Anyone Else Getting Disgusted With Browning??

Tabacco Brook

Tabacco Brook

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Is it just me or is anyone else getting disgusted/tired of the weird, spacey, plastic crap, bolt actions that Browning keeps bringing out year after year?.. Isn't it time to give that crap a bit of a rest and offer some nice traditional and different wood stock designs,.. such as some medium to high grade oil finish wood,.. maybe more Monte Carlo raised cheek piece options, or just raised cheek piece, or whatever,.. just something different, more options in traditional styling. Sure, some of the composite stuff is nice and very useful, I have a Stainless Stalker that I really like, but enough is enough with all the plastic. Another thing I would like to see is some different chamberings besides the plane old vanilla flavors. I will say it is good to see some of the new cartridges being offered such as the 6.5 CM, 6mm CM, 26 and 28 Nosler,... but it would be nice to see a run of 358win, or 35Whelen, or 338Federal once in awhile. I've been a loyal Browning customer all my life but I'm starting to lose interest.
 
Buy the old stuff,might be late for any deals. I bought many old Browning rifles for reasonable prices when plastic became the rage.
People couldn't get rid of them fast enough.
Sako rifles also are included in this. Nothing comes close to them now
unless you want to spend big dollars
 
The problem is that people vote with their wallets and cheap plastic guns seem to be winning. I have been doing my part the last couple years trying to buy higher end blued / walnut guns. I work hard for my money and want to spend it on something nice.

I'll second winchester1892's comment on looking at the m70's, still a BACO product but built as a quality hunting rifle as opposed to a trendy new trim every year like the x-bolts and such.
 
I believe that firearm companies are building towards the interests of a younger generation. Blued barrels and fancy wood just does not sell. I am 30 yrs old and I know a lot of gun owners my age that 99 times out of a 100 are going to buy the "plastic junk" than fancy wood. Just the way it is, they are not building guns to be passed down, they are building to make big sales. Sell one real expensive fancy Wood/blued gun or 99 "plastic junk" rifles. It's business plain and simple.
 
Unfortunately (or fortunately) guns now sell for less than they did 30 years ago. That gives new shooters the chance to buy extremely accurate guns for very little money, but there are a lot of tradeoffs - plastic, finish, etc. You can still get the nice wood guns, but at a much steeper price.
 
waterhauler said:
I believe that firearm companies are building towards the interests of a younger generation. Blued barrels and fancy wood just does not sell. I am 30 yrs old and I know a lot of gun owners my age that 99 times out of a 100 are going to buy the "plastic junk" than fancy wood. Just the way it is, they are not building guns to be passed down, they are building to make big sales. Sell one real expensive fancy Wood/blued gun or 99 "plastic junk" rifles. It's business plain and simple.
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I think your right. I like rich blueing and nice wood. My son....black plastic and painted matt finishes.
 
I am 37 I like my guns blued and made out of nice wood as a preference. I don't mind the od space gun but I do fall back on old gun quality. Most of my firearms are either European or South American made if new and are older than I am if not.
My only gun issues have been with new guns. Manufacturing quality is not what it was. We have deskilled in the global economy to the point where we don't make many top line products anymore.
 
hoytcanon said:
How do you know Browning is producing crap?
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I'm not a Browning bolt gun fan, but calling them crap is something of a stretch. I love the look and feel of nicely figured wood with a rich oil finish; I'm not a fan of plastic looking wood finishes, or of cheap wood without any apparent figure in the grain. Plastic stocks have their place, and there are things you can do to make them better, just as there are things you can do to improve a wood stock. As part of a swap, I recently received a Charles Daly bolt gun in .300 Winchester. Its built around a Zastava 98 Mauser action, fitted into a cheap plastic stock that makes a Ramline look like a McMillan. To call this stock flimsy is to discredit flimsy stocks. The forend would twist like a wet rag under moderate torsion, and anything that dragged along the butt resulted in that hollow sound so common to thin wall hollow stocks. I already had one of Nathan Foster's stock stabilizing kits for another project, but that rifle went away, so I used it on the .300. Once cured, in about 24 hours, the feel of the stock changed completely, it was now rigid like a stock should be, without any obvious change to weight or balance. Filling the hollow butt and pistol grip with spray foam took away that irritating cheap plastic sound. Previously, 3 shot groups at 250 yards, my zero range, repeatedly resulted in two rounds impacting about an inch from one another, then put a flyer out 4"-6" usually left and low. After stabilizing, the groups form up evenly, and accuracy is MOA. Once the rifle is bedded, and I've replaced the sub-par bottom metal with something more appropriate, this will be a fine hunting rifle.
 
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Boomer said:
I'm not a Browning bolt gun fan, but calling them crap is something of a stretch. I love the look and feel of nicely figured wood with a rich oil finish; I'm not a fan of plastic looking wood finishes, or of cheap wood without any apparent figure in the grain. Plastic stocks have their place, and there are things you can do to make them better, just as there are things you can do to improve a wood stock. As part of a swap, I recently received a Charles Daly bolt gun in .300 Winchester. Its built around a Zastava 98 Mauser action, fitted into a cheap plastic stock that makes a Ramline look like a McMillan. To call this stock flimsy is to discredit flimsy stocks. The forend would twist like a wet rag under moderate torsion, and anything that dragged along the butt resulted in that hollow sound so common to thin wall hollow stocks. I already had one of Nathan Foster's stock stabilizing kits for another project, but that rifle went away, so I used it on the .300. Once cured, in about 24 hours, the feel of the stock changed completely, it was now rigid like a stock should be, without any obvious change to weight or balance. Filling the hollow butt and pistol grip with spray foam took away that irritating cheap plastic sound. Previously, 3 shot groups at 250 yards, my zero range, repeatedly resulted in two rounds impacting about an inch from one another, then put a flyer out 4"-6" usually left and low. After stabilizing, the groups form up evenly, and accuracy is MOA. Once the rifle is bedded, and I've replaced the sub-par bottom metal with something more appropriate, this will be a fine hunting rifle.
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You preempted my point... which is basically that people complain about cheap products because they buy cheap products, but expect quality. The manufacturers respond to sales, if the cheaper products are the ones to sell, which direction do you expect the R&D to focus... on quality or on price point?

There is guy on here that keeps posting gripe threads/posts about the poor quality of the bottom end guns that he keeps buying... wake up. If the money is to be made from low-end, mass produced, quick turnaround (low QC) products that is where companies will focus their resources... they have to turn a profit, and as we have seen over the past decade margins are tight and big ships do sink.

When my kids were young I got into H&R breakaction rifles, compared to the overall market they were a lowend gun (not in the way an Axis or American is to the rest of the line-up)... I had a ball customizing them and working with them and they were great for getting the kids out shooting and hunting, and nieces, nephews and their friends, many of whom are still shooting those rifles... but even though fit & finish were rough and tolerances loose, we never complained, considering the price point and target market.

I guess what I am saying is, if you want quality you should expect to pay for it, something has got to give on the X-Y scale of cost vs. quality.
 
hoytcanon said:
How do you know Browning is producing crap?
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Glad you asked this,.. I guess I need to correct myself on my OP,... I didn't mean to make it sound like Browning guns are "altogether crap", just that a lot of the composite stuff is getting boring and some of it is kind of "crappy" lookin,... in no way is the quality and craftsmanship crap,... IMO Browning still produces the best firearms in there price range, and probably better than some at higher price ranges,... IMO Browning composite stocks are the best composite stocks on the market, they are very solid, well built, well balanced, and the duratouch is awesome,.. like I said, I have a X-Bolt Stainless Stalker that I really like, but I wouldn't want a cabinet full of composite stock rifles,.. however, I do like to have all the wood and blue Browning rifles that I can afford,.. so I just wish they would give us more nice traditional wood options.
 
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Tabacco Brook said:
Glad you asked this,.. I guess I need to correct myself on my OP,... I didn't mean to make it sound like Browning guns are "altogether crap", just that a lot of the composite stuff is getting boring and some of it is kind of "crappy" lookin,... in no way is the quality and craftsmanship crap,... IMO Browning still produces the best firearms in there price range, and probably better than some at higher price ranges,... IMO Browning composite stocks are the best composite stocks on the market, they are very solid, well built, well balanced, and the duratouch is awesome,.. like I said, I have a X-Bolt Stainless Stalker that I really like, but I wouldn't want a cabinet full of composite stock rifles,.. however, I do like to have all the wood and blue Browning rifles that I can afford,.. so I just wish they would give us more nice traditional wood options.
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I agree completely, to me, plastics are "soul-less" and stainless is uninspiring... deep bluing and dark, richly grained walnut gets my heart pumping and holds my interest and affection. However, in the interest of utility, I do own a number of synthetic/stainless rifles, not lowend ones, but my attachment to them is... meh.
 
Sounds like you need to switch brands! Weatherby Lazerguard. Held one in person very close to not letting go. If my LGS had a browning hells canyon in 243 I likely would have left with it.. Good camo, good colors... Would of been an awesome yote rig! instead I got a stainless weatherby.


 
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