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Joined: Aug 2008
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Pasche Offline OP
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Hello friends.
I am living in the middle of Germany and last year I got a old Savage 99 in .22HP made in 1913 or so. It is a fantastic gun and I will never leave it but the calibre could have a bit more power. Learning to love lever guns I was looking than for a modern lever gun with separate clip and possibility for shooting not rounded bullets. So I came to the Browning BLR in calibre 30-06 as take down. Lever guns are something special here in Germany. Most hunters have their Mauser systems or Blasers or Drillings or so. I had no possibility to try out a BLR but al I could read about them was fine and the price was not to high and much cheaper than Mausers, Blasers and so on. So I decided to purchase a BLR, 30-06, take down, pistol-grip. It came as a realy fine gun and I fitted it with a weaver rail, Leupold QRW-Rings and a Meopta Meostar 1-4x22 RedDot. Nice combination and precise to shoot. I think I have made about 30 shots inbetween with it and now I am getting a problem with the BLR: when I move the Lever the pinion gear is getting back and should bring the hammer in a pulled-back-position. But this doesn't work anymore. The hammer isn't fixed but scratches on the pinion gear.
Does anybody know about this problem and is it perhaps typical for the BLR?
I have a guarantee on the gun but I am not sure if german gunshmiths (typicaly Mauser, Sauer and Blaser specialists) can solve a problem with a lever gun. It might get a long time problem....

Best regards from Germany and thanks in advance!


Pasche


SAVAGE 1899, 22HP, 1913 - 99DL, .308, 1964 - 99A, .308, 1976
SAUER Hahn-Drilling, 9,3x72 ~1910 - Drilling 3000, 7x65R/16-70, 1980
COLT Python 4" 1966 - Python Elite 6" 1996 - OMM 6" .22lfb 1959 - Anaconda 6" 44mag 2007
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I am not a gunsmith but I do own an older BLR and I can't imagine how this would happen unless something has broken or failed inside the rifle. The only other posibility is that a foreign object is preventing it from working properly. You could try and use a proper solvent and compressed air to blow out any object in the action, but other than that it would require disassembly and inspection if something has failed.

Again, I'm not a gunsmith and I haven't heard of this particular problem before, but maybe someone else has.

Best wishes,

fish head

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Pasche Offline OP
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Hi fish head,

thanks for your reply.
Only a few information to bring it to the end:

I tried cleaning the BLR but it didn't bring anything. So I decided to send the BLR back to the company that imports the BLRs in Germany. I talked to their gunshmith. What he told me, underlines my opinion about german gunsmiths. He said, the BLR is a typical old style Western gun, not as reliable as Mauser systems and so on..... German gunsmiths and Lever guns don't get together I think..... He said, that they probably need to send it back to Browning in Belgium and he cannot say how long it will take to get it back ....

So I have nothing to do .... except waiting for my BLR.
Hope it will be back before hunting season starts on the first of May.

Best regards from Germany.

Pasche


SAVAGE 1899, 22HP, 1913 - 99DL, .308, 1964 - 99A, .308, 1976
SAUER Hahn-Drilling, 9,3x72 ~1910 - Drilling 3000, 7x65R/16-70, 1980
COLT Python 4" 1966 - Python Elite 6" 1996 - OMM 6" .22lfb 1959 - Anaconda 6" 44mag 2007
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That's an interesting response from your gunsmith. The BLR is not typical old syle Western. Rack and pinion rotating bold head wasn't very common in the old days to say the least! It sounds like they just weren't comfortable working on it.

Good luck,

fish head

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Let us all know what you find out. I don't have my BLR anymore, I stupidly traded it on something else, but it was very reliable when I shot it.


Paul
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I would just bite the bullet and send it back to Browning. Its hard enought to find a smith in the states to work on a BLR. Mine sat at smiths's for 6 months only for him to tell me there was no way you can do a trigger job on BLR's.

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Please forgive my clumsy attempt at German.

Ihr B�chsenmacher ist falsch . Senden Sie ihn Browning.

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Pasche
I had similar issue with a new from the factory BLR .308 a couple of months ago, installed the Leupold two piece scope bases, cycled the lever action a couple times and it started to make a grinding sound. The action cycled but was very difficult to move without extreme effort. No indication what caused the issue.

Returned the rifle to Browning, they exchanged the faulty rifle with a new BLR.

From my research the internal components of the lever and bolt gears are very difficult to set-up (for lack of a better description) and there are very few gunsmiths here in the US that work on the internal components of BLRs due to this.

Sending it to the manufacturer is the best action.

I have the .30-06 pistol grip (not a takedown), really like it, if the trigger was a bit lighter and broke consistently, I would like it even more.

Good luck.

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Pasche Offline OP
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Hello friends,

now, after about 6 weeks, I got my BLR back. The gunsmith had sent it to the FN Browning factory in Belgium. The action is working fine now. This first Problem seems to be solved. Moving the lever brings the hammer back in a fixed position without scratching under the pinion gear.

But wile trying out the function another problem appeared:
Depending of the brand of ammunition after shooting the bullet casing stacks in the barrel and cannot be removed for a few seconds. It is not possible to move the lever than.
After waiting a few seconds everything is ok again, lever can be moved down and the bullet casing falls out.

Is that problem known or typical for BLRs? Does anybody of you have an idea how it can be solved easily?

Ok, I can take ammunition from that I know that it works. But I would like to learn more about the problem.

Best regards from Germany
and thanks in advance for your replies.


Pasche


SAVAGE 1899, 22HP, 1913 - 99DL, .308, 1964 - 99A, .308, 1976
SAUER Hahn-Drilling, 9,3x72 ~1910 - Drilling 3000, 7x65R/16-70, 1980
COLT Python 4" 1966 - Python Elite 6" 1996 - OMM 6" .22lfb 1959 - Anaconda 6" 44mag 2007
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Posts: 1,181
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I have a BLR that I recently purchased from ursus148, here on the Campfire. Although I've only fired 20 rounds thru it so far, I've had no problems and am very pleased with it.

With respect to cases sticking in the chamber, my gunsmith told me that this is fairly common in BLR's. He said that's it vital to keep the chamber/throat area clean in order to avoid the problem. The BLR's bolt simply moves forward and backward in its raceway and lacks the camming action of a bolt-action. To prevent cases from sticking, just make sure to keep it clean. At least that's what my gunsmith advised me.


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