Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires BUCKMARKS, who owns em....

Looking for quality info on the Browning Buckmark series pistol.
Uses will be rimfire steel shoots and ground squirrel mayhem..

So far it looks like I'll probably pick up a camper SS and put Williams Firesights on board...then progress to a C-More.

Suggestions...?

I'd get the Camper with the factory fiber optic front sight and go to town; fiber optic rear sights, in my opinion, are distracting and detrimental to fast pistol shooting. A single front fiber optic dot sits well in a plain, serrated black rear sight and comes on target fast.

I had a Buckmark over the summer and it was very accurate, tolerant of several brands of ammo, and had a good trigger out of the box. I'm looking at trading into a Camper stainless with the fiber optic front sight here fairly soon.

If you want to mount a red-dot, Tactical Solutions makes a nice scope rail that includes a rear sight. Its a bit spendy, but they're well made.

They are a great gun.

As accurate as any Sub $1,000 rimfire semi auto made.

Also made in the USA.

Buy one.

Hey Ore45,

Thanks for chiming in.
Front sight and trigger control is where it's at.
I thought maybe the rear fire sights would be an advantage, but maybe not..?
I know I will eventually progress to an optical sight.
I want to play with the comp challenges, on a pedestrian level, but still be up to the challenges of a good pop can or clay bird. Sounds like stock sights will be a good start.

Jim62,

Right on, it'll be USA. Mostly because I believe we deliver a quality product at a reasonable price point.
So far, Browning and Ruger are the only contestants in my narrow useage and price venue.

I've handled the Camper stainless with the factory front fiber optic and it comes on target really fast. Just put the dot in the bottom of the rear sight notch and press the trigger, because the front fiber optic is large-ish, its almost like shooting with a red-dot optic. Getting the fiber optic on a new gun is a good buy as Browning charges quite a bit for that factory part, and the aftermarket sights aren't cheap either, relative to the cost of the gun new.

I have had several of these and all were accurate and functioned without issues, however I do not like a pistol that has a magazine disconnect so I quit buying Buckmarks.........HB

You can't go wrong with a buckmark. I'm a huge fan of my standard, it's the only firearm in my safe I've not even so much as replaced the grips on, though I'm working on that.

If the magazine disconnect bothers you, just take the right side grip panel off, you never know what sort of small parts get lost on the work bench when you start putting things back together.

If a C-More is in your future, John Allchin is the man to talk to. He makes a C-More mount that is a direct replacement for the factory sights that the C-More bolts directly on to rather than having to buy a weaver/picattiny rail and a rail adapter to bolt on to the C-More.

I've one. Heavy 6 inch barrel. Lost the sights for a scope rail and a red dot. Cerakoted it a gloss black and put on the plain black grips. Very solid pistol. All I need is a holster now.

I have the URX grip model. My two primary outdoor pistols are the Buckmark and a Colt DE 10mm. The BM grip angle is similar to the 1911 and is an excellent training companion.

Recently discovered that it cycles the CCI and Remington lr subsonics. They are listed at ~1,000 fps out of a rifle, so I imagine them at around 700 fps from the 5.25" barrel. Good for squirrels, and pests.

The new lite model with tacsol type barrel and fibre optic front site is tempting me.

Look for a Bianchi #89 holster on e-bay, some extra mags and your set.

Blacktail53: I have a electro-less finished Browning BuckMark with a semi-heavy 4 1/2" barrel - I just love the thing!
Its reliable in function and accurate and the trigger is pleasing.
I bought one extra magazine for mine and if I recall correctly they are not to pricey.
The Ruger magazines are somewhat less costly - again IIRC.
I highly recommend the BuckMarks as I have shot several other models belonging to friends, as well as this one model of BuckMark that I have owned.
Good luck if you go for it.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Got a few of 'em. Good guns, but one thing to know about the Camper, specifically (compared to the other Buckmarks), is that they have a plastic sight base. In order to break the gun down for detailed cleaning, you have to take this sight base off the top with two screws. Lots of folks have broken the base by over-tightening the screws. I think Tac-Sol makes a combined scope rail with integrated rear sight (about $75) that eliminates this issue.

Also, know that the Browning only comes with one mag (a Ruger comes with two). The mags will set you back about $30 a piece.

I have one my father modified and wrote an article about in the American Rifleman. It is a bull barrel and he cut it down to about 4" but kept the off-cut. He reattched the front barrel section with a piece of steel scope mounting base and over bored it.

He could hang that unused barrel out in front, shooting through it, and shoot scores equal to his best with it before the modification. He could also use it for a trapline gun, or about anything else.

I also have a couple Rugers, a Huntsman and a Woodsman, and a S&W 41... So it is in at least decent company and it sees lots of play time.

Used to have a 5.5 Target, with the full length weaver rail and bull barrel, I put a Tasco Pro-point on it, and killed many squirrels and silhouettes. Stupidly solid it in a fit of churning. want it back. Can't go wrong with one.

I really like my older Camper. It's reliable and accurate for me to shoot.
I prefer the ergos and trigger to the Ruger MK series, and the removeable barrel makes it convenient to do barrel work on.
My only real complaint is that the sight rail tends to get loose, which is annoying since you can't locktite it down unless you plan on never cleaning the action and either boresnaking it or cleaning from the muzzle.

Our Sportsman Warehouse has a blue Camper in stock.
It has the URX rubber grip, which I like and the FO sights...which really surprises me. It's going for $299.

My thoughts had always been to remove the stock sights and replace with Williams Fire Sights, for about $50.

If the stock sights look / work OK, then put off the replacement but someday try optics for quicker target acquisition and smaller groups.

From the feed back I'm getting, it sounds like a the BM is living up to it's reputation as a great gun....

I have, err, had one. The kids absconded away with it....Oh well, better that one than one of the Woodsmans.....

I have had one for almost 10 years. Has been very reliable. Typically shoots better than I can. I would like to put a red dot on it sometime to make up for aging eyes.

Browning makes a red dot just for the Buck Mark, called coincidentally the Buck Mark Reflex Sight. Just found out about this sight on this site. Retails for $49.99.

http://www.browning.com/products/ca...k-mark-reflex-sight-shooting-accessories

have one of the early model Field mdl .22's with the full rail, and metal covers for the sights.

took the metal covers off. installed a 3X 30 mm Tasco Pro-point with dot and spider lines. it is a known squirrel getter.

when i found it i was looking for a 10 inch barrel model, either the hunter or silouette. they were no longer available.

I have the SS Camper URX Buckmark that has been mentioned. I picked it up last Thanksgiving at our local Bass Pro for $329. Exra mags are $30 there as well. I'm not much of a pistol shooter, but this thing is pretty easy to have some fun with. It is equiped with the rubber finger-grooved grips and the green fiber optic front sight. I'll have to look for one of those Bianchi holsters as I'd love to carry it more often while in the field. The only complaint I have is the plastic parts. Not sure what it's called, but under the rear sight and inside the slide, there is a plastic part that I can see wearing out fairly quickly??