Looking at scrapping alot of excess and getting a new controlled round feed ed brown savanna with 704 action in 30/06...

Has anyone used this new action?

also what do you think of his GEN III ceramic coating? How well does it hold up?

accuracy of this new action?

any thoughts on his stuff?

I do not own one but I have a friend that does. Ed Brown rifles use ONLY Shilen barrels. Don't know if that is an issue for you or not. Excellent feedback on the new action. No problem with coating either, so far. A fine rifle and accuracy exceeded the owner's expectations with his handloads.

The only other input I can give you is that for whatever reason, Shilen barrels have been a hot topic in the custom barrel arena in the last 10 or so years, maybe more.

Lex Webernick, of Rifles, Inc., stopped using Shilen barrels for a few reasons, which I cannot recall now. He now uses mostly Lilja, last I heard. Another well known rifle builder stopped using Shilen barrels recently also.

I own 2 Shilen barrels and they are just as accurate as any other custom barrel I own. Don't know if I got lucky or what.

But the rifle maker you asked about certainly stands by their product. I was looking at their website today in fact and the past week, considering the Savanna.

Good luck to you.

I don't own one either but I've only heard good reports about Ed Brown rifles. After doing my research I was about to order two (.30-06 and .375H&H) from him a few years ago when I discovered Echols through John Barseness. My choices came down to Brown, Borden or Echols, the last being twice the price of the others. He's doubled his price since I got one for $6000. That was a hell of a lot of money for a rifle 5 years ago and still is.

I wouldn't put the 50mm Swarovski on it Brown recommends though. The bell's too big. I went with a Leupold Vari-X III 3.5-10x40mm and am very happy with it. Obviously, I had also made the decision to go with a synthetic stock as all three of those guys only work with them.

D'Arcy told me he wishes he was as good a machinist as Jim Borden is. That's quite a statement.

www.bordenrifles.com

By the way, I did the same thing as you are planning. I sold 9 rifles to pay for the Echols Legend. I'm glad I did. It's all I need for the big game I chase. I got in .300 Win Mag.

thx!!

Ask Brown for references.