Browning Buckmark .22? To buy or not to buy

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Awesome. Thanks guys. I went and bought a .22 bore snake today and am ordering my ultimate loader today. Picking her up on friday :) Where do you guys like to order mass amounts of dynapoints? I've got holiday $ so would buy 5k if i could find them somewhere reputable
 
I find when im competing i'll shoot wolf match grade ammo and i weigh each bullet individually,only when im competing...when plinking,I shoot winchester wildcats 11 bucks for a brick of 500....and i have no FTF with em.
 
Awesome. :D My ultimate mag loader and extra/spare mag will be here tommorrow! Picking my baby up friday! going to the range and shooting a brick or 2 saturday. Thanks for the info on ammo, glock.
 
Range report!
I had the day off today, so headed over to sports authority and picked her up. My ultimate cliploader and extra mag had arrived yesterday and work GREAT - thanks for the tip on that guys!

So i went out to the range (it was drizzling slightly) and gave her a run through...this gun is absolutely awesome. Trigger is the best of any of my guns, the grip feels SO much better than my S&W 22A that i can't even describe. The metal front/back backstrap really gives it a solid feel and the grip is smaller than the 22A's, much nicer for my hands. Everything operated smoothly and i fired over 400 rounds before i hit a bonafide dud (even dropping the hammer on it 3 times on different spots on the rim didn't fire it). Towards the very end of the new brick about 700 rounds in, she started having a few failure to fully eject - the round would get stuck in the breach occasionally. I'm going to spray it down with some powder blast and get any deposits off, then re-lube with some rem-oil and see how she digests another brick tommorrow :D. I was able to nail a bottle around at about 15 yards repeatedly, hitting it over and over while it was rolling and skipping around after only 30 or 40 rounds through her. TONS OF FUN.

Now let me tell you a funny story! I paid 200$ deposit back on monday when i purchased the gun...today i went in and picked up some targets for 5$ and a new bore brush while i was waiting for them to bring up my pistol. When i got to the register with everything, wouldn't you know the same manager that sold me my s&w 642 was up there and remembered me. Seemed like a cool guy :) Anyway, they couldn't figure out a percentage to deal with taxes taking into account my 200$ deposit on the 229$ price plus the 10$ of stuff. The cashier gave the manager some verbal jabs about not knowing any math and he just said "aww f*** it, just give him the stuff for that).... Somehow, they ended up ringing me up for 195$ TOTAL, plus 14.50$ or so in change -- total 209$ out the door for the buckmark and 10$ of merchandise. LOL.
 
Sounds like a great deal and a great pistol!
Be careful with spray gun cleaners. The Buckmark has rubber grips and buffer and many of the spray cleaners "eat" rubber and plastic. There is a plastic-safe version. That's what I use on my Bucky.
 
Thanks for the warning johnnyc :) I was careful with the solvents during cleaning. Just got it done. Wasn't hard. Dunno what all the fuss is about stripping it down really, was just 3 hex head screws...
Going back out tommorrow with a couple bricks and a can of breakfree and some hoppes #9 gun oil. Gotta figure out what to take out as targets. Eggs? Suggestions? :D
 
Well! Went out again today and put 1000 rounds through her. I love this gun. :) Painted the sights with some orange + bright white. Nailing all kinds of things, knocking cans around constantly @ 25 yards. It likes the federal bulk more than the winchester stuff.
 
wally said:
I'd thought the Ruger MKII or 22/45 were the biggest PITA to disassemble and re-assemble until I got a Buckmark. Two different sized hex head wrenches required and several easy to lose small parts and a small spring held in by the right side grip panel, what were they thinking?
Click to expand...

Someone didn't RTFM. Only the top sight mount should be removed when disassembling a Buckmark, unless you have a target model AND don't want to chance shifting your zero slightly. The manual explicitly states that the grips are not to be removed as they hold small parts in place.
As for the recoil spring assembly, only the Glocks' and the AKs' are less trouble than the Buckmark's recoil assembly re-assembly.

As for ammo choices, the Federal "Champion" seems to be the best, followed by regular Federal "value" and Remington "Golden bullet", both of which are quite good, although the Remington seems to have about 3-10 rounds per brick which need to be fired twice due to (probably) gaps in the primer inside the rim.

Even though you already bought one, the biggest downside to the Buckmark seems to be stiffness of the assembled slide when uncocked and the inability to use one's whole hand to grip the slide. Not an issue for me, but one of the folks I took shooting had trouble racking it.

It's a very nice pistol. :)
 
Mine was OK with the Federal "value" pack and Champion, but outstanding with Winchester Dynapoint. Hated all the Remington loads. I think most .22 pistols are quirky and individualistic. The fun is trying lots of different brands and loads to see what yours likes best.
Newer Buckmarks have "wings" at the rear of the slide to aid your grip.
 
Weigand ( http://www.jackweigand.com/bbm22.html ) makes a decent weaver site rail for the buckmark. It does not allow for simultaneous open sites, though. The rail is a straight swap for the factory rear open site rail, which comes off with two allen screws for cleaning. I fit my Buckmark with a Red Dot site using the rail. I agree it is a fine pistol.
 
Thanks Ed. I would like to get a red dot scope for my buckmark myself, though i find it quite easy to aim using the stock iron sights :D. I've put over 3500 rounds through my buckmark now (went 3 times over christmas with 2 bricks each time :D) and it's one excellent .22 semiauto. I've taken the read sight rail off several times for cleaning; seems like a real easy swap. Thanks for the information :)
 
Yes, it's easy to switch back and forth between factory sights and Red Dot. I'm not experienced with handguns, so my plan is to become proficient with the Red Dot first. Since the dot's movement amplifies your hand motion, it provides better feedback on controlling your hand movement. The idea is to train my hand first, and then worry about training my eye and improving hand-eye coordination on an open sight.

BTW, you'll want to download the users manual at
http://media.browning.com/pdf/om/buckmark22_03218_om_s.pdf
if you don't have it already.

Ed
 
Glad you're happy with it. I did finally get my Ultimate Cliploader to load all ten by playing with the depress screw and the ball tension- now it works great. The family I was shooting with this last week were quite impressed how I could load magazines for the Buckmark faster than they were shooting them. Quite a contrast to the Sig P226 .40S&W we were also shooting, where loading the magazines is a much longer, thumb tiring experience.

It makes burning through cheap ammo on a great shooting gun quite a good time.
 
cheap ammo

My Buckmark is finicky with the bulk ammo. In fact I have stopped using it in any of my autoloaders. Works okay in revolvers and single-shots. If you do use it in an auto-loader make certain there is no excess oil in the action,it makes a gummy mess(powder residue and oil) which with reak havoc with cycling.
 
Jimmy,

My Buckmark was jamming every 30'th round or so when I took it out for the first time a couple weeks ago. I noticed that moving the magazine follower up and down manually (when out of the gun) had a slight crunchy feel to it, and the top most round tended to dangle from the top when the carrier was pushed down. The user manual at
http://media.browning.com/pdf/om/buckmark22_03218_om_s.pdf
has rather extensive cleaning instruction on page 20 involving exercising the follower while submerged in solvent that I've since performed. I just used kerosene since it seemed like the most benign thing in the garage at the time, but I'll use something more plastic-friendly next time. I haven't shot since, but the crunch went away and no more dangle. Have you tried this? I think the buckmark is particularly sensitive to magazine contamination because the recoil spring is so stong. That is, it cycles fast.

Ed
 
magazine cleanliness

All my firearms and magazines are clean (washed in HOT soapy water and dried with compressed air). As a former gunsmith whose bread and butter was cleaning customers guns fouled by cheap ammo (and a lack of knowledge on how to properly clean their guns),I am a stickler for clean. This jamming only occurs with the cheap/bulk ammo and not just in the Buckmark. When I use CCI Minimags or similar brands, the semis fuction flawlessly. Bottom line is-you get what you pay for.
 
Jimmy,

I was unaware of your experience when I replied. I was actually using CCI minimags when it was jamming, so it was likely due to the magazine contamination in my particular case. Thanks for the hot soapy water suggestion. That certainly is the "more plastic-friendly" I was looking for (I'd follow with a reverse osmosis filtered water rinse). I have an air compressor too and realize that it will have to be bone-dry before relubing. This would be easy for loose parts (mag, spring, bolt, site plate) that come out for a buckmark cleaning, but would you actually recommend squirting soapy water down the trigger assembly left in the gun itself? My concern is making sure one can dry everything thoroughly afterward. I was considering Non-Chorlinated CRC Brakleen Brake Parts Cleaner for this at least. It says "safe on most automotive plastics" on the back, but "protect all rubber" (that would be the grip cover). Does this sound safe, or should I reconsider?

Ed
 
Hot soapy water

Ed, do not be afraid to completely immerse your guns/parts in the hot (even boiling) soapy water. Dissassemble as far as is practical. I have immersed trigger assemblies intact when necessary. Rinse parts in flowing water then resubmerge in very hot clean water allow parts to attain the temperature of the water before removing. Practically all water will evaporate leaving very little to be "displaced".At this point I generally use a very light coat of WD40or Remoil while the parts are still hot. A light sray of compressed air to remove any excess and reassemble. I think you will be happy with the result. As far as the CRC Brakekleen, I have tried it because it was handy,in my case it left a whitish residue. I don't know if this was harmful or not as I quickly washed it off with WD40.
 
10-Red-SF.jpg


Except mine has a rail and a red dot scope on it.
 
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