Hi all-

I was down at the local shooting emporium today and they had about 6 of these rifles on the rack. All in 30-06 and in pretty good shape for rifles that were from the 50's 60's (IIRC).

They were drilled and tapped for scopes but it didn't look like any was ever mounted.

All were between 995.00 and 1300.00. Is this reasonable? I would say that they were between 80 and 95% or so. What can you tell me about them? At first glance I thought they were Mausers till I got closer. Any information on them would be appreciated - they were quite beautiful and I was wondering if it might be worth to start to save some money to make a purchase. I instantly had thoughts of a matched pair of 300 H&H and a 375 H&H - all rust blued set in a nice chunk of wood topped with some decent glass.

Would this be a reasonable use for them or do they have some collector value as issued?

Like I said any and all info on them is appreciated as I have no expirence with them at all.

Thanks.

Loonie, for the price they are asking they should be NIB for an 06.
They are wonderful guns, except for the salt wood era guns.
Out west here I run across them quite often in about 95% + condition in the 6 to 800.00 range, depending on caliber.

Sooo- whats the salt wood guns? Like I said I have no expirence with them.

They all had sights and 2 of them were of the express variety. I attend dang near every gunshow within 50 miles and to be honest I have never come across a Brng Safari grade, a Commercial Mauser or a pre-war M70. All I seem to find is SKS mags, beanie babies, and chi-com knives (but that is another thread).

Anything else on the action itself? It looked to be a Mauser variant but I could not see them all that well as they were in a glass case. Are they suitible for a nice custom rifle? Either way I would have to save a bunch but If I got luck with some tax returns the next coupla years - I would love to do 3 of them - all in 06 one each for me, my son and my father - kinda of a matched set or something.

Loonie:

Here is some info on the Browning rifles. Sorry, it's long....

They started making them in 1959,and production ended in 1975.From 1959 until 1961,all guns were made on FN standard length Model 98 Commerical
actions-this included short action calibers like the 243 and 308.
From 1962 until some time in 1964,short action calibers were made on Model 98 "Small Ring" actions.
Begining in 1964,the Small Ring Mauser was dropped,and replaced with Sako actions.They used the tiny L461 action for the 222 and 222 Magnum,and the
medium L579 action for the 22/250,243,308,284 and 257 Roberts.From 1964 until late 1967,Sako supplied only the actions,which FN then barreled and stocked.If
you have a Sako actioned Browning from this ara,it will be marked "Made in Belgium".From late 1967 until production ended in 1975,Sako supplied barreled
actions.If you have a gun from this ara,it will be marked "Made in Finnland".
In late 1967,they changed the Mauser action also.They went from the controled round feed (CRF) 98 to a push feed model of the 98 (the CRFs are commonly
called "long extractors",push feeds "short extractor").It should be noted that both the 270 and 30'06 retained the long extractor action,while all others changed to
the short extractor.The fact that the 270 and 30'06 were their biggest sellers might be why they did that.
A word on grades.There were three grades-the Safari,the Medallion,and the Olympian.The Safari had scroll engraving on the floorplate,and nice cut checkering at
about 22 LPI.The Medallion had scroll engraving on the action,a ram's head engraved on the floorplate,and skip-line checkering.The Olympian had game scenes
engraved on the front action rings and floorplate-the whole action is also greyed.The game scenes depicted what game the caliber of the rifle was suitable for-my
Olympian 243 has a mule deer and an antelope on the action ring,while the floorplate has a mountain lion and the trigger guard a mountain goat.My Olympian
270 has an elk and antelope on the reciver ring,and an 8 point whitetail on the floorplate (I can't remember what's on the trigger guard).A friend of mine has an
Olympian 458 with a large bull elephant on the floorplate.VERY neat!!The Medallions and Olympians also had gold triggers.
A word on barrel contours-calibers on the Sako actions came with either a 22 inch "pencil" barrel or a 24 inch medium heavy barrel.Mauser action calibers came
standard with a 24 inch medium heavy barrel,exsept for the 270,30'06 and 264,which had 22 inch barrels of fairly light contour.It should be noted that 264s from
1959 had 24 inch barrels.All barrels had a two-step contour.A hooded front sight and adjustable rear came standard on 270,30'06,264,375 and 458.Any other
caliber had to be ordered with them,which was quite common as it cost very little extra to do so.
Calibers standardly made were 222,222 Magnum,22/250,243,264 Winchester Magnum,270 Winchester,7mm Remington Magnum,308 Winchester,30'06,300
Winchester Magnum,338 Winchester Magnum,375 H&H and 458 Winchester Magnum.Rare calibers include 257 Roberts,284 Winchester,300 H&H,308 Norma
and many others of which only a few were made,such as the 220 Swift (only 2 made) and 250/3000.There were also a ton made for the European market in such
calibers as 7x57,6.5x55,6.5x54,9.3x64 and 404 Jefferys,amoung others.These are extremely rare in the USA,and one in mint condition in a Safari Grade would
be worth over $3,000.In a Medallion or Olympian grade they'd be "name your own price".

This is not my information, just something that was posted here or on HA earlier. BTW, even though the short extractor (read, push feed) models are sort of looked down on as not "real" Mausers, they really shoot! I have a .300 WM that has shot several 1/2", 3 shot groups at 100 yds. The salt wood guns were built from 1969 to early 1973 and suffered from rusting below the stockline. If you think about buying a gun made in this period, make sure you take it apart and look at the internals before buying....

Personally, I think the Brownings were classy, well-made rifles.

MKane160

Thanks for the help - all seemed to be safari grades. I am thinking these prices were premium and will look around some more.

Thanks