The Scout Rifle is my most used primary and I have over 2K kills with it, so I can speak from the point of view of someone experienced. Here's why they aren't used: -Snipers: they are a scout rifle, but better. One shot to the head and two shots to the body at longer distances, as opposed to scout rifles taking multiple headshots or multiple bodyshots to kill someone. In a long range scenario, it's not practical since you can't move quickly enough to take cover before getting headshotted or double-bodyshotted. The sniper, however, has a lot more time to move because you have to chain several shots. Basically snipers are more lethal, never suffer from damage dropoff, they give you more room for error, and are harder to defend against as opposed to scout rifles --ARs: this is only the case because ARs suck. The only reason you [i]ever[/i] see as scout, even occasionally, right now is because Auto Rifles aren't as prevalent. Before 1.1.1, ARs were easier to use than Scouts at any distance, more versatile, quicker killing, and suffered nearly no damage penalty. -Hand Cannons and MIDA: the issue is that [i]all[/i] Hand Cannons have the same flinch multiplier as the MIDA (with its hidden High Caliber rounds perk). Other Scouts are below this flinch multiplier and given that Hand Cannons are easier to use, kill quicker, and are effective at both long and close ranges (scouts are only good at medium-long range, they suck at close range). -Shotguns: this is another problem related to map design and the hipfire performance of Scout Rifles. As you may know, most Scouts have a high zoom multiplier and so scoping in when you're getting rushed is very impractical. You're left with the option of hipfiring, which is absolutely terrible with Scouts because of incredible amounts of bloom when hipfiring, as well as a terrible reticle that doesn't help with aiming at all. I would say change the hipfire reticle to being like Pulse Rifles, and reduce the bloom on hipfiring a bit.