Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Replacing my BOSS

I have a late 90's Browning Stainless Stalker with a BOSS. I'm thinking about taking it off mainly because of noise. Recoil reduction is nice but not that important to me really. I'm good with a brake or just a solid screw on piece. I'd love to hear if anyone has had experience with this and it's effect on accuracy.

Have one in 7mm rem mag but haven't taken one off. IDK if it's worth it then hearing pro can be had that's super light and small.

Are they common threads ?? There are some blast cans that redirect the noise or you can put on a thread protector. Will it affect accuracy ?? Keep us updated.

kwg

I prefer to replace them with a nice crown after cutting the threads off in the lathe.

The threads are longer than a normal brake would use so outside of having something made to fit I don’t know what you could put on other than the BOSS CR which is the unported section they sold to screw on. Like the original brake it’s a big ugly heavy thing.

They make a non-ported BOSS that will tune barrel harmonics without the noise. I have both for my A Bolt.

I think that's what TheKid is talking about. The idea of cutting it off and recrowned is something I'm going to look into.

It's called the CR(conventional recoil)

Oldelkhunter, that’s it. It’s still a BOSS but not a brake. It works to improve accuracy. Cutting the barrel back or capping the Browning threads I think will inevitably compromise accuracy.

It's not going to hurt accuracy at all, if you handload. If you go on ebay, they have those CR's from time to time. Both in blued and stainless versions. Just make sure you get the right one for your rifle. They are caliber specific.

Correct. I should have said you’ll have to go through the load development process rather than being able to dial in for the load you have on hand.

I'd replace the entire barrel, that way you can upgrade to a faster twist for the new high bc bullets and keep barrel length the same as it was with the BOSS, for a bit more velocity without having to hot load

I thought this was going to be a divorce story, initially...

If noise is the issue, find a BOSS CR accessory and be happy. If the looks bother you (understandable) the consider selling the gun and buying another. I did have a Model 70 30-06 with a BOSS. It was accurate but LOUD. I also never liked the looks. I got a CR for it but ended up selling it anyway. I also swore off muzzle brakes forever.

My brother has a browning white gold medallion 7mm rem mag that came with a Boss, he found a CR and uses that exclusively.

I only have the A Bolt Medallion BOSS because a friend really wanted me to have it. It’s immaculate, box, papers, etc. I never cared for the looks of the BOSS but figured to hell with it. Suppressors are all the rage and the hot accessory. My little muzzle bump works well and makes me look cool.

I had a 338 Win SS Classic with the BOSS. It worked as advertised and was accurate when adjusted correctly. Eventually I had it lopped off. In or to have a clean barrel I had to cut it back to 20.5”. Wasn’t a big deal as it shot great that way and wasn’t real slow either.

Wow that is quite a chop. I think they are 23.5 without the boss in the mags but yea those ugly numbers will still be on the barrel if you just get rid of the threads.

I put a BOSS CR on mine last year. My ears wish I’d have done it years ago.
Still love the rifle, but never really noticed how much a .25-06 recoils (its not a lot, but snappier than I thought it’d be) and how crappy the recoil pad is on an A-Bolt II Stainless Stalker. Browning must’ve been buying their recoil pads from the same place as Ruger.
So be aware, it will be more pleasant to shoot as far as your ears are concerned, but it will kick a bit more.

WMR,
Exactly- The damn things are ugly; I replaced the barrel on a rem 700 300wm just to get rid of the boss. Rile still shoots 1.5 inches or less at 100yds.

I agree the muzzle bump is ugly. But I looked at how much barrel would be left on my 25-06 if I chopped it - looks like about 18”.

I have an M70 with BOSS in .30-06. Muzzle device is ugly, like any break, but it shoots great with both the ported and non-ported modules. I've shot it in the field at deer both ways and I don't recall if one way was louder than the other. Didn't bother the deer either. I'm sure off the bench may be different, but I use ear protection there and it's a non-issue. Not willing to take a chance on accuracy cutting it off, not to mention loss of barrel length and cost. I just ignore it.

Rem 700's were never made with the BOSS tuner/brake

It was a US Repeating Arms/Browning thingie for Winchester & Browning rifles

Called the CR. Conventional Recoil.

No holes to act as a brake, just use for tuning.

The chart may be hard to read but just let me know your caliber and I'll give you the part #. The settings are the same for the brake and CR.

Your 300 WM Stainless Stalker is R720DS

Thanks for all the input guys. I think I'd be good with the CR model. Not the prettiest thing but might achieve what I want. I'm going to go out and shoot it without the BOSS also just to see what it does. If it shoots good I can have a thread protector fabricated for it as another option.

My BOSS equipped M70 was a 30-06. I got the CR and dialed in good accuracy with the now discontinued Federal High Energy Nosler Partition load. I took it on an elk hunt with visions of cross canyon kills. I almost felt guilty when my shot came at 40 yards in the timber. But the guilt passed quickly. :-)

Don't like crap on the end of my barrel. Brakes are noisy more so than normal. So you can buy an unported version. More money down the drain. Cut it off recrown swirl more money down the drain. Now the barrel is to loud because it is to short. Rebarrel swirl more money down the drain. Now you have more money in the pos than you will ever get out of it. Congrats now you have become a member of the custom gunowners club, a subsidiary organization of the if it's got tits or turns its gonna cost you money club. Sell it and buy a gun that shoots without spending extra money on. Mb

It always works that way.

Where is the fun in that ?

This website would not exist if everyone thought that way. Members buy uber actions, stocks and barrels spend multiple thousands and then they are in the classifieds within weeks selling for much much less than they have in it . They have to churn the Economy.

Dude! Someone has to do it!

Guilty of this as well.

The key word here is "they" let someone else churn and piss away their cash.mb

Got to have the greatest latest .

I believe I’ve done this as well. Just once or twice…. 😵‍💫 These days I try to pick up rifles that have already had the significant ‘smithing investment already done. In the case of my A Bolt it’s a shooter from the factory. The only issue is that it’s too damned pretty to hunt hard in these mountains. All I do is worry over it in the woods.

If you call browning they will send you the boss CR for free. At least they used to, got one back in December last year after a call to them.

Words of wisdom!

I have a Winchester 70 with the BOSS muzzle brake. It has worked for me, though you can go thru a bunch of ammo if you're not careful. Ihe brake is loud but I hunt from stands only so I wear an electronic hearing muffs. Recently I experimented with reduced velocity loads that have proved to be very accurate. So, I replaced the BOSS brake with the CR BOSS (Conventional recoil BOSS) without the ports and, as fate would have it, I use the same setting as with the BOSS brake. Good system.

I've pulled several of them and cut 1/4" off the threads and recrowned and put suppressor mounts on them. The ones I cut were all threaded 9/16x24 which is not an uncommon size for suppressor mounts/muzzle devices. Regardless they all shot well after cutting them down. Even if you pay a gunsmith to do it, it's still $600-$700 less than getting a barrel installed.

Get the CR for the short term
I put a can right on the 9/16-24 threads, with a 5/8” to 9/16 shoulder less adapter

You can screw it in and out like a BOSS to tune
3/4” or less groups from a 30y factory rifle will be the result

I am surprised there hasn’t been a resurgence of the old brownings because of this

It's interesting how the boss bothers some people when it is actually a great tuning device. Now the big rage is those big ugly cans on the end of barrels. Rifles are coming out with threads on the end just to put big ugly cans on the end. I love the boss break and wish browning/winchester still had more options for it.

Brownbear270,
It is better looking than big ugly cans. Does it seem to you that there is a contest between maker to see who can make the ugliest rifle?

I have 3 Browning A Bolts, that came with the BOSS on the end of them.

I picked up one of the Conventional Recoil Replacements and have used it on all three rifles... an 06, 300 Win Mag and 338 Win Mag. The 338 WM was caliber specific, but I've used it on the 06 and 300 WM, with no accuracy issues. I originally paid only $10 for it from Browning.

It also works just fine on the Model 70s I have with the BOSS on them also... in 270 and 06.

The BOSS worked on recoil reduction just fine. I sighted in a 300 Win Mag with one on it bought by a friend. At the time, he had bought some Remington 180 grain Ammo in 300 WM. I had my Model 70 with me at the time, which also had a BOSS on it, and I had a box of Remington 180gr ammo with me. Both the same rifles, same Leupold 3 x 9 scopes on top, shooting same grain of bullet from the same Manufacturer, both in 30 caliber.

The 300 WM reduced recoil more than it did on the 06. We each shot both rifles and came to the same conclusion individually.

Im guessing the people who are bothered by the boss are not the same people putting a can on their rifle. I have a ABolt with a boss. Very accurate nice handling rifle in 30-06. I never could warm up to the brake or the CR. Thought about rebarreling but never got that done.
I got the rifle as a gift so never wanted to sell it. I kept it thinking some day I might figure out what to do with it.