Vanity Gun Thread

me | today | Onona

[onona]

Browning BAR Safari...I totally drool over this rifle, but $1300 ?

Does anyone out there have a Browning BAR ? What's your opinion ?

Any recommendations for a cheaper alternative ?

Thanks all !

[BobinIL]

I have owned 2 BAR 243’s One stalker the other a shortrac. Both very accurate 1” for 3 shot groups at 100 yards. No fun to clean though, I never disassembled mine, just ran a bore snake from the breach end out the muzzle and sprayed the action down with rem oil.

[yarddog]

I had one maybe 25 years ago but I think they have changed them a bit.

I will say that Brownings are typically reasonably priced for better than average performance. That does sound a bit high tho.

[BobinIL]

Follow-up to the rest of your questions. If you are dead set on a semiauto hunting rifle the BAR is a good choice. The only alternative would be an AR-10 platform or the Benelli both will be in the same price range $1500 +/- If you consider a bolt action there are tons of good ones. Browning A-bolt, Tikka T3, Sako A7 are all nice well made guns. If you want the most bang for the buck, the new Ruger American and TC Venture are getting great reviews.

[mnehring]

Check Gun Broker. They have a lot listed sub $1000. Eg. http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=303152030

[calex59]

My brother and I both owned BAR 30-06 rifles back in the day. They both shot 1 inch and smaller 3 shot groups at 100 yards with about any factory ammo and our hand loads. Due to a friends careless handling of them both of our bores rusted out(corrosive primers, not our doing). We sold them and never bought new ones because the prices were sky high by then. If I had 1300 bucks to spend on one, I would not hesitate to buy one. No malfunctions with either rifle after thousands of rounds fired through them and many deer taken with each rifle.

[SnakeDoctor]

Count yourself lucky. The ones I ‘drool’ over are a lot worse than $1300 ... HK416 or HK MR556A1 (semi-auto version), FN SCAR, ACR, Blaser R93, Barrett .50.

Hell, the sight/scope I want to get for the M4-variants (EOTech HHS) is about $1000. The HK45ct handgun I’d like to buy (to go along with my HK P30 9mm, which was $900) is about $1100... and that’s without the suppressor.

Have a good time.

SnakeDoc

[MileHi]

Remington makes their 750 Woodmaster if you are set on a splatter-matic hunting rifle.

[The KG9 Kid]

"I totally drool over this rifle, but $1300?"

You should always spend the money to get the rifle you want.

My pain threshold for rifles is several times higher than $1300, as I've proven to my bank account many times over the years.

You might be surprised at what a well planned garage sale can add to your wallet to help take some (or even all) of the pain away from a $1300 rifle.

[RatSlayer]

Remington 750’s should be cheaper than that (I’ve never actually priced them).

But you should really think through this semi-auto idea because there are a lots of cons, like the following:

There are states that have hunting bans on removable mags and/or have mag capacity limits which might make it impossible to use any semi-auto without risking legal problems. My state of Arizona is a good example. If you have a removable mag and the Fish and Game guy decides he doesn’t like you, you’ll be in trouble even if all the mags you have on you meet the capacity limit.

No professional guide will ever let you use a semi-auto on a hunt where dangerous game is involved. Perception trumps reality in this case and even if your particular semi-auto is reliable under extremes of heat and cold and dust and dirt and humidity, no pro guide will ever take your word for it.

Much more difficult to resell.

And I’m sure there’s a bunch of stuff I’ve forgotten. I have more than my share of guns with a long list of cons in my safe that I just had to have, so I understand the feeling.

Just make certain you take a good serious look at the cons and make sure that you still “have to have it” so that you don’t regret it later.

[jmax]

>>> "Due to a friends careless handling of them both ...."

I assume it was just an error on your part that you didn't say "EX friend".... "FORMER friend" ...."friend who is STILL WALKING AROUND ON CRUTCHES".... "friend who's house mysteriously burned down one dark night"....or...."friend who had his tires slashed while he slept".

[Chainmail]

You can't go wrong with the Browning: real quality all the way. You can find excellent used BARs (it's always hard for me to use that abbreviation for a semiauto hunting rifle: I was issued the original in 1965 and there is no better automatic rifle on Earth) for around $800 at most gunshows. Most common are .30-06 but some of the healthier magnum calibers aren't much more.

I will say that $1300 isn't much for a new top-quality firearm that will be worth handing down to your children and their children. The main advantages of buying it new are that you get the warranty AND you know what its shooting history has been.

Remember, there are two reasons you buy a great weapon: one is to shoot well and the other is to be SEEN shooting well. The Browning is great in both categories.

[calex59]

Alright then, ex-friend, who gave us 400 rounds to fire, his reloads, in order to test them, failing to tell us he used corrosive primers in the reloads. The chambers rusted and pitted causing the groups, which sometimes measured 7/8 inch at 100 yards, 3 shot groups, to open up to about 1.5 inches. That’s when we sold them and stopped talking to the ex-friend.

[jmax]

Sounds like your EX friend had gotten a good deal on Berdan primers.

[calex59]

Actually he bought a sh** load of US military primers, not realizing they were corrosive. The thing is if we had known it we could have A:)Not fired the ammo or B:)Cleaned the weapons accordingly(water based solvent)and neutralized the primer compound. As it was we did neither and lost two fine rifles. We could have had new barrels but we didn’t, too costly for us at the time.

[MasterGunner01]

Buy a Savage Model 10FP (.308 Win) or 110FP (.30-06 Springfield) bolt action. They come with a set trigger (Accutrigger)and are ready for a scope. I used a Tasco 10x42M Super Sniper mil-dot with A.R.M.S. No. 22M 30mm diameter throw lever rings. Superbly accurate out of the box. With the money saved on the BAR, you can purchase the scope, rings, mount bases, and ammo. Just a thought.

[Chainmail]

I guess that's valid advice but I'm not from your school of thought when it comes to good quality guns or optics. Some of the less expensives stuff does shoot well enough but the more expensive arms - like Browning - have the benefit of incrementally better performance and much better investment value. I'm not sure that talking a guy out of a Browning to buy something less capable and cheaper is really the best thing to do.

And Tasco? The last choice possible would be a Tasco. C'mon - why not a Leupold?

[MasterGunner01]

The Savage is not a cheap rifle. The Model 10FP is a tactical precision rifle designed for marksmen who want to reach out and touch something.

The Savage Model 10FP tactical rifle used by many police SWAT units and it comes with a set trigger that is adjustable for pull from 1.5 to 6 pounds. The Tasco 10x42M SS is a mil-dot tactical scope that is built to the same Mil-Spec as the Leopold Mk IV, except you'll pay $400 for the Tasco and $1,200 for the Leopold. The Tasco will take up to .50 BMG recoil and is made by the Japanese optics manufacturer Hakko solely for SWFA in TX.

The Savage comes in a short action (Model 10 for rounds up to .308 Win) or a long action (Model 110 for rounds up to 7mm Rem Mag and .300 Win Mag). The Savage is also available in left handed actions for the 20% of us that are lefties. While the Browning is an elegant rifle, it has its quirks — one being its gas system.

In a side by side shoot off, the Savage Model 10FP will more than hold its own against the more expensive Browning. I know because I've seen it done at our range. Besides, a well built and tuned rifle will always shoot better than the operator most of the time.

[Chainmail]

I guess discussing gun preferences is about like discussing preferences with women: no two of us will agree about much. The Savage is an excellent rifle but it is not a Browning (and a Browning is not a Merkel). I don't know what uses the original requestor had in mind for his rifle but perhaps the Savage could fill the bill, I don't know. But the Browning is gorgeous, the fit and finish are exceptional and to my mind, the Browning is an excellent hunting rifle, a reasonably good target rifle (that new muzzle device is wizard), and as long as you keep her oiled and clean, will be worth most of its original purchase price for the length of time it is owned.

I more strongly disagree with your recommendation for a Tasco: they are inexpensive for a reason. I have found them fragile, poorer in light reception and lower in edge-to-edge clarity. Leupolds, on the other hand are rugged, sharp, and covered by the matchless Leupold warranty program. And they are proudly made in the USA.

Me, I prefer my M1A with Douglas air-gauged barrel, rear lug bedding, SWAN mount and Leupold MkIII - but like I said, discussing firearms preferences is an individual thing..

[MasterGunner01]

One thing about the Tasco 10x42M Super Sniper — it is built to the same Mil-Spec as the Leopold Mk IV. The reason why is a rumor (unconfirmed and later proved false) that Leopold was going to drop the Mk IV. At the time, Unertl was unable to produce its quality scopes for the USN, and they put out a Request for Bid on a fixed 10x scope, nitrogen filled, mil-dot reticle, and side parallax focus to the same Mil-Spec as the Leopold. Tasco won the contract and these scopes were provided to NavSpecWarCom by Tasco (the Japanese optics maker Hakko made the actual scopes).

Tasco sold the scopes on the civilian market, but decided to drop them. At that point, SWFA in Red Oak, TX continued them in production at Hakko under the Tasco brand name and is the sole source for this quality scope.

Here is the site: http://swfa.com/SWFA-SS-Rifle-Scopes-C187.aspx. Here are user comments: http://swfa.com/ss_testimonials.asp.