Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Browning B78

I have always wanted one of these and considering this rifle in a 25/06. No experience myself with this model, much experience with the 25/06- have one in a model 700.
Do any of you own and use the B78? Any difficulties with it? Thanks for all feedback

Not sure if this is the same as the Winchester high wall 1885 but appears quite similar.....

I have a 1885 low wall in .17 HMR.....not thrilled with it at all.

Maybe they are unrelated guns as I'm not at all sure about this.

What is your chief complaint?

My only experience with a B78 was through a friend....
A close friend had a B78 in 30-06 and loved it. It was a great rifle and very accurate, usually putting three rounds well under 3/4" (sometimes 5 shots under) at 100 yards.
He got into a money crunch and was forced to sell it and has regretted it ever since. I wish I would have in a position to have bought it from him. It was a GREAT rifle.

Bob Sears (formerly of the NRA Technical staff) did quite a bit of design work on the B-78. He told me once that Browning made him re-design the original 1885 Win. trigger and that the result was a trigger that left a lot to be desired. Canjar advertised a trigger for the rifle back in the early 80's but I have never seen one. The B-78 was a very handsome and well finished rifle.

I used mine for deer hunting for about 30 years. As a lefty, I appreciated the ambidextrous quality of it,( and the octagonal barrel is way cool). Mine was, and still is, supremely accurate with handloads. I've never had an issue with it.
That said, there are a few points which have been revealed over the years. The trigger is kind of creepy, not crisp. I've never had the action apart to clean it out. Takedown and reassembly is more than I'm willing to try. Lastly the exposed hammer makes scope selection critical. You have to get your thumb between the the hammer and the scope bell to cock it. Since the hammer is drawn into the action when opened, a hammer extension is not an option. To me, none of those issues were a deal breaker. I took loads of deer with that rifle.

Have one in .22-250 with octagon barrel. It is VERY accurate. Trigger has some slop but not a deal breaker. Hammer is tough to manipulate with the 6-18x redfield I have on it, my only real complaint. Not sure the fix for that. Only matters if you're lowering it back down on a hot chamber.

I ran the hell out of one in .30-06, back in another lifetime. Superbly accurate, lousy trigger that I got used to and then didn't mind it. I detail stripped it exactly once, whereupon it took me three evenings of trial and error (and much cussing) to get it back together- and I swore on all that was holy that I would never do that again, and I didn't.

One of a half dozen rifles I sold over the last 30 years that I wish I had back.

Worked on scores of them during my tenure in the Browning gunsmithing shop, the trigger was a piece of crap hard to re-assemble and hard to keep in adjustment. Usually when an owner attempted to adjust the trigger he wound up with a non-functioning trigger. The rifle came into the shop and we adjusted it to factory specs, and no sooner did the owner get it back they repeated the same exercise. Got to the point that on rifles with that kind of history we applied a red sealant to the trigger adjustment screws. When a rifle with red sealant came into the shop no matter how the owner pleaded to get it repaired at N/C they were always charged. Some never learned, if there were adjustment screws there they were darn sure going to adjust them.

I have a b-78 in 22-250, bull barrel.Have not shot it too much yet, tried a few loads ,and finally got one to about a 3/4 " 3 shot group at 100. Trigger has some creep, but not a bad pull at all. As another poster mentioned, it can be kind of tricky letting the hammer down because of scope clearance. Had another I got rid of a few years ago, it was the 1885 with octagon barrel in 7mag.I think the difference between the two is the 1885 missing the pistol grip.
Single shots have a real 'coolness factor' in my opinion!!

texasmac posted this the other day. He knows a thing or two about these.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...n-low-walls-22bpcra-options#Post15046251

I've owned one 1878, a .45/70, and currently have two 1885 Low Walls, a .22 Hornet and a .44 Magnum Traditional Hunter. The 1885s and current Browning B78s are the same rifle, with a safer trigger than the B78 of yore. Both depart significantly internally from the original Browning and Winchester, but are wonderful rifles regardless. The Brownings, B78 and 1885, from the 70's(?) on through until the branding was changed often (usually) have very nice to stunning wood. Winchester-branded ones have been plainer from the pics I've seen. Mine are both pretty nice. There was one for sale here just days ago, a rare .260 Low Wall, that's simply gorgerous. Those command serious money, but if there was any room here, I would've picked it off.

Buy this, and let me stop dreaming....
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/15042114/1

I bought a 1994 Browning B78 26-06 from SWFA in 2016 for $800 + shipping and FFL.

I made a video on how I converted the sling swivel in the rear to Uncle Mike's studs.

The bipod was too close.
I made a Walnut forend so I could mount a bipod further forward.



I had so many rifles to test in 2016 that my 25-06 handloading mistakes, set this rifle back, and other rifles shot the deer and antelope in 2016. In the safe I see now some other rifle stole the bipod.

Nice gun though.

Thanks for all the feedback. Good information.
The triggers issues are not a real concern to me, like the external hammer, I have a few leverguns including BLR's .
I tried and traded a Ruger #1 that didn't have the outside hammer, a break action doesn't work for me.
I spend my falls hunting sheep thought that the lighter version might be a good addition to the armory. It will bang it up but am not a collector type..

actually two.....
1. almost complete inability to mount a scope.
2. very poor accuracy IMO.....and yes, somewhat related to inability to mount a scope.

I went in search recently for a replacement for the long ago .30-06 B78. I got sidetracked by an unfired 20 year old Browning/Miroku Low Wall in .223, and snagged it. (Pappy348- it's the one you saw in the trunk of my car a few months ago.) Godalmighty is it accurate, with a pretty decent trigger. I stuck a Plain Jane Leupold 3-9 on it. With 55 Hornaday's + CFE-223 (the load I have stockpiled for the AR) it'll put 5 well under an inch. With 40 grain Berger FB Varmint + CFE223 it'll slop 3 into 3/8MOA and 5 into 5/8MOA. Only limiter is its slow-ish twist, but I could care less as longrange/heavy bullet shooting isn't in my wheelhouse anymore.

My B78 has an octagon barrel, but came with bases.
My Browning 1885 has an octagon barrel, and I made shims of paper to measure how thick to make a metal shim to make Weaver bases to fit on the tapered octagon barrel and keep the scope tube parallel with the bore.


With metal shim.


Shot animal with shim.

What about a rail mount option? Not that difficult to have made.

I have a fairly complete machine shop to do that. I'll give it consideration. Thank you.

It's not drilled and tapped? Thought Talley had mounts for those.

The triggers ain't great, but are perfectly usable. Never touched the ones on my Hornet or .44. The B78 .45/70, for which I traded a perfectly good Garcia Sako. 223 with Lyman 8x (😱), had been futzed with by the original owner and it took a while to get it adjusted back to a usable state. That same guy showed me his M70 Swift, and he had adjusted that one so light that if you pulled the trigger with the safety on, then released the safety with your finger off the trigger, it snapped. He thought it was great. I thought he was nuts.

My Hornet, which I've talked about here until many are no doubt fed up, is a great shooter. If forced to choose only one rifle from my little pile, it's the one.