I'm not a fan of Browning's bolt, particularly if the rifle is going to be used in difficult, wet, cold, conditions. IMHO, a rifle bolt should be maintainable with a minimum of tools, and grief. The Browning's bolt does not meet this expectation. There is a silly spring that is passed off as an extractor retainer. This thing immediately falls out, usually unexpectedly and unseen, as soon as the bolt head is removed from the bolt body. Since there is nothing to keep it in place, the loss of the exceedingly small extractor is then inevitable. Even if you could manage to strip the silly thing in the field, something of a challenge in itself, in an effort to resolve a problem such as a freezing bolt from rain, or condensation combined with dropping temperatures, losing the extractor is a show stopper. What would have been wrong with a cross pin retainer? Where there is a cross pin (the one that holds the bolt head in place) there is a potential for not getting the firing pin passageway lined up true, since there is no index to do so, and the resulting friction could reduce firing pin velocity, and cause misfires. A separate bolt head that threaded into the bolt body would have resolved the problem, by dispensing of the cross pin, and the need for a hammer and a pin punch set. I get that the Browning is slick and smooth bolt action, and has the popular, if useless, 60 degree lift, and all those good things, but if you gave me one, I couldn't afford to say thank you.
