I wanted one for a long time in the BLR81 steel receiver, really wanted a .30 cal but ended up with a .243. I had trouble with the gun. I know a few guys (brothers) that are BLR fanatics, they are the ones that really turned me on to the BLR81's. My action would lock open with the bolt carrier stuck in the rear position & the lever fully opened. I had to be really careful cycling the action. I really liked the look of the gun, it came up nice & it was very accurate but it locked open on me 3 different times. When I say it locked open I don't mean it was kind of stuck & a little tug on the lever would free it. I mean the rotary gear pin had to come out of the receiver every time & I would have to re set the timing. The guy I bought it from was good enough to warn me about the problem & stated that he had sent it back to browning once & they "fixed" it. This same problem had occurred with one of them BLR brother's rifles in 7mm mag. Then again a year ago on the other BLR brother's .270. I sold mine last year. The other guys I talked about are huge fans of the rifles & won't give up on them. There was a plastic bushing in the rotary gear that rode on the receiver pin (definitely not the place for a plastic part in a gun!) The two BLR brothers had there plastic bushings replaced with brass ones. The guy with the jammed .270 (locked open) missed out on a nice buck because of it, trying to cycle a second round & the action stuck open. He was all pumped up in the moment & in his haste to get his second shot he pulled hard on the lever to try & free the action & he busted a bunch of them micro teeth off the gears in the action. When I opened up his action for him back at the hunting shack hoping we could just reset the timing & I saw that mess of busted tiny little gears I swore off the BLR for good. I prefer a more robust mechanism in a rifle action. I've got a weakness for lever actions & the clip fed beautiful BLR appealed to me but it's not the only option for feeding pointed bullets in a lever action. There is always the savage 99 & the winchester 88 if you can find one, nice strong mechanical actions there. Not everyone will have this problem with there BLR's but I've talked to gunsmiths about it & it seems pretty common. I watched a gunsmith free a stuck open BLR with a quick rap on the back of the bolt carrier with a plastic faced mallet. he rested the muzzle on the toe of his boot & gave a quick sharp rap straight down like he was driving a nail & it popped free & fell forward. He says he usually tries that first & themn checks to see if he has to retime it or not, many cases that's all it takes. You don't want to hit the carier too hard though because if it's stuck real good you could easily rip some of them little teeth off the rotary gear or the half moon gear in the lever.
They are pretty but I'll take a Winchester 88 any day over the BLR. The 88 is still clip fed, it's basically a lever operated bolt action much like the BLR, the action is just stronger.
