Very nice rifle, I have one in .358 and blued finish. I mounted a Leupold M8 fixed 4x scope on mine. Great rifles...

 

WOO-HOO, good lookin' rifle there! Congratulations! Have you decided if you're gonna go the standard scope mounting route or perhaps a scout scope set-up? I'll be curious to hear whether that 310gr shoot well in your rifle. I own an older steel receiver .358 BLR and love the gun. I'd certainly enjoy owning a second one like yours too!! :biggrin:

 

VERY nice slamfire! Congrats!:tee:

 

Thanks! Eager to do some shooting with it today, so I made 20 rounds. I put new Remington .308 Win. brass thru the .358 Win. FL re-sizing die to make .358 brass, initial load is 45 grs of H4895 and 200 gr Remington spire point bullets, mild according to the Hornady Handbook, about 2300 fps MV. And the rifle actually goes "click-click-BOOM" like it's supposed to!

I received the Browning scout mount and fitted it on the rifle. I have an old Leupold 4x compact scope that should work, this scope has plenty of eye relief.

Just waiting for the EGW Picatinny rail to arrive before I decide on which base to use.

 

Very nice rifle! Congrats! Thanks for the pics.

 

One option is to go with the Browning scout mount and Leupold 2.5x Ultralight installed in Leupold QRW rings. When I receive the EGW Picatinny rail I will install that and compare the 2 options then decide. Check out that inletting :top: -

 

Very Nice!!! :congrats:

BG4570

 

I settled on the Browning scout mount and ordered a Leupold 2.5x - 28mm Scout scope. The Leupold 2.5x Ultralight or the Leupold 4x compact scopes will work at the extended mounting position, however, the field of view is reduced by about 50%. The Leupold Scout scope is of course made for the scout mount and has about 9" of eye relief so the field of view won't be reduced.

The EGW Picatinny rail for the BLR short actions is very well made and lightweight.

I made some test loads with the 310 gr Woodleigh RSN bullet and RE15, starting load was 40.0 gr up to 42.0 gr. No signs of excessive pressure. Using 42.0 gr of RE15, BR-2 primers and Remington brass, MV was around 1940 fps and the powder is slightly compressed.

Maximum load should be 44.0 gr with the 310 gr RSN bullet for a MV of about 2000 fps. Because the 310 gr FMJ bullet is slightly longer, the maximum load should be 42.5 gr of RE15 (as always, safe in my rifle only).

Accuracy testing to follow once I receive my Leupold Scout scope.

 

congrats, looks great, I like the setup.

 

Leupold 2.5x Scout scope installed. Using 44.0 gr of RE15 behind the Woodleigh 310 gr RN SN bullet I get just under 2000 fps MV, and groups 1" at 100 yards. Load is near maximum (as always, in my rifle only) :biggrin: -

 

That's a beautiful rifle. Thanks for sharing the pics

 

Thanks! Next project is to install sling swivel bases, not sure why Browning doesn't provide these on this particular model...:hmmmm:

 

A head scratcher for sure. It must have something to do with The straight stock vs. PG. If you look at their site all the 81 style BLR's do not have studs for swivels.

 

Man, that is a great looking rifle and I am foaming at the mouth looking at that 310 Woodleigh load you made up with RL15.. Very awesome. That bullet won't slow down for much of anything..

Can you list out your load, cases, OAL, ect? Thank you very much.

 

Thanks! Re-sized Remington .308 Win. cases, BR-2 primers and 44.0 gr of RE15. OAL is 70.0mm with the bullet seated at the cannelure. No signs of excessive pressure in my particular rifle. I expected and got decent accuracy thanks to the fast 1-in-12" twist rate. :top:

 

Thanks for the heads up. I will be giving them a try when I get my hands on a few of them. That is a cool combo. Brings 45-70 like speeds to that 310 bullet with huge SD numbers. Have you ever ran any of them into water jugs to check for expansion and penetration?

 

The 310 gr 35 caliber Woodleigh bullet has an impressive sectional density that should provide deep penetration, and the RN SN bullets, being blunt, should expand well. The ballistic coefficient is also impressive, it's gonna hit hard down range.

I'm eager to try out my BLR scout rifle...

 

Slam, that is an awesome looking bullet buddy! I am actually pretty excited to try them in my little Browning. I will run them for deer this year. Should be fun seeing how they work.

 

Sling swivel bases installed, Uncle Mike's kit #2520-0, 1/2" screw for the forend and 3/4" screw for the butt end -

 

Can't stop revisiting this post. I love this rifle.

 

Good job!! Of course, I love anything 35....

I would expect that bullet to be a tad heavy for a whitetail......

Jeff
NRA Life

 

Hello, nice rifle.
Just few minutes ago I got mine at GB. I chose a pistol grip take down in .308Win and couldn't be happier.
Now I have to decide how to mount the scope. Conceptually, I don't like the scout mounting, although your rifle looks great with it, so I want to have the traditional set up.
Do you think I'll need to re-zero it every time I take the gun down?
Thanks

Andrés

 

Thanks! It's a sharp looking rifle. Consider mounting a Leupold scope on your new BLR - the gold ring around the objective matches the gold trigger nicely. :biggrin:

Seems with the forward-mounted scope target acquisition is quicker. And peripheral vision is better in case there are multiple targets to take out. :flute: I like the scout rifle concept and some field time with this rifle should confirm my expectations.

Since my scope is mounted on the barrel I don't expect the zero to be off upon re-assembly. In your case with the scope mounted on the receiver there could be a bit of misalignment between the barrel and the receiver upon re-assembly but it's probably not enough to make a difference for close range hunting.

I was a bit worried about using .308 Winchester brass to make .358 Winchester brass. No issues whatsoever. I got a neck sizing die to simplify reloading this fine cartridge.

 

Update

Decided to try mounting my Leupold 4x Compact scope on this rifle (discontinued, I believe it's the same as the current Leupold 4x RF except it's parallax adjusted for 100 yards), this scope has about 5" of eye relief, so the field of view isn't reduced too much by mounting it scout-style.

But went back to the Scout scope, it just looks better and the field of view isn't reduced. :shot:

The BLR trigger takes some getting used to, almost like a 2 stage pull. With practice I've become deadly with it. :biggrin:

BLR with Leupold 2.5x Scout

BLR with Leupold 4x Compact

 

Looks great! I like the Leupold Fixed power scopes