Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles FN Browning Safari 308 Norma

This is a new addition of mine, a late 60’s FN Browning, Mauser type action, 3 position safety, custom stocked in a 308 Norma Mag.
I’m excited for the weather to break so I can see how it shoots.

That is a beautiful rifle.
I hunted exclusively for 10 yrs with a Browning safari grade in 308 Norma magnum, it was a very lucky rifle and incredibly accurate.
Not quite as pretty as yours though..... I am envious

That’s a nice one irfubar. Very good dark piece of wood on it. Great picture too. 👍👍

Awesome rifle and excellent cartridge. I'm sure it's going to be a shooter. I love mine, but it's built on a m1917 sporterized in England by BSA.

That is beautiful

Beautiful rifles fellas!

That is pretty. Never knew those safeties were 3 position.

Beautiful rifle!!

Who did the stock work?

WOW!

Awesome rifle and great caliber. Enjoy. Looking forward to the reports.

Very , very nice ....good cal also.

RemingtonPeters;
Good almost evening, I hope the weather's given you all on your side of the big hills a bit of a break and that you're well.

Thanks for the photos of your new addition, my goodness that's a nice slab of lumber on it.

Whomever did the stock work knew what they were doing too by the look of the lines and checkering, at least as far as I'm able to see.

If you're new to the .308 Norma, it's an easy cartridge to load for or at least the 4 that I had access to over the years did.

We've still got 2 of them, one on a Steyr built wartime 98 and one on a Ruger 77 Liberty Model.

At one time I also had a No. 1 in .300 Win Mag, with it's typical long throat and 26" barrel. Using the same projectile and powders, loading both to book max, the .308 Norma rifles ran ever so slightly slower with some loads and about the same with others.

All that to say with my limited testing, again it's a useful cartridge.

Thanks again and good luck with the new rifle.

Dwayne

Yes it’s a beauty that someone put a lot of work into. I don’t know the stock maker but I believe the rifle came out of BC.
Will shoot it soon now that I’ve assembled brass and dies.
RP

Indeed a handsome rifle! The "restock" for this genre + era rifle with a postscript.

In the latter sixties Browning had the "better idea". A methodology for more rapidly drying the more choice walnut stock material as reducing moisture content of the wood. "Salt!" The great idea. Pack the wood in salt and let it do the drying work as absorbing moisture. And it did work very well for that intended purpose. Yet the ever pesky "unintended results"! The salt remained. Stocks were finished and built into rifles. Which... Rusted! Terribly! Such the story developed. Some with the highest graded stocks, as both stock and rifles ruined. I have one such "era" rifles, a Browning FN as shown from 1986 in .458 Winchester Mag. Such rifle at bargain price even as it luckily unaffected, as in an original & appropriate factory stock, without indications of any salt problems. There were indeed quite a number spared of such fate. But the aura and some then hype of "time bombs" even where no damage evident. Anyway mine and all good. The only thing I don't really care for in these rifles, the Browning designed ejector assembly replacing the ejector box. Absolutely functional and apparently durable. Just not the "pure mauser" design 'box'. Why the change, I don't know. Simply that in the quantity of Brownings resulting wearing the 'new & improved...', likely not justifying the special build effort! Seems to me.
Again congrats on the beautiful stock specimen and your presumed luck in having a latter sixties Browning somehow avoiding such salty fate!
Few pix of my factory original.
Best!
John

Nice rifle, it will look good in your closet next to your Krag.

I look forward to your range report buddy. What loads did you throw together for testing? Here's a mild load my rifle likes:


That 200gr partition is a favorite of mine, in 30-06, 300wm, 300wby, and the 308 Norma. They penetrate elk very well.

When I was younger, I always said if I got a good 308 Norma magnum, I'd sell all my other rifles. Well, I'm not going to do that now, but I still feel that the 308 Norma is close to perfection, for a hunting round. Your rifle is a beauty!!

I shot some mild loads of a Dominion 4350 (similar to RL19 burn rate) the other day. 150 TtSX were terrible. 165 Hornady IL were just over an inch. 180 Speer hot core and Sierra Prohunter were looking good after two shots but the third escaped. There was room to increase the charges so I’ll do that. Winter bench shooting isn’t my favourite so I’ll blame the groups on that. I’ll giver another try when it warms up again.
The heft of the gun made it quite nice to shoot. It was fun even though the range session wasn’t a one and done on load development.

Hey, at least you made it out there. I don't like shooting in the really cold weather either. I'll shoot when it's 20 degrees f, but any colder than that, and I don't like it. If it's spitting snow, or really windy, I usually call it a day, when it's that cold. I wouldn't be too worried about the 150 TTSX not shooting well. You should be trying something a little heavier anyway. 165, 168 or 175 LRX would be what I'd try. My 300 WBY's and 300RSAUM love/like the 175 LRX.

As an example, the 300 RSAUM I mention, is almost the ballistic twin to the 308 Norma. That rifle shoots close to 1/2 moa out to 400 yards, with the 165 TTSX. That's a great combo for just about any NA big game animal. I'm also sure you'll find a great load for your rifle.

As for some of the other bullets you mention, I'd try some 180gr interlocks. Here's another load to share that my old M1917 shot:


That's a pretty mild load, with decent accuracy. Not the best, but it's an old rifle.. The funny thing about that load is I loaded them up before I got it back from the smith's, when he was rechambering the rifle, so I loaded them to book suggested length. They worked well enough, that I didn't even try a different seating depth. Again, just a load I threw together to test the rifle after rechambering. Got lucky on that on..

Good shooting.
Yes I will endure. It’s not a gopher gun so if I can get a 1” group with a 165/180 hunting bullet I have on hand, I’ll be plenty happy. The 150 ttsx usually shoot well in other guns but I’m not going to mess with them again on this one. Just shooting it is enjoyable, having the bullets end up where I expect them will be the cherry on top.