Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Browning BLR Switch Barrel??

Kicking around a project idea. Know it could be done. But finding the right person that I can afford night be the problem.

I have BLR takedown straightstock stainless laminate. Was a SHOT show special couple years before they became standard fair. It is chambered in 358. Have the scout mount and quick detach bases on the receiver standard scope and a scout scope.

Here is what I am thinking. The 358 is a better close range thumper. After about 250 yards there are better choices. So I am thinking a different barrel in something a little flatter shooting. Thinking 7mm08.

The job would entail fitting a barrel and the forearm. Would need a second forearm. Barrel and forearm are one assembly that is not the fastest to take apart.

Takedown locking mechanism is in the receiver.

I talked to Browning was told they can do it. But they won't. They will rebarrel to original caliber. So the I lost the barrel story won't work.

So I am looking for a suggestion on someone that might be able to help me out. The only possible option I found is Wild West guns out of alaska. They did at one point offer a package BLR with two barrels. But price is out of my league and would not let them near any firearm I own no matter the price.

Best case scenario would be if a smith can get parts out of Browning and would only need to fit everything. Thinking anything from scratch will be more than anyone is willing to tackle or cost prohibitive.

Thanks for any help.

You need the barrel extension the bolt head locks into, similar to an AR extension. It's all easy after that as Browning will sell you a forend and bands or whatnot. The barrel extention is the bugaboo and short of sending it back and having Browning rebarrel it to the same caliber and then scrapping that barrel, there aren't any options I'm aware of. Of course you could go that route and be good to go, but I bet they want an arm and a leg to rebarrel it plus that only gets you to the starting point and then you need a blank and smithing time.

Wild West is plenty competent. Don't judge them based on editing done for dramatic effect on a TV show. The owner Jim West is a American Pistolsmith Guild member and anyone that can achieve guild member status in any discipline is a very qualified craftsman. He also specializes in custom lever guns which as you are finding out kind of hard to find. I would use them long long before a lot of popular choices here. Your money would be well spent if you could get them to do it for you whatever the cost.

Neat idea......butight be cheaper to just buy another rifle

That would make too much sense. Besides I already have a perfectly good model 7 in 7mm08.

Couldn't you buy another BLR in 7mm-08 and use the front half of it? Won't they latch up the same and all you need to worry about is headspace? This sounds too simple to be correct, I must be missing something.

Worried that the bolt might not mate up with the barrel. Was told by browning the barrel is fitted to the locking lugs of the bolt. If the particular barrel needs some work to fit the lugs I would be fine. But if not and there is more clearance than there should be,I have the potential of the bolt not locking up securely. Which common sense tells be would be very bad.

Go check out Midwest gunworks

I don't know what your budget is but converting a rifle to takedown much less a two barrel set is not a cheap undertaking. I had my gunsmith quote on converting a Winchester M/52 to takedown and the cost was about equal to the cost of the rifle. If/when you ever decided to sell the rifle you would never come close to recovering your expenditure.