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Load Hot, Shoot Straight
JoeM
One thing to be aware of: When Browning advertises a 22" barrel with BOSS, that's 20" of real barrel and 2" of BOSS. It may be that with a real 22" barrel, the BOSS can't hit the right resonant frequency for tight groups.
Browning has only recently started admitting that they count the BOSS as part of the barrel. Might have something to do with how disgruntled I got after I bought what I thought was a 22" 30-06, and was seriously annoyed to find out that my new toy was seriously challenged in the muzzle velocity department. Browning and I had a fairly serious discussion about it.
One of the guys at the range I frequent simply took a 3/8" plate, about an inch tall and 3/4" wide, and drilled a hole the size of his barrel, just back of the front sight. He made a cut from the top of the plate to the barrel hole, and installed a cinch screw across the gap. Below that, he drilled and tapped a hole for a 3/4" x 1" cap screw. He threads the screw part way in, and secures it with a jam nut. Moving the screw back and forth changes the resonant frequency much the same as the BOSS does. He says it works quite well.
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Load Hot, Shoot Straight
JoeM
I am almost positive they offered a stainless stalker 243 with a BOSS in the past.
If you handload I would advise staying away from the boss, you need to readjust it with different bullet weights and seems to be more trouble then it is worth at times. It adds a whole new variable to load development, that for me at least, was not worth the time.
I owned many Browning A bolts and owned two with the BOSS, a 308 stainless anda 375 Medallion, both shot very well but were not worth the aggrevation at the range, so I sold the two of them.
What I did like about the BOSS CR was it served as an excellent cronw protector when climbing through harsh terrain.
Browning Customer service is well know for thier favorite saying, "can't take it out of factory specs!".
FYI, Browning uses different bedding compounds on thier BOSS and nonBOSS guns, they talk about this on thier website.
Good Shooting,
Bill