I have owned two BLR’s in the past. They were both Belgium steel receiver.308’s. I love the idea of the BLR, but for some reason they seem to fall short when it comes to my affection for them.
My hunting falls into two categories, stand hunting farm county where shots may be close or out to 300 yards, or big woods hunting in the Adirondacks where shots usually come quick at close range. Theoretically, the BLR, should be great for either application. Realistically, I rarely used it for stand hunting, and even less for still hunting the Adirondacks. To make it a good still hunting rifle, I paired a fairly low powered scope with it, making it less than ideal for stand hunting low light. And for still hunting the protruding magazine made it difficult to carry comfortably, and being butt heavy it didn’t point very well.
Lately I have been lusting another one, crazy right? There was a Belgium.308 for sale here a couple weeks ago I almost jumped at. But I keep going back to the fact I’ve had 2 of them and didn’t warm up to them. One variation that has always intrigued me is the stainless version with the laminate stock. The alloy receiver would make it somewhat lighter than my old steel receiver guns were, and the flush mount magazine would make it much handier for one hand carry.
I already have a really nice Winchester 88 carbine, so the BLR would really be redundant, but I guess that’s what being a rifle loony is, right?
