Dont find them around here often so havent played with any..thinking of getting one in a wsm or 300 or a whelen..weight accuracy and reiability are what i am curios about..remington, browning, benelli and winchester are about all i can think of in the desired calibers..any input !

Browning BAR in 308 Win

I've only shot Brownings, but I have handled Remingtons. I had an original BAR in 300WM. It was very heavy and still kicked like a young mule. Never got great accuracy out of it either. Traded it for a BAR Longtrac 30-06. It is pleasant to shoot, relatively light, and I'm getting good accuracy with very little load development. It likes 150s, hates 180s.

All Remingtons I've ever handled felt heavy as boat anchors and handled about the same.

I have used Brownings in 30-06 and 300, an M1a and a Mini14. I really liked the Safari Browning (BOSS) better than the older 300 win mag.

I don't think you can go wrong with the 308 either. A few years ago they chambered the BAR in 25-06. I never did get one,but maybe they still do make them.

I hunt elk with several guys who hunt with BARs. The Browning is their first choice out of camp every year, even though they usually have a bolt action as a backup. They do tend to shoot everything more than once, if they have clear followup shots. They all shoot 7mm Rem Mags with factory ammo and they do kill elk. Personally, I find them unnecessarily heavy and lacking in ergonomics.

Probably not what you had in mind. Model 8 in 25 Remington.

anything about the shorttrac's ?

Buddy of mine has one in 243. It's a tack driver with 55 NBTs and H414 at 4k.

Haven't shot any of the short or long action magnums.

Benelli is the superior rifle by a considerable margin. It is the only one of the bunch that can be quickly and easily dissasembled for a thorough cleaning. As delivered it's good to go fo many thousands of rounds, but when the inevitable happens its the only one that can easily have wearable parts swapped. The piston design is clean and doesn't dump gases into the action.

I have two of them with about 2500 rounds between them w/o a single malfunction - ever. Back when I was under the belief that hunting could effectively control feral hog populations my son and I used them to great effect. The action is 100% reliable and the accuracy is quite good for a semi, easily shooting 5 shots into 1.25" groups at a 100 w/ factory ammo.

The Benelli's great sin was being popular with a well known troll on this forum. That and being exorbitantly expensive when introduced.



David

What caliber?

Have come so close to buying one of these , agree on the design as well.

Both are 20" barrel 30-06's.

David

picked up a ST 7-08 and just got a scope on it

weighs 6# 15oz sans

the usual, heavier than advertised...

My BAR ST in 308 WIN

I used to be a BAR nut, after a false start with a 742. I have had them in everything from .243 through .338. The only ones that grouped more than about 1 1/4 inches were both 7 Mags. I did have a Gd IV 7 mag that easily did under 1 1/4 with factory ammo. The best accuracy I ever had was a from a .270 that turned in 1/2" groups routinely with factory ammo. I am now down to just one, a Gd III .30-06, hand engraved from 1970. It shoots Remington CL 150 just a smidgen over an inch from my not so heavy or stable portable bench.

All those discussed were all Belgium made. When I was a younger guy, weight was no issue, even the magnums. If I were going to buy a new one for the things I hunt, I would get the oil finished short trac in . 308. They are light enough and close enough to the '06 for pracital purposes, and usually accurate.

No experience with the Benelli, but it would not frighten me. Browning Makes a Zenith model, that is a lighter/shorter stalking rifle, but few made the way to the USA. I looked them over in .30-06 and .300WSM. When I decided on one, they were gone and a world wide search turned them up in Argentina and Europe. So far I have not found anyone to import one for me.

They do have their advantages. I once went five for five on a herd of hogs playing havoc with my food plot.

Best wishes.

I have a benelli in a 30-06.Great handeling accurate rifle IMO.As far as looking for a semi auto in a wsm,I would steer clear.The wsm's may not feed as well as the 30-06 and the like or 300 win mag,338 win mag.

I have BAR's in .243, .30-06, 7mmRM and .338 WM. I do not have a lot of experience shooting many of them. I have the load data for the .338 WM to shoot under an inch with TTSX ammo and the .30-06 is supposed to be a shooter as well. I like them, and have a few, but seldom get to shoot them.

Bot a "stalker" as the new stylized wood stocks put me off...and was hoping it would be lighter...but after handling it and considering your 308 in the pic, the stalker certainly is uglier than the woody.

The Benelli looks like something for Mars duty

The Short Trac looks kind of radical, but it fits like a glove. I have owned four or five of the original BAR'S over the years and all of were heads above the Rem 740 and 7400. I personally wouldn't trade one BAR for three 7400's if i had to keep them and use them to hunt with . Most BAR'S will shoot with most bolt gun out of the box.

Ditto

My only Rem experience was a 740, or whatever it was back in the day, and then switched. Had a Grade II Belgium 30-06 that took some forearm tweaking but after that it would turn out 1" class groups.

Almost did a 308, but mostly 257-7s here. Is your 308 6# 10oz?

I haven't actually weight it , but it is much lighter than any other BAR i have owned. I would consider it a Feather Weight compared to the original. My frind has a standard BAR 7MM Mag and it weight more than some of my heavy barrel varmint rifles. He couldn't give it to me if i had to carry it and hunt with it.

Yeah, the last standard model I had was a 280 but it was heavy for what I was using it for-- with 2.5-8 & weavers it went nearly 8 3/4#

Beauty rifle, but...

I actually like the original design the best for looks.

I'm with you.

Beautiful girls go make-up free & barefoot but they're still beautiful.

Would have liked to go with a 7-08s with the upgraded wood, but all the garbage adorning the receiver was too much for me.

I would have the original BAR today in 308 or 243 if they offered it in Left Hand

I killed my first buck with a Remington 740 way back in 1960. Made my first 300 yd kill with a Browning BAR, 7 Remington Magnum several years later. My grandfather use to carry an old model 81 Remington in .300 Savage as well.
Both the Remington and the BAR worked well enough for me with handloads. Say less than 1.5 MOA for five rounds. But I've seen examples of both give poor accuracy, say 3 MOA in the hands of others with factory ammo. One BAR had even worse accuracy than that, odviously due to an oversized chamber in 7 RM.
My choice is the Springfield Armory M1A Squad Scout. I have several loads with Sierra's 150 gr. FMJ/BT and the Barnes 150 gr. TTSX that shoot under 1.5 MOA for four rounds. The Barnes 130 gr. TTSX and the Hornady 130 gr. SP also do that well.
With a 1.5-4X Leupold Scout Scope, the rifle weighs 8 lbs., 13 ozs. empty.
It is a battle proven design, that apparently out performs the AR-10 rifles when it comes to reliability. The trigger on mine did not need a trigger job, something I've always had to do even with my full custom rifles.
I've also found the Leupold 1.5-4X Scout Scope to perform alot better than I ever thought it would. I can actually pick up .30 caliber bullet holes in the white at 100 yds. more easily than I can the 1.5-4X VX-R Patrol that I have on my other .308. E

I have had a couple Remington's. Key to functioning well is a chamber brush. Looks like a bent brass test tube brush. I cleaned the chamber before and and firing each time. Never had failures to extract which is a problem for the Remington rifles. Clean chambers and full powder loads.

Winchester 100 in 308

Not just heads, but torsos and thighs above anything by Rem..

Only 1-2 guys have the Benellis around here and I honestly haven't talked to 'em and found out if they had issues or not.. I know I've only had one in the shop for a non-related to function issue.. And that was 4-5 years ago..

You can't be serious..

thanks guys..

elkivory,

There is likely more semi-auto deer rifles per capita in WI than anywhere else - they're a darling for a deer rifle here for some reason.

While I'm quite partial to Remington 700's, I'd be hard pressed to use a Remington semi-auto even on a dare. They've earned the jam-o-matic moniker in spades.

If going semi-auto, for me, it's the BAR or bust. (Remington vs BAR)

Isn't it 'weird' how things can take hold in a region?

All the moving around and I've seen so much of it. In south Louisiana and to a degree south Alabama, you'd be better off screwing a guy's girlfriend than talking ill of Browning.

I never saw a following for Kahles scopes like I did in SW Georgia, etc etc.


It's always interesting.

Back a ways, when there were lots of tags (and deer, pre-wolf) one year every guy in camp had a BAR...which was kinda strange for a bunch of gun sluts--the jam-o-mactic was a title well earned with the guys I hunted with. I don't know about their new stuff. Rem pumps were popular, though...but for the same reason...

From what I read, (heresay--having never been there) the Georgia area was good for Swaro. When Swaro started distributing Kales for a while back around Y2K, Kales scopes were initially priced right inexpensive/cheap next to Swaro and dealers sold a bunch of them.

I saw LOTS of Kahles scopes there in the late 80's.

Like I said, my input was heresay/conjecture.

The BARS...not so much

well broke down and bought a short trac in a 7mm wsm..hope it shoots something well..looks great, but trigger is pretty iffy, will see !

Nice rifle to have. Great caliber I bet.