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Old 02-08-2011, 09:30 AM
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sns2 sns2 is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
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If money is not the deciding factor listen to the majority of the posters and go with the Sako. No one has ever regretted buying a high quality product. You will undoubtedly be happy with it.

I currently shoot a Weatherby and have had two Browning rifles in the past, and still have a Browning shotgun in my cabinet, so don't anybody freak on me by saying that I am talking trash and have never even owned a Browning. Last fall I convinced my hunting buddy to buy an X-Bolt. It has not been a good experience for him and it may be for sale when it gets back from the factory. First trip out to the range and after about fifteen rounds, the gun which is equipped with a VXII, is shooting all over the place. Upon inspection one of the bolts on the scope mount is sheered off. Not a good start. Gun goes back and different mounts are put on. We go back to the range. Gun is shooting nice, but occasionally my buddy goes to chamber a bullet and hears a "click" when he fires. In his mind, he is thinking that he is not being aggressive enough when chambering. He doesn't mention it to me. Fast forward to this November. He is on a cutline helping another friend skin a buck. They look up and see the largest whitetail they have ever seen in the wild. He grabs his gun and chambers a round, puts the crosshairs on a huge 12 point typical which is standing broadside, squeezes the admittedly nice Browning trigger, and instead of hearing the sweet crack of a 7MM Rem Mag and the lovely sound of bullet hitting animal, he hears the same click that he heard at the gun range. Nice. He now watches the tail wave bye-bye.

He took the gun back to Wholesale Sports, the worst place ever, argues with the idiot behind the counter who told him he was responsible for paying the freight charge to send it back to Browning, and now awaits word on why the new plastic rotary clip does not positively chamber a round each time the action is cycled. The manager at WS admitted that other customers have had this problem too.

Now, I am a realist who knows that both the Browning and Sako are mass produced rifles. I also know that stuff happens. But the main reason I got rid of one of my Browning rifles was repeated problems with the clip that were not rectified. This particular rifle was not an X-Bolt, but a BLR. Nonetheless, WS acknowledged that this has been a problem for them so far. It is also worth noting that this clip is one of the supposed improvements over the A-Bolt.

This forum is for opinions and stories in the field. When I take this firsthand story into account, I would solidly recommend you purchase the Sako. Last thing I have to say is that when were at the gun counter at WS, I convinced my buddy to look past the comparable models by Tikka, Weatherby, Remington, and Savage.
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