Is the Ed Brown 704 action a true controlled round feed?
Here is a link to his website -

http://edbrown.com/htmlos.cgi/00689.1.029670982178480151

Only cycling the bolt would tell you for sure, but the concept is there for it to be...........

He does describe some things that would lead a person to believe that his system is superior to a properly done model 70, but that's what marketing is all about.

I have one of his 704's in a 7mm rem mag DAMARA... this is a 6 3/4 pound rifle that easily shoots 1/2" or less @ 100 meters with 140 gr baliisitic tips.. fwiw, it easily feeds reliable upside down, sideways, muzzle up, etc..

The Ed Brown bolt face is similar to the Savage 116 Controlled feed bolt face even if he would hate to hear such a comparison made. In both of them the round rises up from the mag & slides in behind the extractor as the bolt feeds them into the chamber. So far, just like a Mauser 98 or any other CRF rifle. In both cases though the extractor is a sliding insert in the right /lower bolt lug in the Savage & what appears to be an insert in the right side of the bolt nose in the Brown rifle. I guess you could say then that it IS a controlled feed rifle but it does NOT have a non rotating extractor. Hard to say if this is an issue & probably it comes down to personal preference.
Steve.

Push/control is the accurate description. It is like the Savage, and even more like the Sako 85. The cartridge is not captured in true CR mode until it clears the end of the magazine. It is possible to short stroke all of these actions and overun any cartridge remaining in the magazine. I have tried it and acieved it quite simply. I don't really see an advantage over the push feed with these actions, other than marketing.

I have a good deal of experience with the Sako 85, and can say that they are very accurate.

Good luck--Don

I don't know the Sako 85 (too new fangled for me ???) & haven't had a chance to examine the latest Savage & I'd be surprised if any Ed Browns have made it to our fair shores yet, but from pics I've seen the Brown extractor takes at least as big a bite of the cartridge base as a Mauser extractor & the Savage likewise as a P14 or Siamese Mauser extractor, both of which qualify as controlled feed as I understand it & until the bolt is rotated to lock up the action the relationship to the cartridge base is identical so I really can't see that they're any less controlled feed than the traditional CRF actions. Unless there is something distinctly strange about the feeding from the mag, the cartridge base must be under the control of the extractor & against the bolt face well before it has cleared the mag, therefore controlled feed, just not non-rotating extractor, to my way of thinking. Happy to be corrected if I've got it wrong.
Steve.

Steve, it ain't so, sorry to say. With the CRF actions I own, some Mausers and Winchesters, as soon as the cartridge is engaged by the bolt, the extractor 'pops' over the rim and if you were able to disengage the bolt and cartridge from the rest of the rifle at that point, the cartridge would be firmly held in place on the face of the bolt. This basically prevents another cartridge from being stripped from the magazine, if the first cartridge is not ejected.
The cartridge is not captured in this fashion on the Ed Browm, Sako 85 or Savage action until the cartridge is clear from the front feed lips of the magazine. I have actually removed the magazine, or dropped the floorplate, and confirmed that the cartridge is not 'captured' until it is damn near completely in the chamber.

Charlie Sisk told me that there was a Win variant of this type of action as well at one point, (and it was actually called push/control feed) it came out when the WSM's first came out, to help feeding and still allow them to be able to say they had CRF.

The biggest issue in my experience with all these actions is the ability to 'short stroke' the bolt, and get another cartridge begin rising out of the magazine, causing a nice jam. I've done it several times with these actions, as well as other full out push feeds, including once in the field, while attempting a follow up shot.

This is my understanding of why, for repeaters, Dangerous Game folks demand CRF actions whenever possible. If this aspect of CRF action is important to you, then none of these actions will prevent this, and you need to look to another action.

Good shooting!

Fish, I have to give way on this as you've obviously had these in your hands which I haven't. Not wanting to pick an arguement but I'd have thought the short stroking thing was more a case of the ejector placement relative to the back of the mag. In all my CRF rifles, (several Mauser 98s, a couple of Enfields & a couple of BSA Hunters, the ejector blade is level with or in some cases slightly behind the rear of the mag, if I short stroked the bolt by that critical fraction, could I not also pick up another case from the mag & creat a jam up? & are these push/control feeds that much more susceptible to this than my CRFs which I feel are broadly representative of most of what folk on this forum have?
Steve.

Steve, that's a good question 'is it broadly representitive' and I would say yes, but it's obviously a small sample quantity. I am not versed enough to discuss the location and or type/combinations of extractors, but can simply say, that in the 2 Muaser actions I own, and the several (over 6) Win actions, and the 2 Ruger actions I owned, I did not get the short stroke jam, like I can with the rifles we are talking about. It may be that each of these rifles had an ejection system, including spring ejector, that allowed them to get rid of the shell at a time appropriate before a new one would present itself from the magazine, allowing it (the new cartridge from the mag) to create a jam. I don't think this is the case, just that the CRF actions held the cartridge that little bit longer on extraction because it's their inherent design, and not so on push or push/control feed rigs.

I will say that I think it is highly personal, but I do know that this is the thinking behind the DG rifle folks desire of true CRF.

Thanks for you input on this subject, I will have to pay more attention to what I'm doing next time I'm out & see what happens when kind of thing.
Pity we're so far away, it would have been fun & interesting to have got a bunch of rifles, some dummy rounds & the appropriate lubrication & had a bit of a session, purely in the interests of science of course.
Steve