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The Brownings are made by the same company in the same factory that makes Winchester guns in New Haven Conn. They have not been made over seas for some time.

As far as gunsmiths using the actions. This is a lot like making kits cars. They always seems to start on a VW chassis. Does that make the VW the best car in the world? It just means that porsch chassis and parts are too expensive .

Wrong. Miroku STILL makes them in Japan. The same place Citoris, BLRs, and BARs are made.

So you are saying that A-Bolt actions are to expensive to build custom rifles on? I hope that was sarcastic and meant to be funny.

Chuck

I think he meant they were poor enough,to not be a viable choice,at any price.

Or somethin' like that...................(grin)

I recently sold an Left-Handed A-Bolt II Stainless Stalker .338WinMag. I bought it in 1998 after searching high and low for a LH M70 Winchester in .338.

I put around 400-500 rounds through the rifle, all handloads, without any form of malfunction. The rifle would put 250gr Hornady Spire Points, and RNs under MOA with a 73gr charge of RL22.

There were several things I liked, and others I disliked, about that rifle.

Likes: It was accurate, MOA or better with just about anything. Short bolt lift gave miles of scope clearance, even with gloves. The safety locked the trigger, and the firing pin. The safety location on the tang was nice. The magazine had internal shoulders, which prevented bullet tip battering in the magazine. The removable magazine design functioned flawlessly. The bolt handle was integral with the rear part of the bolt body, rather than soldered on, couldn't fall off. The extractor is similar to a Winchester pushfeed M70, effective and sturdy. Overall lightweight rifle. No unsightly iron sights/sight mounting holes in the barrel. Nice balance. Excellent trigger pull. All three recoil lugs bear evenly when bolt is closed, apparently pretty square. A very nicely done recessed crown.

Dislikes: Too much aluminum. The trigger, triggerguard/floorplate, bolt shroud are all aluminum. The safety has to be completely disengaged to open the bolt. The rear action screw doesn't anchor into the receiver, rather, into a third piece, that is attached to the receiver, kind of mickeymouse. The rear receiver bolt doesn't even look very robust. The hot glue bedding is a joke. The recoil pad must be made of the hardest rubber compound known to man, an issue on a light .338WM. There is a hokey little rollpin that secures the cocked indicator to the firing pin(visible from the underside of the removed bolt), it is bent under the strain of normal usage, and looks like a potential point of failure. No aftermarket steel bottom metal available. Very limited quality aftermarket stocks, ie McMillan, available.

As many have said, I believe it is an overall serviceable design for most hunters. It leaves a lot to be desired though, for most rifle cranks/tinkerers/customizers.

I do not see another one in my future.

MM

Thanks - great post.

LOL, Hello, Ive owned my BrowningA-Bolt SS in a 270WSM for about 6 months now, had some guys at the range kinda snubing my A-Bolt (visibly) until they seem the groups I shot at 200yards (under 1inch) After seeing that everyone wanted one (even if its made in Japan) .. I can shoot 3 shot groups at 100yards in the same hole, (under a half inch) and the only action Ive ever seen that waz smoother was a Weatherby Alaskan 30-06, which is Titianum coated they only made it for 2 years 92 and 93 I believe. Anyway my Browning will suit me fine for many years of hunting.

I have two Browing A-Bolts one in 270 WSM and the other in 243. Both are very accurate with no problems. This is a Ford vs. Chevy debate, no one wins it's just a good pissing match!

I have A-Bolt II, lefty, 7mm rem mag, wood, no boss
have had it for about 5 or 6 years
never gave me any problems, most accurate out of the box rifle I ever shot.
wish it was 270win or 7mm-08 instead thou, more power than I need. that's why got a tiika lefty whitetail hunter in 7mm-08, I like that one but haven't used it much yet. it's shorter and kicks less the browning, I am keeping the browning for longer range deer hunting thou, it's a keeper.

being a righty that shoots lefty I like short turn bolts, and the A-bolt and tikka seem to fit my body just right

do I think the Abolt II is the best rifle ever made? probally not, mine has the bluing all wore off it on the handle already(well I have used it a lot in the 5 or 6 years) like others have said I am not so sure they are made to hunted hard with for 50 years. would I buy another? sure would

I owned one once. I think that Montana Marine has it pretty well figured out.

I think its pointless trying to poke holes at different rifles. Everyone has their own personal tastes, and if one brand works for you fine. But these are mass produced, bargain basement rifles.
To say your remington or winchester is better than my browning because you can get after market parts is like saying your Yugo is better than my chevette because you can get a spoiler put on it. Its still a Yugo.
You get what you pay for. Remington, winchester, and browning have all had occassional problems with quality control on certain rifles at one time or another. My brownings, winchesters, remingtons all are reliable. I've had a few problems with a few rifles, but thats life. You can't expect any different from mass produced rifles at low cost. If you want to go a level up, you'll have to shell out for a custom rifle. I don't have that kind of money, so I stick with these rifles, which more often than not, work just fine.

No offense, but what a load of crap. The after market parts I put on a rifle aren't just to make them look "cool", they are put there for function purposes. In fact, most people wouldn't even know that they were after market parts. Do yourself a favour and talk to a knowledgeable riflesmith about what goes into the action (remington or winchester) of a custom rifle to improve reliability and function. It may suprise you.



The Browning is an overpriced piece of cast aluminum that is awfully ugly to boot. Most would do themselves a favour and buy a winchester (my choice), find a reliable/competent gunsmith and as you can afford it turn it into something more. Or buy a browning like I did and when you decide it isn't all its cracked up to be sell it for half of what you paid for it and buy something that could be eventually used for a custom rifle.



Chuck

But if the gun already shoots 1 MOA why do you need a gunsmith to turn it into anything? My Brownings shoot 1 MOA at one hundred yards consistantly. What else can you ask for out of the box? I don't think Brownings are ugly at all and they function with out any problems. Everyone has their preferences but that's all it is, a preference.

There is much more to the function of a rifle than accuracy. Unfortunately, that is the extent of most peoples acceptable qualifications of a quality firearm.

Chuck

Oh brother, and all I did was qualify for Camp Perry...damn. I don't know a thing about rifles...

Originally posted by lettman:



"But if the gun already shoots 1 MOA why do you need a gunsmith to turn it into anything?"



What exactly does that mean?



Chuck

Abolts are more fragil than remingtons, winchesters and rugers. I also heard that the abolts have many more parts than other rifles, this makes them tend break more frequently. I would rather sacrifice a little accuracy for increased reliablity, though you don't have to.

A large part of an abolt is aluminum which can break a lot easier than steel. How accurate would your abolt be if you have hiked for 5 days hunting for elk and accidently break your abolt so it does not have a trigger. One of the guys on this web site had this happen in Africa. JJHack told me that while he has guided hunters the vast majority of rifle failures were abolts.

I posted earlier that I had the trigger on my A-Bolt break right in the middle of hunting season. Pretty much ground it to a halt. This rifle could also shoot 1.5" groups at 300Mtrs. all day long. Not worth the trade off and it now resides in someone elses safe.

Chuck

This is ford vs chevy, guys <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> thats why I drive a DODGE <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> and own 3 A-bolts <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I own some nice Remingtons, Winchesters, Rugers, and Browning A-"Bolt.
To make the Remingtons, Winchesters and Rugers shoot they all needed trigger jobs, and bedding, the Browning didn't. need anything
To make the Winchesters, Remingtons, and Rugers accurate they all needed extensive work with reloads, all the Browning needed was the BOSS tuned.
I've had the soldered bolt handle break off the SUCKs rifle along with some safety problems, the extractor failed on my control feed Model 70, the Ruger and Browning are the only two I've road hard and put away wet that still function flawlessly.
Custom rifles are like BMW and Jag's, they look pretty, are fast, and are great for the people needing for some ego, but it still takes the same amount time for me to drive them to work as it does my F150
Buy the rifle that gets you excited, and does the job you want it to do, if it's a Browning, so be it, if it's something else, well that's the great thing about living where we do, we have choices.
Now for the person who complained about the resale of a 'Browning, I'll bet the resale is better than most other brands and one hell of a lot better than those big dollar customs. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />