Review: CVA Cascade SR-80 | An official journal of the NRA

Colonel Jeff Cooper was something of a renaissance man in the shooting and firearms world. He is most often remembered as a military member and as a small arms shooting and training fighter. What is often forgotten, however, is that he was also an inveterate big game hunter with worldwide experience.

Cooper introduced the Scout rifle concept in the early 1980s. The idea is a short, lightweight and quick-handling rifle that can be easily carried in the field for military reconnaissance and/or hunting. The Cooper Scout rifle features a forward-mounted scope to allow top loading of the rifle using stripper clips. This loading style has become obsolete in modern detachable magazines, but the forward-mounted scope remains popular on scout rifles.

The scout rifle concept has gained some traction in today’s hunting world, and the latest entry in this category is the CVA Cascade SR-80 Scout Rifle. SR for Scout Rifle and 80 in honor of Cooper, who began working on the concept in 1980.

The SR-80 rifle weighs 7.3 pounds, just slightly heavier than Cooper’s three-pound specification. With the Leupold scope it is 8.5 pounds. Without the muzzle brake, which is Cooper’s specification, it is only about a meter long. The weapon comes with a fully adjustable Williams peep sight, the threaded insert of which can be removed to use the sight as a ghost ring. The sight is a post with wings for protection and can be adjusted in height using an AR sight tool. The weapon comes with a rail for mounting a scope in the forward position. In this case, I used an older Leupold VX-R Scout 1.5-5x that I borrowed from another scout rifle.

The SR-80 is offered in 350 Legend and .308 Win calibers. I chose the .308 Win. without even a hint of regret. The barrel is 18 inches and has a threaded muzzle for ⅝x24 attachments. It comes with a thread guard and a muzzle brake.

I performed all precision testing on the gun as it was configured from the factory with the muzzle brake installed. Later I installed my Silencer Central Banish 30 Gold silencer for some of the exercises. The short barrel works well with a silencer, and my anti-gun neighbor didn’t even shout an obscenity at me.

The bolt features a three-lug design that allows for a shorter rotation and it runs like it runs on bearings. There is a slot milled into the left side of the bolt into which the bolt stop fits and which acts like an anti-lock guide.

The bolt has a sliding extractor inserted into the right tab. The ejector is a spring-loaded plunger on the front of the bolt. The bolt handle has an oversized, knurled knob. The side-mounted safety has two positions and does not lock the bolt. The trigger pull on this rifle is 2 pounds, 6 ounces. It’s sharp, clean and breaks like a good trigger. All metal is ceracotized in graphite black.

The injection molded shaft is tan with a black splatter pattern. The draw length is 14 inches, which is a bit long for many of us. But fear not, as a 1-inch spacer is easy to remove. The shaft is equipped with a Crushzone CVA rubber cap. The pistol grip has a small palm thickening on the right side. The handle scales have a molded checkerboard pattern for better grip. The shaft itself has a “grippy” surface. There are three strap attachment bolts for attaching a bipod while still using a strap.

The only issue I had was of the magazine. The 10-round magazine is proprietary to CVA rifles, so this rifle does not accept any other type of magazine. It worked well except that it was dropped twice with loaded ammunition and broke apart. I was able to easily fix the problem with some superglue on the base plate. There’s nothing you can do about clumsiness.

For hunting you can order a flush-mounted four-shot magazine from CVA.

Considering the limitations of a forward-mounted 5X scope for precision testing, this gun shot remarkably well. I suspect I would get even better results if I attached one of the high magnification scopes I normally use for range checking rifles.

I shot a few groups at 50 yards with the peep sight that reached about an inch. That’s 2 MOA, and the rifle is better. It pains me terribly to admit this, but as I approach my seventh decade on this earth, some days I just can’t see iron sights properly anymore.

Scout rifle standards such as a pic rail, rear peep and drop box magazine are standard on the SR-80. Thanks to the adjustable draw length, the rifle can be used universally.

For the exercises that simulate hunting situations, I turned the magnification all the way down and turned the red dot in the middle up. This setup is very fast in target acquisition. I ran a steel target group several times at different distances. I often shoot this exercise on my home range with many rifles. Although I didn’t use a timer, the action is so smooth and the trigger pull is so good that I’m pretty sure it’s the fastest I’ve ever shot a commercial centerfire repeating rifle. It’s fast enough that I’m surprised every time the 10 laps are gone. Hunting whitetails is just as quick.

I make a lot of my living doing gun tests like this, so I shoot a lot of rifles. I have a protocol that I follow for accuracy testing and it’s not much different. Plus, it doesn’t tell you much about shooting the rifle in the field, so I then take a few field shots like I did here with the steel to get a good feel for the rifle.

I usually shoot for a while, then pack up the rifle and go home to the computer to write the report. In this case, I stuck around and shot again and again until I ran out of ammo.

I can’t think of a better recommendation for a rifle.

Technical specifications
• Type: Repeating rifle with centerfire rifle
• Caliber: .308 win. (tested), 350 Legend
• Magazine: removable box; 10th round.
• Barrel: 18″; medium contour; 1:10″ RH twist; Muzzle thread with muzzle brake
• Trigger: single-stage; 2 pounds, 6 ounces. Pull weight
• Sightseeing attractions: Williams Peep rear, adjustable front support; front Picatinny rail
• Security: Two position toggle switch
• Share: straight comb; Synthetic; Flat Dark Earth with black weave finish; 13″-14″ adjustable LOP
• Metal surface: Graphite Black Cerakote
• Total length: 39.75″
• Weight: 7.3 pounds.
• Accesories: Threaded cap
• MSRP: $925; cva.com