any of you Alaskan`s ever use a Browning BLR levers up there in Alaska ? I purchased a couple of BLR s.s. levers last year, 308 win that shoots excellent under a 1/2inch off bench with my handloads and a 300 win.mag which also shoots great 5/8 inch groups off bench both at 100 yards ? I kinda want to purchase a BLR s.s.7mm rem. mag also ?Any thoughts from you Alaskan hunters ?

There is nothing mystical about firearms in Alaska. Ironically people here seem less concerned about these things than those in the CONUS. or COMUS as so many on here refer to it. Just bring what you've got 30-06 and up. You don't have to buy a new rifle to come hunting in AK.

oh but its fun to buy new rifles or nice old rifles and see well they perform, as a gun dealer I do have a small advantage I buy and sell . plus I enjoy reloading ammo and trying new bullets ,powder etc. I am kinda a gun nut I even have my own rifle range , heated shooting house ,cement benches,plus my 100 yard rifle range has lights so I do have the ability to shoot anytime, any weather condition too. lately these Browning BLR rifles have really preformed well at my range and son shot a couple of real nice bucks big 8pt. here in Minnesota 5x5 out west both over 200 yards.

I've got one lever gun, a Marlin 1895 XLR in 45-70 and is the last lever gun I will ever need.

i own a couple of lever 45-70 `s , I just prefer I rifle with much more range and these magnum BLR`S shoot real good,plus I like the clip magazine also,over the years I have over looked how nice these BLR Brownings are and how accurate a BLR shoots at 400 and 500 yards and still have plenty power too.

I shoot one a TD SS BLR in 06' works fine ...no complaints from the moose or boo...my frezzers full.. Use a 1885hw .in 45/70 to ...both lever guns

Clip magazine. thats a new one. Good one too.

Like others said, its not science, if it floats your boat then use it, buy it, whatever really.

As to looks, I bought one gun for looks, its still in the safe unfired. That was probably the mid 70s. Dad actually bought the gun as I was to young.

I buy for how they shoot/caliber, how it works etc...

Make sure the BLR shoots the exact same load you have to carry for all your friends guns. LOL

They look like good rifles and I her they shoot good. They made a take down model I liked. If a guy runs the gun dry, how fast can he get one back in the chamber? Do the magazines lock in tight where they won't come out when one is going up hill in the alder patch from hell or busting through the Alaskan pucker brush?

On more then one occasion I have pushed through brush that was so bad and wore me out so much that I was concerned about the bolt on my Mod. 70. So I closed the bolt on an empty chamber and put the safety on, which locked the bolt down. My son in law lost a detachable magazine on and old Savage 30-06, never has found it. Military rifles seem to have a more secure detachable magazine system then sporting rifles do.

My 2 cents.

Your going to need a mcmillan stocked CRF 340 weatherby stainless, fluted bolt, a scope with at least 3 knobs, a tube of turtle wax and a roll of pink electrical tape. And a 500 S&W in a chest rig...

My only reservation about a BLR for Alaska is the complexity of bolt removal should you need to do a complete field stripping, Rack and pinion timing is tricky. Lots of moisture in Alaska and travel by small boat is not unheard of.

As to your question, I have, and use -[Two-2]- Lever Action's here in Alaska, a BLR in 30-06, and a Marlin .375 Win., and the 30-06 with Remingtons 220gr. Core-Loc's are the only Load you need for Moose,,,, and its "Plenty" of Gun if Mr. Griz, or a Browney show-up, and oh-yea,,,, both of those Lever-Actions are Mag-na- Ported.
Lj

AK, thanks for the pictures and info , I really wished Browning made a 338 win. mag. ,I have a 300 win.mag and its got plenty recoil I do plan on buying a 7 mm. rem mag. BLR too, so we all have same cartridge used , just for a small safety concern.they are all ex-military except myself 2 live in Alaska,my friend goes up to Alaska to visit every other year.

Ok then,,,, you know it's not that hard to have that "Wish" come True,,,, I did it in the early 90's, sent my .300 Win. Mag BLR to a Gunsmith in Eugene, Oregon, Robert (Bob) West,-[now deceased]- he was an old partner in Crime with P.O. Ackley in Colorado, at Trinidad School of Guns, back-in the Day.
Anyway, he Bored that Barrel Out, and Cut a New .33 Cal. Barrel in,,,,, Same Barrel, No Swap-out, just to be clear.
There's a guy in Cottage Grove, Oregon, doing the same thing now, his Name is "Jess", @ .35caliber.com or Phone# 541-942-1342
Ok,,,, there you go, a Couple Hundred Dollars is what it cost me, I'm thing it's still about the same, >?
Lj [i][/i][b][/b]

what ya gonna do with a 338 win mag? Everyone up there changing calibers all of a sudden?

I have a 7600 West rebored to 35WAI over 40 years ago. He has been gone a long time.

Hey there Sitka,,,,,, yea Bob was quite the character, I made the mistake of calling him a "Gunsmith" once,,,, well he quickly corrected me, and informed me that he was a "Gun-Maker", and as I learned later he was a Founding Member of "The American Gun Makers Guild", I met P.O. Ackley at Bob's shop about 1978-79 or thereabouts, that's when I found out Bobs Nick-Name used by P.O., he called him "RG", ie... Robert Gordon West, seems he did that to all the guys that worked with him, anyway that's what I was told.
Yea, Bob passed in 2001 I belive, or maybe 2002,,??? and I learned later on that P.O. was in Oregon visiting some old friends down in Roseburg, Or., kind of where he got his start, back in the Day, I also ran into and met the Old Man John Nosler at Bobs shop,,,, it was quite the gathering place at times, some good memories for sure.
Lj

True and great advice...

My cousin has a BLR in 7mm-08, and .300WSM. Both shoot well.

He's shot deer out to 400 with the WSM.

I suppose they'd work fine in Alaska, just like they work everywhere else. It's a little bit of a complex action though. There is something to be said for the simplicity of a bolt when it comes to keeping a rifle clean in the backcountry.

-Jake

for years I have used bolts and Ruger # 1`s and just over looked the Browning BLR but 2 years ago I started to load and shoot a couple of BLR`S I never realized how well these lever rifles shoot ,I thought BLR rifles would be like Winchester levers and Winchester levers do not impress me . these BLR`S shoot very accurate,can handle much more powerful cartridges,have longe range accurate ability too. I do have a BLR 7mm rem. mag on order now too to use in Alaska for moose ,caribou and wolves,because the guys I will be hunting with like the 7 rem. mag. cartridge in Alaska where they live. Pete53

The BLR is a sort of a lever activated multiple lug bolt action and with the long shank barrel in the steel action they can be exceptionally accurate. I would first de-magnatize them for use in Alaska as those northern light displays are para magnetic and could completely throw off your accuracy.

Google BLR fails to fire before you buy one. I had one in 358 winchester. It was a very lightweight accurate gun...but it wouldnt always shoot when you wanted it too. I asked around and found out my problem wasn't that uncommon and no one that I talked to including a couple of smiths could figure the problem out. They are complicated guns and IMO are not built for tough environments.

my thought or 2 cents on rifle toughest : kinda depends on the owner of the rifle and how he takes care of it , the other thought is many new bolt rifles are not very tough anyway- anymore , I just purchased a 50 year old 7 mag. Sako finbear and to be honest this old rifle is twice the bolt rifle compared to new bolt rifles ! so far for my son and myself we have been very impressed with these Browning BLR`s, and the BLR in 300 Win.Mag. I own is a very powerful rifle and its been flawless for us but it does have a lot of recoil and its also very accurate too , but one thing I take very careful care of all of my rifles.

I live in Anchorage and took my last black bear with my BLR 450 Marlin up the Deshka River. At the end of this month I'm headed up the river again for another spring bear, this time I'm taking my new BLR chambered in 325 WSM.

welcome to this place norm!

if you can after your spring bear hunt either reply on this site or p.m. how that BLR work out please. thank you,Pete53 and yes GOOD LUCK and be safe

Pete- not Alaska, but I have a buddy out here that bought his BLR 308 in High School ( early 70s) in Telluride, CO. He still uses it, on everything from mule deer/elk/antelope even a cow Bison! This many decades of rain/snow/dust/mud all the different temp swings and yet, his rifle is still going strong! I had a '81 steel BLR 358 but the wood was too nice for me to subject it to hunt, ha. I always looked at the BLR , with its rack/pinion system as a very rugged rifle, myself. I know another fellow who has used one of the newer ones in 30-06 out here since they came out with them! Go for it!

They are prone to being "over-levered" and then the rack-n-pinion is out of whack and broken. Also, they can shear the teeth of the bolt.

I wouldn't want one where my life was dependent on it, but for non-essential messing around, they are fun enough.

Well, I seem to remember reading about the rack/pinion getting out of time but figured it was caused by incorrect re-assembling after cleaning? I guess it depends a lot on how well someone takes care of it in the field, etc.

"Browning BLR levers" = Browning Browning Lever Rifle Levers

Being a gun guy you’ll do just fine with whatever you use I’m sure.


But for many of us good enough is good enough, until it isn’t.


Phil’s daughter latest blog on Spomers website illustrates that perfectly.

There lil more unnerving ime than to be adequately armed and then suddenly find oneself unarmed


Out in the Bush anything that quits working properly sucks, from campstoves to inflatable mats, but particularly firearms, boats and aircraft

It’s those rare instances that cause a fellow to rethink the term good enough

I know 'Stick has one in 7-08 and that man is hard on equipment. If it wasn't suitable for AK weather, we'd know about it.

Also, you know Alaska is spread out as much as the CONUS from top to bottom and east to west?

Depending on where in Alaska and when in Alaska you're going to hunt, the answers are different.

Except, of course, you can find people hunting with boat paddle stainless Ruger M77s every where, old Model 70s everywhere and Rem 700s and 721s everywhere, and you can fall off a boat anywhere in Alaska and swim to the nearest village and find 223 and 30-06 ammo.

So, yes a BLR will work, in 30-06 or 308 or 7-08.

You can bring something bigger, but the above seemed to work just fine when I lived there.

I work for a company from Kodiak, and there's still a lot of people shooting bears with 30-06 rifles and good bullets.

had a chance to talk to a very smart-good gunsmith who has taken a few BLR`s apart says these Browning levers are built very well .I also have a good friend who has used BLR`s and seen some really good groups shot by other people ,friend was a sniper in the service overseas and at the Whitehouse and still shoots very well.

The first centerfire rifle I ever purchased was a BLR in 7mm Rem Mag in the early-mid 1990s, with a Leupold Vari-X II 3-9x40. I had used my dad’s Marlin 32 Special and loved a lever action, and had also used my friend’s dad’s Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag. I liked the 7 mag and shot well with the M700.

I thought the BLR would be the best of both. I was in my early-mid 20s and was real excited about it. Unfortunately, it was clunky in a long action and with a long barrel - it didn’t seem balanced. Stock configuration at the time did not work well with a scope and did not handle recoil well. The trigger may not have been the best - it was a long time ago and I don’t recall for sure. It was very well made, the action was very smooth and I really wanted to like it - it was a nice rifle. I didn’t shoot well with it, didn’t enjoy shooting it, so I reluctantly sold it and bought a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight Stainless in 7mm Mag - the first of five M70s so far.

I think they may have later changed the stock design to work better with a scope and it seems like they changed from steel to aluminum receivers to save weight. Like I said, it was a very nice gun - it functioned well and was well made; but maybe the platform wasn’t the best choice for a long action/magnum caliber with a long barrel and scope.

After that experience, my thought has been that levers are best as short-action carbines and they are pretty sweet at that. I still have a Marlin 336.

Over the years, I have considered buying another BLR in a shorter cartridge such as a 243 or 7mm-08, but never could get excited enough to do it. I don’t know if they had two action lengths, but a short action would likely be nicer if there is such thing. May be better in WSM than a standard length magnum. I wouldn’t want one in 270 or 30-06. Your experience may be better than mine and I hope it works well for you.

Not so much. You don't need 30/06 and above but I will say that 15' of rain a year and salt, is a difference maker.

i never liked the straight grip handle on a BLR,but do like the pistol grip much better,also the aluminum receiver makes the gun feel better too. both of my BLR`s are pistol grip S.S. rifles they feel fine and shoot very accurate. I own a 308 win. and a 300 win. mag I am very surprised how accurate both shoot, I have found that when I reload I use a Lee factory crimp die ,Barnes bullets and both shoot under a 1 inch moa at 100 yards. I have on order a Browning BLR s.s. 7 rem. mag now that I plan to use when I go to Alaska and did purchase already a 3-10x42 Nightforce scope and hope this combination works well for me at home and in Alaska.

Stainless is handy, but not a deal breaker.... we hunt in rain and salt too. Though I’ve always taken care of shiit....

oh no, another one that strips the gun in the tent and oils it every night.... LOL. I"ll take SS any ol day if I can get it. It damn sure never hurts.

Ok.

But blue wood is still second tier. There comes a point when everything is wet and that shiet you us to take care of shiet is wet too.

According to Browning's website, long action BLRs are 1" longer overall than short action BLRs after accounting for barrel length. They chamber for a broad range of cartridges including WSMs. I think the pistol grip stocks are well suited for handling recoil, but stock fit varies with the individual.

Browning: BLR Rifles in Current Production

When I hunt with a stainless rifle.. I leave it my gunboot in the back of the ranger sometimes it's been raining all day, sometimes raining at night. I will pack it around while hunting back in the gunboot forgotten until next day. I can do this with a blued rifle minus leaving it in the gunboot overnight. I bring it in the tent and wipe it down with remoil wipes. I will say moose hunting is not hard hunting, nor is caribou hunting. If you are going to hunt bears on Kodiak that can be some long days. At the end of the day all you want to do is relax and sleep not oil down a rifle. So I will say it depends what you are hunting up in Alaska and how hard you are hunting.

Oh hell yes. Stainless is optimum, for sure. We’ve hunted for years with blue and wood and I’m sure folks did up there too before stainless/synthetic

Does Brownells still sell the Heavy Duty Rifle De-Gaussing kit? My old Herters rig is getting iffy.

I will be taken a S.S. BLR 7 Rem. Mag. but I plan on still wipe`n down my rifle every evening,i also plan on taken my leather gun boot I used in the mountains many times for added protection in the boat. as far as S.S. not ever rustin ,on a trip in northern Quebec where we camped by the ocean my stainless bolt got rusty so I had to wipe that rifle down every day then too,so I will keep the Rem. oil handy ! I did purchase a real nice Sako Finnbear 7 Rem. Mag. but this 50 year old rifle is so nice there is no way I will take that on a moose-caribou-wolf hunt by boat and camp`n in tents.

Leave the leather gun case home...

????

You have a problem with the patina of fresh steel?

If you've never camped in conditions where the driest rag you can find is only damp, you probably haven't done much camping in Alaska. I long ago realized that I had misjudged some of the weapons commonly seen in rural Alaska where they are everyday tools. Yeah, they don't stay pristine. Salt changes things even more. And stainless isn't immune when salt is a factor.

your right I will get a floater case instead ,when we were in northern Quebec we were wet all the time and even my S.S. rifle had rust on S.S. barrel,salt is just tuff on all steel.

Wet leather has more than enough rust potential to equal saltwater spray...

Many native friends of mine have never wanted anything other than a Winchester in 32special. I like the 338-06, but my son is deadly
with a 45-70. He carries the Marlin, a revolver or both in that flavor. Range estimation, target placement, and a willingness to let the iffy shot go by counts for a lot of good hunting.

Due to our late spring this year in south central Alaska, I saw no bears my first three days of hunting on the long Memorial Day weekend,so I returned to try again this last weekend. No black bear on Friday night, but I did have a 6' brown bear stay on the bait for most of the night. Saturday my black bear wandered in as I was climbing up the ladder to the stand, so It made for a quick night and I now have bear for my freezer.

The BLR 325 WSM certainly did it's job, The bear was slightly angled away from me, so I took out the lungs and the opposite shoulder. Never even a twitch, the bear just deflated and never moved, not even a death moan since a fist sized hole through the lungs pretty much means no sound can be made. I was pretty impressed with the 200gr Accubond bullet, but not surprised with it's performance.

Thanks for posting , I have been very impressed with these Browning BLR`S .

I use a BLR up here in the north, 358 Winchester, owned it since 05. I've shot bull moose with both the BLR and a Savage 99 358 wins, both with 20 inch barrels. Currently, my BLR has been modified to be an ultralight alternative to my 9.3x62 mauser everything gun.

It was fun project. 5 lbs 12 oz with a leupold 2.5x ultralight in Talley low rings. My handload is a 250 grain swift A-frame and 44 grains of Reloader 10x @ 2400 fps. I've found the A-frames open up real good at low velocity (pure copper/pure lead). Mine has never failed to go boom. Don't bump the necks when full length resizing. Adjust your die an 1/8" of space between shell holder and bottom of die.

I always put the rifle in my dog sled too, when taking out the dog team, so hasn't failed to go boom in the winter either. Blast er off all gun oil when anticipating 20 below or colder. Get the nozzle of that red straw of the degreaser right in the firing pin hole on the bolt, then finish up with compressed air. Switch to dry lube. My BLR is now very beat up and could soon use a new finish.

Was running trail over in Deering last week, maybe I don't need a new finish, geeze a guy handed me a springfield 30-06 with old lyman peep. The gun was handed down to em from his father in law. The peep sight corners were so rounded, you'd think it was a pebble from the river. The rifle was silver, decades of stock cracks repaired. I lined up the sights and man that thing rung a piece of metal along the inmuchuk river, 200 yds away.

Take triple ought or finer steel wool, knock down that ugly shiny clear coat, when they come out of the box new.

I feel the Browning BLR rifle is a very overlooked rifle,i have been very surprised how accurate these BLR rifles are and handle so smooth. my 7 rem.mag. is ordered from the wholesaler just has not got any of these fine rifles in yet,sure hope soon I want to use it this fall so I have a few animals killed with the 7 mag. BLR. Thanks again for another post on hearing how well these BLR rifles work .

Its been many years ago but I had a BLR in 300 win mag re chambered to a ,358 norma mag, it hit at both ends and i only used factory ammo but a killer.

fall season for Alaska is almost here... FWIW. not much time to test, tweak trigger which will suck. Coat barrel, prep for wet weather, test ammo, zero, get drops, etc...

that 358 norma would be a heck of a thumper on bigger animals, I kinda always wondered why Browning never offered a 338 win mag. in a BLR too its the same case as a 300 win.mag. and probably has less pressure and would be great in a 24 inch barrel too ?

If you love the BLR and want a thumper I can't see how you could go wrong with one in .325 WSM?