Marshals (formerly Y: Marshals) has dropped a full trailer in anticipation of its March 1 premier. The logline:
With the Yellowstone Ranch behind him, Dutton joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana. Kayce and his teammates — Pete Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green), Belle Skinner (Arielle Kebbel), Andrea Cruz (Ash Santos) and Miles Kittle (Tatanka Means) – must balance the high psychological cost of serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence with their duty to their families, which for Kayce includes his son Tate (Merrill) and his confidantes Mo (Brings Plenty) and Thomas Rainwater (Birmingham) from the Broken Rock reservation.
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The Scout Rifle continues to be relevant, despite critics dismissing it as an outmoded romantic notion. Of course, we here at Frontier Partisans endorse and promote all kinds of outmoded romantic notions, so there’s that. There’s a whole bunch of folks who love the Scout — or variations thereof — and the market continues to respond.
Franchi (a subsidiary of the ancient and storied Italian firm Beretta) announced a general purpose rifle at SHOT Show that is a Scout in all but name. They’re calling it the Momentum Utility Lite Elite — or MULE. Cute, eh?
The MULE is the modern workhorse of rifles — compact, reliable, and ready for anything life demands. From long days in the field to everyday readiness at home, it delivers the accuracy, adaptability, and rugged strength shooters expect from a true general-purpose rifle. Wherever the job takes you, The MULE carries the load.
In the down position, the flip-up rear sights can be used in the standard rear notch/front blade configuration for fast target acquisition. In the up position, the rear sight is adjustable for windage and elevation and presents a sight picture similar to that of many modern sporting rifles [AR-platform].
The multi-option iron sight package is kinda cool…
Ruger shocked the world by suddenly discontinuing its Gunsite Scout — replacing it with a GenII American Scout. This looks like a pretty nice entry into the class:
I am quite content with my CZ600 as a general purpose rifle. But that bronze Ruger Lipsey Exclusive is pretty sweet…
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Speaking of riflery — we must offer a salute to American biathlete Campbell Wright for an outstanding finish in the mass start at Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic. This guy is the real deal, and has made the USA relevant in biathlon, which, well… that’s something new…
From Biathlon World:
Wright earned the first World Cup podium of his career, after he finished just nine seconds out of the top spot. The 23-year-old dual citizen shot 19 for 20 from the shooting range to secure his first World Cup medal.
“It was a great race. I enjoyed it a lot,” Wright said.
On battling it out with French biathlete Eric Perrot, Wright said, “It’s everyone’s dream, isn’t it? He’s one of the best biathletes in the world, and man, he makes shooting four zeros look easy. I promise you, it’s not as easy as he makes it look.”
The women’s mass start was a thriller, with four elite athletes battling through the last shooting stage for a tight race to the finish. Julia Simon of France took her first victory of the season.
The biathlon community honored the great Dorothea Wierer, whose World Cup career is coming to an end. The 35-year-old Italian came back for one more season so that she can represent Italy in the Olympics at home. She’s off the pace of the top competitors, but is still having a solid season, and the recognition is well-deserved. Ciao Doro!
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Jamie Fraser has joined the British Special Air Service (SAS). Or something like that.
Sam Heughan will star in a limited series titled Embassy.
The series follows Layla (Anna Kendrick), a sharp and resourceful American diplomat, who faces an impossible choice to protect the U.S. Ambassador (J.K Simmons) or follow his orders to exfiltrate a high value asset when armed mercenaries storm the U.S. Embassy in London. She’s forced to rely on her instincts and the reluctant help of her battle-hardened ex-fiancé, Connor Wright (Heughan), in the tense hours before extraction.
Production is just beginning and no streamer has yet been announced. The final season of Outlander premiers on March 6.
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This is one of my favorite portraits from the Mexican Revolution. A well-armed Yaqui Indian, likely from Gen. Obregon’s Army of the Northwest in Sonora, c. 1914. Go ahead. Call it a “man purse.” I dare you.
Rick Schwertfeger says
Love it all. But re: the Scout rifle: My biggest hesitation is the standard .308 caliber. I get it- and great Scout rifle guy Don Nguyen explains perfectly how he uses it for both hunting big game & protection from dangerous big game. But as primarily a marksmanship shooter, my .243 fits my purpose better. I will be investigating the new models, however.
Quixotic Mainer says
I like the scout concept too, but in my philosophy of use didn’t necessarily need the .308 either. When I cooked up my pseudo scout I went with 762×39 in a 16” cz bolt. Cheap enough to happily shoot for fun, with enough oomph for whitetail, which is the biggest beastie I normally hunt.
John M. says
I find it curious that essentially all modern implementations of the Scout rifle feature the ability to mount the scope in an ordinary (i.e. over the action) position, contrary to Cooper’s insistence that it should be way out over the barrel.
It always seemed to me that the pistol-relief scope way out over the barrel was the main “thing” that distinguished a Scout rifle. Otherwise, don’t you just have a lightweight mag-fed bolt gun? Don’t get me wrong, lightweight mag-fed bolt guns are great, and you can do a lot with them, but it seems like in practice people just give up too much precision when they mount the scope way out there.
Am I missing something here?
JimC says
Yep. Seems to me that nowadays if you want a long eye-relief optic you could just go with a red dot — otherwise, a conventionally mounted scope, maybe with quick-detach rings would offer more precision. Call it a Ranger rifle (and we’re back to that badass Tikka of the Canadian Rangers).
Jeff Cooper had a whole bunch of mandatory characteristics for a “real” Scout, a prime one being the .308 caliber. You can’t really have a .223 Scout. But dammit, General Purpose Rifle just doesn’t have that romantic ring… I’m gonna go with the Ranger rifle tag.
Andrew says
I thought the reason for the long eye relief scope was to keep the top of the action clear for easier loading/unloading access? I may be misremembering that though.
I think a red dot with a magnifier (flip over or QD mount) would make a good substitute for a LER scope. Not a perfect replacement if you consider glass quality, but still a solid choice.
Naming. My preference comes from Mike Lewis of Canebrake Consulting. JAFR, pronounced jaffer. Just A F’n Rifle.
JimC says
Oh, I like that. I think you’re right about the top loading.
John M. says
Responding to both Jim and Andrew–
My memory of the long eye-relief scope was that it facilitated snap shooting. Perhaps ease of access to the action/chamber was part of it too; that rings a bell.
Either way, that seems anachronistic. Cooper was quite insistent that the scope should be of fixed power (I had 4x stuck in my head, but Wikipedia says 2x or 3x) for both reliability and weight purposes. But in 2026 when 1-6x scopes are both reliable and lightweight, wouldn’t it make more sense to mount your scope properly (i.e. over the action) and leave your scope on 1x for snap shots, only dialing in more magnification when precision is needed and time is available?
OK, for loading through the action, I did the deep research of reading the Wikipedia article, and yes, Cooper specified that the scope should be forward to facilitate ease of stripper clip loading. If you’re doing that in 2026, you’re doing it wrong. Mag-fed bolt guns are cheap and easy, including AICS patterns that aren’t going to break the bank and won’t wipe out your weight savings as long as you don’t try to strap an ammo can onto the bottom of your rifle.
It just seems to me that forward-mounting your scope in 2026 is costing you some in precision and not gaining you much of anything.
Like a lot of Cooper’s bright ideas, it seems like how bright they were at the time is open to discussion but that they aren’t so bright now that we have another couple of generations under the belt.
Alan Isherwood says
I built my first scout rifle in the fall of 1985, and was an acquaintance of Jeff’s from that time. That said I have heard him speak about the Scout concept numerous times and attended the Scout conference where the Steyr Scout was introduced. Handiness is the keyword most often forgotten today when people speak about the Scout rifle. His inspiration came from the Win 94, Savage 99 and the Mannlicher carbine. All of them are quite handily carried at their balance point, that is, around the action. The prime purpose of the forward mount scope was the ability to comfortably carry the rifle at its point of balance. Access to the top of the action was a benefit as well as allowing the scope to be mounted lower to the bore compared to over the action. The low bore height is what allows for faster target acquisition. There are so many options today that were simply not available to us at that point in time. Jeff was much less ridged about specifics in person than in his writing.
JimC says
Thank you for sharing this.
I have heard this from several people.
Andrew says
John and Alan, thanks for the clarification.
I find it interesting he was less dogmatic when discussing things in person. His writings always came across to me as “This is THE way” instead of “This is A way”.