I have a Clifton Arms African Scout rifle chambered in 416 Remington and was curious if anyone has any experience with these. I'm told it was built by a company started by Finn Aagaard's son-in-law Brent Clifton in the 1990s. The rifle features a heavily reworked Bruno long magnum controlled feed action with a 3 position Winchester style safety. It has a 22 inch Shilen barrel featuring integral scope mounts and front sight. The front sight has a square post with gold inlay for fast acquisition. The rear sight is a robust adjustable ghost ring. A Burris scout scope is mounted in detachable rings. The rifle is finished in matt electroless nickel and has a drop magazine that hold 5 rounds. There's a trap under the quick detachable butt pad that holds some additional cartridges. I'm not sure how to upload photos but can e-mail them. thanks, Chris

Brent Clifton was quite involved in the early scout rifle concept with Jeff Cooper.

He developed a integrated bipod stock that was something of a phenomenon in the 80s-90s by my memory. Cooper made it part of his “added desiratum” for a scout. The bullet trap magazine was another one that was listed as well.

This sounds like a combination of Cooper’s scout and his ideas for what a good heavy rifle were (the drop magazine, high vis post front sight). It’s not either one exactly.

Sounds like a neat toy.

I have one of his rifles as well - it was built on a Texas Magnum action, 338 Winchester, with an octagon barrel and one of Brent's stocks with the carbon fiber bi-pods. Nice craftsman and the stocks are on par with the best made fiberglass stocks

I appreciate the feedback on the Clifton Scout rifle! Thanks for taking time to respond. Chris

quote:

Originally posted by John145144:
I have one of his rifles as well - it was built on a Texas Magnum action, 338 Winchester, with an octagon barrel and one of Brent's stocks with the carbon fiber bi-pods. Nice craftsman and the stocks are on par with the best made fiberglass stocks

I cant comment on the rifle, but I had one of Clifton's stocks in the mid 1990s. I agree that it was quality equal to any good fiberglass stock builder. I was surprised to hear the folded given the quality they were producing.

I missed out by not just digging the old wallet out and having a stock made for my M600 scout. Or maybe the complete rifle. I would not have bought several rifles as fodder for a Scout if I already had one of the Cliftons. Be Well, Packy.