BROWNING AUTOMATIC RIFLE - The BAR. The semi-automatic rifle most loved by Italians.
It's really true: the first love is never forgotten. I took my license back in 1976 with my father's signature and the first "big game" rifle was given to me two years later as a graduation award. It was a Browning BAR Affut model in caliber 270 Winchester which, at that time, was imported by the company Fusi & Co. of Rome - Milan, and having it was not easy, because the gun was in great demand. For some time I had contracted the "hunting fever" with the Diana 4,5 caliber and with the Beretta Super Sport caliber 22 LR and my biggest dream was to "kneel" a big solengo pursued by a ravenous wetsuit of dogs. In my dreams I always carried the same rifle: a semiautomatic Browning Bar., like the ones I had seen in specialized magazines, on Selearmi and above all in the FN - Browning - Legia catalog, which I jealously guarded among school books and which, perhaps you won't believe it, I still keep! In the seventies - eighties there was a boom in wild boar hunting but there were not much around for semi-automatic rifles for driven hunts. But already at that time the enterprising and far-sighted FN - Browning offered two different models: the Affut and the Battue (for stalking and driven hunting) and in different calibers: from the 243 Winchester to the powerful 338 Winchester Magnum. !
The BAR rifles stood out among all the competitors for line, mechanical conception, for the particularly accurate finishes and above all for the precision..
With my 270 W I have really made the "bones". In addition to killing several wild boars (the dream then came true and several times!), I used it as a starting point for my "ballistic experiments", using it both with optics and with the "red dot" and with a infinity of refills. In many years of use, the BAR FN has satisfied me so much that I still own two of them today: one MK II and one engraved “Rupicapra 1/50”, both in 30.06 Springfield caliber. As a great lover of weapons and boar hunting as I am, I have constantly followed the entire evolution of the Belgian semiautomatic from 1966 to today, from the first burnished gray - blue models, to the very recent Short Track, including all the commemoratives and the numerous "Series limited ". I now use my two BARs occasionally because, unfortunately, I fell madly in love with the Hecker & Koch 770, much more suitable for the type of hunting I carry out, but how can we deny that the Brownings are still the semi-automatic rifles most loved by Italians? This is demonstrated by the continuous, great demand, and the number of "presences" in the boar hunting teams throughout our peninsula.
Mark Benecchi
When a weapon is so well accepted I always think: why has it been so successful? Almost forty years after its birth, the creation of the great John Moses Browning he still has it because it is an unusually beautiful, well-finished weapon, built with excellent materials and because it uses modern and reliable mechanics. Moreover, thanks to the “By Portugal” assembly, it still manages to maintain a fairly competitive price. Together with the H & K, the BAR is the most precise semi-automatic I have ever tried and this is demonstrated by the fact that on SKY I saw a documentary where a Spanish hunter even went there to hunt chamois! The BAR FN have always stood out for the perfect distribution of the masses, for the easy handling, for the easily refillable and / or replaceable magazine, for the excellent European walnut woods and for the quality of the tri-alloy steels. Even today, as tradition dictates, all Browning semi-automatic rifles are offered with an adjustable notch and a front sight protected by a tunnel for targeted shooting or with a wide half rib and a front sight with fiber optic insert for shooting on the move. The great Belgian multinational has never forgotten anyone, they have always built the rifle that made the Browning brand famous all over the world in various configurations and with different degrees of finish. Recently, to increase handling and above all to reduce weight, they have adopted shorter barrels and switched (unfortunately!) To light alloys. In the standard calibers the barrels were reduced from 560 mm to 510 mm, while for the Magnum calibers the minimum length of 610 mm had to be maintained.
With the advent of Short Magnum ammunition (270, 7 mm and 300) there has been a further reduction in weights and dimensions, especially due to the adoption of short actions and short-stroke shutters, but personally I believe that the 30.06 Springfield is still the most powerful caliber for driven wild boar hunting. However, tastes are tastes! I jealously keep all the Browning catalogs from 1976 to today and I must admit that if I had to list how many versions of BAR there are reproduced, the list would be quite long, but in my opinion the model that gave the decisive turning point to the first derived from the Browning submachine gun it was, without a doubt, the MK II. In the MK II the barrel, the gas socket, the trigger group, the magazine have been modified and a Cutt-Off - Hold-Open has been inserted. Not a season goes by that Browning rifles do not undergo modifications and / or improvements, but the 742nd generation BAR was the first real evolution from the initial project. Basically the mechanics were always the same, with the usual, simple but very sturdy rotary head shutter with seven locking lugs and the impeccable gas intake with short stroke piston. Innovative was the trigger group, improved and easily removable by removing two convenient pins and, as already mentioned, the Hold - Hopen. This device, clearly of military derivation, allows you to keep the bolt open after the last shot fired, and to fill or even replace the magazine before closing again by acting on a convenient lever located on the right side of the weapon. The Hold - Hopen greatly facilitates and reduces reload times, a feature of vital importance in a war weapon, but also well accepted in a batting weapon. Later the BAR MK II was equipped with BOSS, became Light, some models were equipped with stock with Bavarian cheek piece, returned to steel with the "Safari" model, was even stocked in black synthetic or camufolage and was produced in various versions with delicately engraved "white" or black finish, but until the birth of the brand new "Track" it was unquestionably the "weapon of order" of the Italian "strap maker". Evaluating the pros and cons of a myth could be almost a sacrilege, but if we speak so well of a weapon it is right to recognize even its small flaws. It seems to me that there are no more doubts that all BAR models possess superlative characteristics, but it must be admitted that they have never been able to compete in aesthetics with the Remington 7400 - 100, with the Winchester XNUMX and with the H. & Richardson .
Do you remember then i models in caliber 243 W and 308 Winchester who adopted long "standard" actions and the same chargers of 30.06 - 270 W (very ugly) practically cut off? And what about the first BAR Battue? Those that had a fixed rib without any possibility of adjustment? And who likes the shoulder pad in Bakelite? Only today (perhaps there is under the hand of the Benelli ARGOs) the new Short - Long Track are sold with a kit for changing the edge and the fold, with a magnificent anti-recoil pad, with fully adjustable sights and, finally, after thirty years of honorable service, it was decided to also design an oversized loader, highly appreciated where permitted. The market for semi-automatic rifles in Europe is thriving and very well underway, so much so that everyone has been “thrown into” it a bit. In our woods, or better still above sturdy boxes, we see more and more rifled guns rather than shotguns. And this is already good. Weapons are like cars, regardless of the use we want to make of them, at the time of purchase what plays the decisive role is always personal taste. 40 years of experience and more than a million BARs sold have made the Browning is the leader in the production of semi-automatic rifles. Currently the BAR they are offered in ten models and twelve calibers and to be honest I would have thought about the brand new Eclipse engraved with wild boar and roe deer and always and strictly in 30.06 caliber! There are really many semi-cars on the market, and all, more or less, do their job well, but then why the old BAR is still the best-selling rifle in the world? The reasons why so many hunters choose it are to be found in its characteristics, but of one thing I am sure: that the Browning Automatic Rifle, in any of the many versions in which it was offered, is still the semi-automatic rifle most loved by Italians, more or less like Ferilli (I prefer Luisa Corna!) and Scavolini !!
Mark Benecchi
I'm looking for a Verney and Carron semiautomatic rifle in cal 7mm rem mag, do you know any gun shops that work this brand? Thanks