I thought that maybe life could be simple but I should have known better.

I have always known that I wanted a Browning Lightweight Carbine in 308 for whitetail hunting.

Well.... I've sold my home (finally) and thought I'd treat myself to a new rifle. I went to GunBroker and typed in BAR and voila!!!

They now make a BUNCH of new models.

The two that most caught my attention were the new Lightweight Stalker and the brand new ShortTrac.

The Lightweight Stalker comes with a black synthetic stock and looks like it would fit the ticket quite nicely.

Lightweight Stalker Link

The ShortTrac is a brand new carbine and it's VERY hard to find even a review of it or even anyone that's actually seen one. They've shown up on Gunbroker and here's one with very good photos.

ShortTrac on Gun Broker

Here it is on the Browning site.

ShortTrac on Browning Site

Does anyone have any idea where they're made now? I heard Portugal???

The ShortTrac is certainly a totally different styling than any I've ever seen.

Opinions? Ideas? Snide comments?

$bob$

I was looking at the short track as a nice light weight carry rifle for my wife or my little girl.

It's not too dis-similar from the Benelli R1 (http://www.benelliusa.com/firearms/r1-specs.tpl).

The only problem I have with them is that if the accuracy is sub-par, rebarreling has got to be a near herculean feat, and downloaded ammo won't work well. That kind of eliminates it from consideration for my little girl. FWIW, Dutch.

The short track is basically the new BAR. I've got one in .270 and it shoots very well, around 1.25" at 100 yards with Win factory ammo. That was all I was looking for out of this rifle so I haven't done any handloading for it so it might be capable of better, but it is very consistent at that mark with the factory stuff so I just roll with it. I like the new styling personally.

A friend has one in .308 and he likes his very much as well. He says his shoots around an inch at a hundred, but he has handloaded some for his. I've got several hundred (like 600 or 700) and it has functioned flawlessly.

Regards--Don

Bob
Myself I would go with the litewieght stalker in .308.
I think the euro trash styling sucks to be honest, I always thought the older BARS were a handsome rifle.
All versions I have shot or know about are shooters, its a very accurate rifle out of the box.
Dutch....
As for recoil I don't think it will be a problem. The rifle weighs about 7.1 lbs bare and with a full house load of ammo scope and sling etc. plus the actions recoil absorption it should kick pretty mild I think. Mind you I think 150 gr. loads or liter untill you see how she likes it. I'm not sure if 130 gr factorys are available but if you handload they will do the trick for deer.

Don,

Where is your ShortTrac made?

$bob$

They both look nice. I believe mechanically there would be no difference it just boils down to whether you are a "Gloss Blued and Wood Guy" or a "Synthetic and Satin Guy." IMO the syn. stalker would be the best if you intend on taking it to the woods often.

The only BAR I've owned was an older 300 winnie and it was very inaccurate but, I have a close relative that has two tack drivers (270 win & 300 winnie) in the older style BAR. I guess it's just luck of the draw.

Good Luck!

Reloader

LDHunter,

I can't speak to the Short Trac, but about 4 months ago I
purchased a new BAR LW Stalker, in .308 Win. What
a SWEET auto loading rifle! I get 1 MOA out of just about
everything I feed it, and the recoil is very light, for a .308
shooting the hot stuff I load. I have a 130 gr. Barnes XBT
load, that is 1 gr. over Barnes max. load data, but not over
other reloading manual data for 130 gr. bullets. I
developed the load for a .308 Striker, but when I tested
it in the BAR, it showed no signs of pressure, and
gets 1 MOA of accuracy, or even a little better when
I put my mind to it. Anyway, this load has some snap,
and in the BAR, it is a soft shooting round, thanks to
the gas operation of the BAR.

I purchased mine as a whitetail brush gun, and set it
up with look under scope mounts, and put a Bushnell
3200 2-7x scope on top. For me, I think I found
perfection, in a whitetail brush rifle.

This gun has a stamp on it that say something like,
"Made in Belgium, Assembled in Portugal".

Squeeze

squeeze,

Yeah... I went to Kevin's Sporting Goods in Tallahassee Florida today and fondled a LongTrac. I was VERY impressed. This rifle is "made in Belgium and Assembled in Portugal" and it's extremely light and feels like a perfectly balanced rifle.

I also was very impressed with the lightweight "
Stalker" carbine so still am on the fence about my decision but way more excited than I was before... <dreamy smile>

$bob$