Opinions on Browning BARs

[Gearhead Jim]

There was a period of several years when most Browning rifles had stocks that got impregnated with salt during the curing process, rusted the h--- out of the steel after a while. Check for rust where the steel touches the wood on any older Browning.

I had a .30-06 BAR, wish I'd never sold it!

 

[Lashlarue]

My uncle who was a jockey carried one in the South Pacific in WWII, he said that the weight of the gun and magazines he was required to carry weighed more than him.He came through some horrendous battles unscathed so I guess it served him well.

 

[Onmilo]

"Salt wood" can be found on any rifle featuring a walnut stock from the period of about 1960 to 1974 and in all likelyhood the problem exsisted long before that time period.
Salt wood is one of the reasons the US Military got away from walnut for M14 stocks and went with birch and then plastic and why plastic became the standard furniture material on the M16.

You can check any rifle for possible salt wood by pulling the buttstock screws and/or front and rear swivel screw.
If the threaded portions are heavily crusted with rust the wood is probably affected.

I have owned a Belgian Grade ll BAR in .30/06 for many years.
The gas system is regulated to handle any commercial ammunition on the market, the perceived recoil is light and accuracy varies between 3" and 6" at 100 to 300 meters with all ammunition fired, plenty good for hunting.

The only drawback with my rifle is there is no dedicated bolt lock.
The bolt locks back on the last shot, then you pull the bolt back slightly to relase the magazine for loading.
After reloading the magazine is snapped back in place and the bolt has to be retracted and released to reload the chamber.
If you leave the chamber loaded and set the safety, you can reload the magazine with a round still chambered and avoid the hand cycle of the action and this is the way I usually reload.
The magazines hold four shots in regular chamberings and three shots in 7mm, .300, and .338 Magnum and can be removed from the magazine plate but it is no easy feat to do so on my rifle.

The newer BAR rifles feature a dedicated bolt lock and the magazines pop off the plate easier so I would recommend a newer rifle over an older one.

I like my BAR none the less.

 

[mrsig]

I love my 7mm Rem Mag. It sports Zeiss glass and is a great shooter. I only wish it had a 15 round detachable mag... That would be a blast.

- Sig

 

[Bigfoot]

Over the years people have asked if there was a high cap mag for the BAR, I always thought that it was impossible without major mods because of the hinged floorpate. Imagine my surprise when I went to the Browning International site looking for a 9.3x62 BAR and found a detatchable mag. It's ugly and only holds six rounds but there it is.

http://www.browningint.com/intro.html
http://www.browningint.com/fichprod/bar.html

 

[Risasi]

Which BAR are we talking about? The modern one, or the old timey Clyde Barrow BAR:

 

[Eightball]

They're talking about the new production hunting rifle.

The BAR is a sweet gun that fills a specific niche, and isn't just for your "everyday collector"--if you want a semi-auto hunting gun that isn't custom, it's a nice piece of work. Whichever version you think you want, though, I would recommend the BOSS system--it doesn't negatively affect accuracy but does reduce recoil a bit, and since that unit is part of the barrel, it won't affect the resonance any. If you don't want the BOSS, you can always turn it off--but there's no way to attach one after-the-fact. Got a co-worker who wishes he knew that before he ordered his.

 

[Risasi]

I thought so, but a few of the initial posts threw me off course.

Well, in that case...I owned one too, in 7mm. It was a nice, accurate rifle. Shot 1.5" or under at 100 yards. Flat shooting. Kick wasn't too bad. However it had a chronic stovepipe problem. About one in ten rounds would fail to eject a spent case. I took it into a local smith named Tom Menck (who IMO is a very good smith). He never could get it to shoot quite right. I finally gave up and gave it away to someone more into "Fudd" rifles.

I have a friend who has a BLR in the same caliber. He uses it for deer hunting almost every year. He much prefers that to an automatic. And it sounds like it's just about as accurate as the BAR.

 

[krimmie]

I have never had a problem with my BAR in .308 since I purchased it in 1986...in fact, I'm planning on getting another in .300 Win Mag.