Thread: Belgium BLR 308 project trial a tribulations

Well its common knowledge that I've picked up a wee project Browning BLR 308win its an early steel receiver, I believe they ae called a Belgium BLR ?
She's been carried a lot with the blueing worn off the sides of the reciever and has been re barreled at some stage by Mike Collings according to the marks stamped on the barrel.
The trigger although having a little creep has definitely been fettled and breaks at about 2.5-3lbs certainly good enough for a short bush gun. I picked up a bushnell hd 1.75-5x32 which sits nice and low in the 1 piece mount that came with the rifle





First things first off to the gunsmith for a chop and thread, that's where the first trial came....when the barrel was removed it revealed some stamps indicating that the barrel was a 1:14 twist, originally I had intended on chopping the barrel to 14" but after talking with the smith about the twist rate I decided to revise that to 16", still nice and compact with the balance point right under the mag.
Initially I was a little worried the 1:14 twist wouldn't stabilize the speer 165gn btsp but after runnng the figures through the berger stability calculator it should be ok...maybe. time will tell.




Took her straight to the range and gave it try with some pmc 150gn sp factory ammo and some 155gn eldm's a friend loaded up. Was very quick and slap dash but I was itching to shoot it
Didn't shoot them too badly but room for improvement.


The 2 lowest rounds are pmc the 3 higher rounds are the 155gn eldm hand loads

One issue that did come up is that both the factory pmc rounds and the hand loads where extremely hard to extract once fired so heading back to the smith tomorrow to check for a rough or tight chamber, hopefully a quick tickle with a hone or reamer will fix it.
Then I can get on with working up a load. Will update when I get back from the smith tomorrow