Well Mike Dettore was giving his pistol grip BLR a little limelight, I decided to keep it going for straight grip 81's

I had one of those.I regret selling it.

Here's my new one in the "vanilla" version.

Grandpaw taught me the straight grip was best except on a Savage 99! and I still believe he is correct!

Biebs, I really like your vanilla version! Really nice wood as well. I prefer a pistol grip, lever action for shooting off-hand and the 358 Win caliber is a favorite. Mine is a Ruger M77 Hawkeye.

I'm with br6ppc1 on the straight stocked version of these rifles. I find them quick and natural for getting on target.

This one is also caliber .358 Winchester, but a pre-81 model. The BLRs are handy, fast swinging rifles.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Grandpaw taught me the straight grip was best except on a Savage 99! and I still believe he is correct!

Ray, just my opinion, but I totally agree with you. I just like my straight grip lever guns. But, each are entitled to their opinion.

Most of us curmudgeons that grew up shooting the Win. 94s like the straight grip, and never got weaned from from them, and see no reason to change at this late date in life..same with shotguns!

man those 358's hit hard.
you guy's knocked the antlers right off everything in the pictures.

we would be in so much trouble for that around here.

Is this better? Three of these hinds and one of these stags fell to the BLR in .358 Win.

I have zero experience with the Browning BLR but given the similarity between the 358 WCF and the 9 X 57, which I do have experience with, the 358 HAS to be a fine cartridge.

The .358 Win. is a great medium range cartridge, aka the .35 Whelen Short.

Why is the 358 a midrange caliber? The parent case is a sniper round,used at great ranges. You open the neck and get a small boost in case capacity but it becomes a short to medium range proposition???

The 200gr Hornady load becomes transonic just past 500 yards so it is not a long range caliber. The trajectory starts to really arc beyond 350 yards. That doesn't bother me, though. How much game will you shoot past 350 yards?

I had a Browning 81 in .308, it was my saddlel gun for several years, then some monkey traded me out of it because it shot 1/2 inch groups with factory ammo..Once again I regret that trade, but wasn't the first or the last trade I'll make to my disadvantage!

Besides I replaced it with a Deluxe Carbine Win. mod. 71, another one I should have kept, but these guns were not worth all that much in those early days and I wasn't a great soothsayer!

My favorite rifle, the one I hunt with most often, is an early BLR in .308 with a 2-7 Leupold compact scope. Like Ray said, it shoots 1/2" groups with factory ammo, is the easiest rifle to carry all day, and it doesn't mind me shooting it left-handed. I won't part with it. I have fancier rifles, but I don't have any better rifles.