Accuracy Reviews of Browning X-bolt in 26 Nosler
Browning Ten-Commodities Western Hunter Rifle Review
Browning's new X-Bolt Western Hunter is a long-range rifle that handles and shoots similar a hunting gun should.
January fourteen, 2021
The X-Commodities has been Browning'southward flagship bolt-activity centerfire for more than a dozen years now, and in that time it has been produced in a boundless array of variants—from relatively patently Jane synthetic-stocked models to swish, high-form wood models to the feature-packed Hell's Canyon series to rifles specifically built for long range.
The Ten-Commodities Western Hunter kinda falls in the middle, a workhorse burglarize with just the correct frills for certain types of hunters. Browning does things a little differently from other gun companies, and the Western Hunter is what the visitor calls a "SHOT Show special." This means it's a limited-production model. However, each year some of these SHOT Prove specials make it into the regular-production itemize, and the Western Hunter is a strong candidate to exercise exactly that.
This is i reason why I thought it merited coverage in RifleShooter. The other reason is the Western Hunter's stock. Adaptable combs are zilch new, not in this day and age when many hunters want to shoot farther. Adjustable combs allow shooters to attain a proper caput position in lodge to look through the center of a scope, thereby reducing aiming errors, which are magnified greatly at longer ranges.
However, most adjustable combs add weight and significant cost. The Western Hunter'southward setup does neither. It'due south probably best described as a sleeve that fits on peak of the comb, and past means of 4 half-inch screws with washers, the sleeve tin be raised or lowered to i of five positions. It's a unproblematic, sturdy and effective arrangement, producing a burglarize that still weighs only about 7.5 pounds and sells for a little over a grand.
This stock feature is what attracted me to the Western Hunter, just the rifle has a lot of other features to recommend it to discriminating hunters. I've never hunted with an Ten-Bolt, but I have a lot of range time behind various iterations of the action, and I recall it's 1 of the smartest, all-time-shooting, smoothest-operating designs on the market today.
Sticking with the stock, it is a composite and finished in A-TACS AU camo. I'll help you out on the alphabet soup hither. A-TACS is a Georgia company that produces a number of patterns used past several companies, and AU stands for Arid Urban, the name of the blueprint.
AU is a hybrid pattern—neither composed of pixilated digital shapes, nor the old-schoolhouse "blob" type camo. Instead it employs what A-TACS calls "organic pixels" to create pocket-sized and large shapes that are subtle just withal effective at distance.
I'k not the type who goes all crazy worrying about how my burglarize might appear to a critter a couple hundred yards away, merely I do call back camo stocks are a wise choice for big game hunting—as opposed to black or shiny wood. Plus, I similar a stock that looks good, and this ane does.
It can be piece of cake to gloss over recoil pads, simply saying they do (or don't do) a good job of reducing recoil. In the case of Browning's Inflex pad, at that place's a little more at work. Its geometry and internal structure act to pull the rummage away from your cheek as information technology crushes under recoil. Equally anybody who'southward shot stout-recoiling guns tin probably attest, information technology's the jolt to the cheek—often more so than the shove to the shoulder—that creates a lot of the discomfort.
The stock is slim and trim, and the wrist features a stippled pattern for a not-slip grip as well as a subtle palm swell for right-handed shooters. I'm a large fan of palm swells on hunting stocks, and this ane feels great. The fore-cease has similar stippling on the bottom, and in that location's a relieved channel merely under the barrel for your fingers to hang onto. The stock has sling swivel studs front and back.
The barreled activeness is free-floated in the stock. It's worth noting that the action screws are treated to a thread-locking compound, and so expect them to be a bit strong when yous go to remove the barreled activeness for the first time.
The fore-end has X-shaped cross-braces to provide rigidity. There's epoxy bedding around both action screws and in the front portion of the recoil lug mortise, the last place the barrel touches the stock. It wasn't evenly applied here: The left side showed solid contact with the barrel while on the right only a sparse ridge of epoxy appeared to be in contact. This doesn't seem to have afflicted accuracy, but if it were my rifle I'd probably fix information technology past calculation a bit of bedding to even out the barrel contact.
The X-Commodities action has a three-lug bolt for a curt, sixty-caste throw. You'll notice a small, askew lug on the bottom of the bolt. This serves to push the top cartridge in the magazine downward slightly as the commodities closes and prevents the seven o'clock locking lug from contacting against that round as it rotates downward.
When Browning engineers were working on the X-Commodities, initially they were going to utilize a iii-position wing à la the Winchester 70. But plainly they're like me and don't prefer an intermediate Safe position, so they settled on a sliding two-position tang.
Tang safeties are popular because they're like shooting fish in a barrel and quiet to operate, and they work for both righties and lefties. Browning's design goes one step further than most. On Safety, the sear, trigger and bolt are locked, merely pressing a conveniently located button at the root of the commodities handle pushes downwards a pocket-size plunger that depresses the bolt-lock arm in the burn-control unit. This allows the commodities to be operated for loading or unloading while the safety remains engaged. You'll quickly discover it instinctive and easy to use.
Browning X-Commodities Western Hunter Specs
- Type: three-lug bolt-action centerfire
- Caliber: 6.v Creedmoor, 6.five PRC, .270 Win., 7mm Rem. Mag., .28 Nosler, .300 Win. Mag., .300 Rem. Ultra Mag, .300 People's republic of china (tested)
- Capacity: iii+1 (as tested)
- Barrel: 26 in., 1:8 twist (as tested); muzzle restriction, thread cap
- Overall Length: 46.75 in.
- Weight: 7 lb., 7 oz.
- Finish: Matte blue
- Stock: Composite, A-TACS AU camo; adjustable cheekpiece
- Sights: None; drilled and tapped
- Trigger: Feather adjustable; three lb., 12 oz. pull (measured, as received)
- Safe: Two-position bolt-locking tang; commodities lock override
- Price: $ane,100
- Manufacturer: Browning, browning.com
Browning'due south Plumage trigger is a good one. It's a three-lever pattern that allows maximum sear engagement while still permitting a calorie-free pull thanks to the extra leverage provided past the three levers as well as the smoothness made possible by the chrome-plated, polished internal working parts.
Browning engineers likewise created a near-vertical interface between sear and firing pin, as opposed to the more mutual 45-caste interface, for a more than direct-line firing pivot travel. This not just reduces firing pivot "porpoising" for more than consistent primer strikes but also reduces lock time.
The trigger has no take-upwardly or creep and almost zip overtravel, and this lack of play makes for a super-crisp pull. Adjustment range is three to 5 pounds, and Browning sends them out from the factory set at three.5 pounds. My sample weighed iii.75 pounds on average.
While the trigger is adaptable, there are two things worth noting. I, you have to remove the rifle from the stock in order to access the 2mm Allen adjustment spiral in front of the finger slice. Two, this adjustment screw is covered in ruby threadlocker, which you'd accept to remove in order to adapt it. Rafe Nielsen at Browning told me this is to prevent adventitious loosening and besides lets the visitor know if the trigger has been adjusted in case it comes dorsum for service.
The rifle feeds from a detachable, flush-fit polymer rotary magazine. Every bit detachable mags go, I love rotaries because they not only provide a college capacity than affluent-fit single-stacks, but also nowadays the bullet straight in line to the bedroom, different internal box magazines and many detachables.
The mag on my sample holds three of those large ol' .300 PRC cartridges—three is the capacity for all chamberings except the 6.5 Creedmoor and .270 Win.—and its integral spring-loaded latch snaps into the aluminum-alloy bottom metal with authorization. That bottom metal is black, has a powder-coat type end and features the famous Browning Cadet Mark logo tastefully engraved in gold at the bottom of the trigger baby-sit.
Atop the receiver you'll detect the feature that gives the burglarize its name. Instead of in-line two scope-base mounting holes in front of and behind the ejection port, there are four holes in a square or "X" blueprint. I'chiliad in agreement that more is better when it comes to securely attaching a telescopic to any rifle, especially a hard-kicking one.
Ane event did arise here. I had a hard fourth dimension finding a telescopic in my inventory with enough tube length to fit. It'south not something I'd encountered with previous 10-Bolts, and Nielsen told me that while the action on the .300 PRC version is the same size as other long deportment, the ejection port is bigger due to the size of the cartridge. So it, along with the .300 Rem. Ultra Mag version, will require a fiddling forethought when information technology comes to choosing a scope.
In this case I found a Trijicon AccuPoint iii-9x40mm would fit, simply there was no wiggle room for adjusting position for eye relief. Browning does offer a rail for the Ten-Bolt, including 1 specifically for the .300 RUM and .300 Communist china.
The .300 PRC is a lot of cartridge, and Browning installs a 26-inch barrel in this chambering to get the near out of it. You lot might wince at having a barrel so long, but it is the "Western" Hunter after all, and unless y'all're skulking around in dark timber subsequently elk, deer or moose, a 26-inch barrel is no problem in the Westward's wide-open spaces.
It tapers from 1.185 inches in forepart of the receiver to 0.608 inch behind the muzzle restriction. And believe me, you lot'll come to love the 40-port muzzle brake. Shooting magnums from the demote is never fun, but the X-Commodities was quite well-behaved, fifty-fifty when firing a cartridge that pushes a bullet weighing more than than 200 grains to a velocity topping ii,800 fps.
Browning X-Commodities Western Hunter Accurateness Results
Hornady's .300 PRC is a relatively new cartridge, and at the time I tested the rifle, that company was the sole source for ammunition—and only 1 of its two loads was available. I definitely adopt trying several types of ammo in any rifle, but depending on how y'all wait at it, being able to shoot only 1 load isn't a total write-off—and could in fact show the rifle'southward accuracy potential. Groups at 100 yards averaged only over one g.o.a., and at 200 yards it was a shade better. Imagine what yous might be able to accomplish if there were several different loads/bullets to try or if yous took upwards handloading for it.
Normally, I don't like a lot of weight out front, and the Western Hunter'due south 26 inches of barrel does button the gun toward the cage-heavy side. Still, from field positions—especially unsupported ones—between the long barrel and the muzzle restriction, it was easy to become fast follow-ups because muzzle rise was relatively small for a cartridge this powerful.
It was excellent over a pack, and I suspect that would also be the case with a bipod. The Inflex recoil pad delivered on its hope, and for a rifle chambered to such a big round, the Western Hunter was a relative pussycat overall.
I loved the adaptable comb. I moved it upward to the second hole, and my eye position and cheek weld were right where they belong. That certainly factored into the accuracy I was able to get from the bench and from positions.
The only downside is cleaning. I hadn't needed to raise the comb very high, and so I was able to get a cleaning rod into the cleaning rod guide with but the slightest lift/flex. Whatever higher and you're probably going to have to remove the comb, at least if you're using a cleaning rod and not a pull-through. It's not like taking out four screws is a big bargain, but it'south certainly not every bit convenient as internally adaptable combs.
Other than that small-scale complaint and the scope selection claiming, which was due to caliber, I requite the X-Bolt Western Hunter high marks all effectually. The bolt works smoothly, and feeding was excellent. It's got a great trigger, it'southward accurate, and it handles similar a hunting burglarize should.
Having said that, information technology's not a "mountain rifle." With Trijicon scope aboard and fully loaded with 3+ane rounds of .300 PRC, information technology weighed eight pounds, 10 ounces. However, at its bare weight the Western Hunter starts out a full pound lighter than the 10-Bolt Max Long Range and v ounces lighter than the X-Bolt Hunter Long Range—both adjustable-comb models with similar-length barrels.
In any of the available chamberings, all of which are splendid long-range rounds for a variety of game or targets, I remember information technology's an excellent rig for places where you might want a lilliputian bit of extra reach—without lugging effectually a rifle that feels like an artillery slice or having to pay a fortune.
barnettkimmilloof.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.rifleshootermag.com/editorial/browning-x-bolt-western-hunter-rifle-review/387603
0 Response to "Accuracy Reviews of Browning X-bolt in 26 Nosler"
Postar um comentário