New Toy

[drone]

Old Browning 81 BLR 308, been wanting one for yonks, bought a new nikko stirling 1 -4 Boar Eater scope that cost more than the gun, after some initial problems with a gummed up firing pin all is now good.

I bought a cheapo recoil pad (£10) off of amazon, my 3rd one they are reasonably effective, much more so than the so called limb savers from the USA. Mag holds 4 rounds, the barrel bore is the nicest I've ever seen in a rifle, new or second hand and the quality of the gun is streets ahead of the Ruger #1 it replaced and on a different planet to the 1958 win 94 30/30 it shares a safe with. Don't get me wrong, they are fine guns but the browning, or should I say Miroku, is just finer.

I bought the scope as I don't plan on using the gun that often and, tbh, was  a little apprehensive about the quality, needn't have worried it is excellent so far, I zero'd the rifle on 2X magnification and the POI is the same at 1X and 4X which is always a good pointer. Glass is pretty good, seems to be the equal of my zeiss Diavari 1.5x6 on my other stalking gun at least that is the subjective view and the zeiss is getting on 20 years old without a service.

One thing it will probably need the fore-end floating as it's been in storage for quite a long while and the clearance is extremely irregular. I sighted it in at 25 metres and can't get it on longer range until the new year due to family stuff intervening, if you get my drift but I won't do anything until I've run a few groups off which means rolling up a few dozen rounds.