I have always liked the pre-81 Browning Lever Rifle (BLR). The early steel actions are strong and trim and the rifles handle better than any of the later BLRs. I have owned five of these BLRs. I owned them at different times over a span of 35 years. I never owned more than one at a time. It always turned out that sooner or later I would trade or sell my BLR off just to get another BLR a few years later.

I have had three BLRs in .308. They were all extremely accurate. I had one of them rebored to .338 Federal but it wasn't enough to satisfy my desire to throw heavier bullets. I had a BLR in .358 Winchester about fifteen years ago but I remember it beating me up every time I shot it. A couple of years ago I picked up a .243. It was really a sweet shooting little rifle. But my experience with the .243 on one antelope and a deer soured me on the cartridge.

I did it again. Something keeps drawing me back to the BLR. I must be an addict. I purchased a well used, crudely durocoated pre-81 BLR in .358 Winchester. It has a Kickeeze pad and, after shooting it a bit, I can say the pad tames the brutality considerably. It's funny how perceptions can change. It carries a Docter 6x42 scope mounted in detachable 26mm Talley rings. The original rear sight is gone but my BLR came with a Talley peep sight to put on the rear base when the scope is off. This is an honest 2.5" to 3" at 100 yards rifle with Hornady 200gr factory loads. Reloading would surely get it to shoot tighter but I don't think I will be shooting enough .358 Winchester to warrant getting into loading it.

This particular setup is so nice I may just keep the BLR this time. But if I don't I will likely just pick up another one at some future date. We will see.

I've had two, my .308 got traded years ago, but I've currently got a .325 WSM takedown. With magna porting to reduce the muzzle jump, the recoil really isn't bad. The rifle has been a little bit of a problem child. When I started reloading for it, I went through 10 or 12 loads before it would shoot decently. Now it will put 180 grain E-Tips moving 2950 fps into about 1 1/4" at 100 yards quite consistently.

I also tried to scout scope it, since it had the detachable barrel. It worked perfectly at 100 yards, but I had a massive parallax shift at 200 yards, about 4 inches that was really problematic. I tried three different scopes, but the problem persisted; maybe I was the issue. In any event, I've got a low profile Sightron 2.5-10 on it now in a conventional mount. The glass is mediocre, but it carries well.

Before I gave up:

The obligatory photo.

Those two mags are worth the price of the gun! Not saying anything negative about the gun at all. I recently got into the BLR's when Biebs listed a complete barreled action for sale...I bought it and shortly thereafter while searching for a mag a good friend of mine said 'I got one, you can have it'. It came with one mag and was another barreled action. Both in 308. Picked up another one in 358 for cheap(er) ($425) with one mag and sucked it up an bought one more mag on fleabay for far too much. Just got done this weekend cutting a replacement stock down and installing a cushy pad on one of them I rebarreled to 250 Savage for a little deer rifle for my 10 year old daughter. Shoots decent (1 1/2 MOA) and recoil is non-existent. Should work well for her as she's left-eye dominant. Yep, I agree, they are pretty handy rifles and I kind of like them!

Matt, glad to hear you've got it up and running. I recently bought a stainless BLR in 358. Nice little rifles.

Im with you Mr. G, I love the older BLRs, had a couple over the years...Been looking for a 257 Roberts for some time now, but no luck so far.