be its upsides—the Magpul Hunter stock provides an excellent shooting foundation and its accuracy potential isn’t going anywhere.
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