Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Browning AB3

Anyone have one of these? How do you like it? It looks like a nice gun that can be had for a good price. I wouldn't mind picking one up for a truck gun or a spare to have around.

It's nice but I hate the plastic mag and plastic trigger

Pretty tough to get away from plastic mags now days. I'll have to look closer at the trigger. I didn't notice that before. Thanks.

My cousin has one. I shot it some last year after he got it. It is the cheesiest feeling rifle I’ve held in a long time. Like others stated; the plastic trigger is a huge no-go for me. I can tolerate a plastic mag but the trigger looks and feels like it should be on a nerf blaster.

They have a good barrel and that's where it ends IME! My brother picked one up and it didn't feed for [bleep], needed bedded/most Brownings come bedded not the AB3. Also worked on the trigger. I didn't bed the tang because the trigger mechanics are all in that area and there just isn't room IMO.

In the end after bedding the recoil lug area, working on the trigger, and grinding and polishing the feed ramp we got the rifle from 1 1/2" groups at 100 yds to 3" 3 shot groups at 500 yds. Like I said great barrel and the rest needs work! I personally wouldn't want one but probably because I'm used to Tikka's where it all works very well right out of the box


Trystan

It’s nice but I also hate the plastic mags !
Sucks

I don’t own one but have been around three. They are bedded at the recoil lug for accuracy and the rest is free-floated. If someone decided to bed that design, they’re an idiot. They just screwed up everything the rifle was designed to do.

Plastic mags are where it’s at and has been where it’s at for at least two decades. We have no qualms sending our Navy Seals under water (saltwater!) for a swim and then into intense close-quarter battle with plastic magazines. But some still want “bottom metal” that wouldn’t last 10 minutes where the polymers survive.

All three AB3 rifles I’ve been around are sub-MOA shooters with more than one kind of factory ammo, and they’ve been 100% reliable and trouble free.

They aren’t made to be tinkered with. They’re made to shoot and be accurate and reliable right out of the box. If you buy one, leave it alone and let it do its job. If you want to screw with it, buy by something else and spend a ton more money.

I’m not planning on going on a saltwater Safari anytime soon so your assessment is kinda invalid....at least for my tastes. I like my rifles to have metal, not plastic. YMMV

I’ve owned rifles with plastic mags like the tikka t3. While I didn’t hate it, I would have preferred a metal one.

You and I have different experiences with the Tikka. You don't like plastic mags but you like the tikka? Or you just don't like the browning plastic mag? All the one's I've seen were display models so the mag was not in the gun.

Pretty much what it would be used for. Mount a scope, sight it in, practice a bit with it...leave it.

Someone provide evidence of a plastic mag failing

Witness the Thompson Center Venture. Its plastic mags not only fell out of the rifle, but also fell to pieces.

Pics?

And what would it have to do with the Browning AB3, even if it were true?

Does it come with a free Buckmark sticker for the Dodge?

Don't know. I can't recall ever putting a sticker on a vehicle. It won't go on the Dodge since I don't have one. lol

I have an AB3 in 308win that seems to work well for me now. I get accuracy of about 3/4 MOA with inexpensive Leupold VX3i 2.5-8x36. I have about 800 rounds thru it at this time.

It has an odd trigger setup with 4 pound pull and safety works reliably as expected. The bolt was a little bit rough at first as expected with budget weapon but it smoothed out nicely after a couple hundred rounds. The barrel has excellent free floating clearance and fiberglass stock seems to be very rigid. I never had any problem with feed or with the 5-shot magazine that some mentioned previously but note that I have a short action 308win which I believe to be easier to feed than some other calibers.

I have four main complaints with it.
1. The rear tang action screw area had very little bearing surface although the front action had a tight fit in the stock. This weapon had no bedding at all. I blamed some of my flyers on lack of bedding when I first got the weapon so I bedded it with gray Marine Tex at rear and front actions. The weapon works very well for me now.
2. There are no parts lists or schematic diagrams from Browning. Browning website has excellent parts list and diagrams for their other products but not for AB3. I called Browning for parts list diagram and asked for specific size and thread for action bolts - their “customer service” gave me wrong bolt size (it turned out to be a metric bolt) and they told me that diagrams were proprietary even though I was only asking for what they already publish for all their other weapon models. Bottom line is I will never buy another Browning because of this poor customer service.
3. After researching about parts I found an interesting point that Browning barrels are attached to action with fine thread and red loctite and barrels cannot be removed from action. This is currently not a problem for my long lived 308win barrel but you probably need to plan on tossing the entire weapon when the barrel goes bad.
4. I cannot find any after-market stocks to fit my weapon.

I did bed my tang because lack of bearing surface there was my biggest complaint. It is indeed where the trigger mechanism is located, clearances are tight and the mechanism is not easily removable from the action. So I had to protect that mechanism with masking tape and plumber’s putty to fill all the voids. It worked out for me but I wouldn’t want to do it again.

Trystan,
What did you do to your trigger?
Did you get one of those spring kits for a lighter pull? I got one of those myself and I’m still trying to decide if it helped.
Frank

Boyd's probably has a stock or will make you a stock if interested in laminate.


Mike