As Browning’s Aaron Cummins notes in the video below, some shooters buy their extremely popular X-Bolt rifles and set a gunsmith to work on them, upgrading the guns beyond the standard factory features. The idea behind their new X-Bolt Pro Long Range was to give shooters who want something more an upgraded rifle right out of the box, no gunsmithing required.
Here’s their press release:
The new Browning X-Bolt Pro Long Range rifle is built to offer hunters top accuracy at extended ranges. This bolt-action rifle features the exclusive Second Generation carbon fiber stock that has been designed for unmatched rigidity and all-weather stability, while reducing overall weight. Textured gripping surfaces and a right-hand palm swell aid in control and a Cerakote Burnt Bronze Finish is applied to the stock for added protection.
The barrel and receiver are stainless steel and feature a tough Cerakote Burnt Bronze finish for added resistance to corrosion. A spiral fluted bolt body and bolt handle are also included.
• Second Generation Carbon Fiber Stock with Cerakote Burnt Bronze Finish
• Stainless Steel Action and Spiral Fluted Bolt Body and Handle with Cerakote Burnt Bronze Finish
• Free-floating, Fluted, Heavy Sporter Contour Stainless Steel Barrel with Cerakote Burnt Bronze Finish
• Threaded Muzzle Brake with Thread Protector
• Proprietary Lapping Process Enhances Bore Finish
• Drilled and tapped for X-Lock Scope Mounts
• 60° Bolt Lift
• Detachable Rotary Magazine
• Adjustable Feather Trigger
• Inflex Recoil Pad
Good for shooters, for hunters, not so much. Are you really going to carry a dead critter that weighs as much as you do, and your rifle and binoculars, 1,000 yards up and down and back to your shooting stand and then back to your transportation? Now, be honest with yourself. Do you make the old man noises getting up and down to fetch the remote control? Does carrying out the trash make your arms sore? Do you even own boots you can carry weight 1,000 plus yards without getting blisters? Which + $1,000. scope and rings combo are you going to pay your gunsmith to mount and boresite for you. What’s the B.C. of all the different ammo you’ve personally tested? Give me a $200 to 300, center fire Savage rifle, good, fresh factory ammo, a Bushnell fixed power scope that I’ve mounted and aimed for myself. I want to stalk within 200 yards of my dinner. Then see if I can get any closer without spookin’ ’em. Then smoke ’em with one carefully aimed shot. That’s hunting. Other stuff…well, it’s shooting…but it’s sure not hunting.
Bow hunting is hunting. Anything with a rifle is just target shooting.
Gee, I have the old stupid X-Bolt. I can’t hit squat over 1200 yards.
Chase the deer down and break his neck with your bare hands. Now THAT’s hunting.
I know a guy who killed an 8 point with a BFR ( big fckn rock)
Browning X-bolt at 1000 yards……6 years ago!
What a refreshing way to spend a Saturday evening. I get to read someone’s manufactured definition of what hunting is (or is not), right down to his manufactured maximum yardage, without so much as mentioning a single species of “dinner.”
I have two reliable sources to quench my thirst for sanctimonious virtue signaling. CNN and TTAG.
Bowhunting maximum yardage is 50 yards, maybe 60 if conditions are perfect. Normal yardage is 10-30. That’s hunting.
Sitting in a tree with a bow, waiting for an animal to walk under you is target shooting.
Bro, if you’re mad because you can’t afford the rifle, then just say so.
I’d just go buy The Fix from Q and call it a day.
Well, I would, but I already did. Maybe I’ll just buy another.
When I was looking for a new hunting rifle I looked at the Browning X Bolt and thought it was really nice, except for one stupid feature. If I have the opportunity, and this happens once in awhile, I will go prone and shoot off my pack. Why, oh why, did Browning put a radial muzzle brake on the damn thing??? Do their product development people never shoot prone, or do they just enjoy getting dust in their face? Why not a brake with ports only on the sides and the top? I don’t get it.
JB Weld
I have a soft sided rifle case with a big patch on it. Why, because I was out shooting with a buddy, and I was shooting prone using a couple of cases as a rest (like you mention with your pack) and that particular soft case was on the top. Buddy asked if I wanted to try his new rifle (7mm Rem), not an x-bolt but it has a similar brake. I fired a round and the downward blast from the brake tore a nice hole in the side of my case – that did mitigate the dust though.
The muzzle brake is removable and the rifle comes with a thread protector in the box for shooting prone. I was concerned until I verified this, much like you.
Be like the good old boys down in the hollows and marshes. Kill a full grown, boar hog with a Bowie knife/spear. I’ve never done it. I have seen it done my own self, and a pump 12 never felt so much like a .22. Real fear has it’s own distinctive perfume. That’s some kind of hunting. -30-
I saw a program featuring a woman down in Texas who has an outfit that hunts problem hogs professionally. (Yeah yeah, all hogs are a problem…) She has her dogs run them down and hold them, then she moves in with her bowie. I don’t know why she goes to all that risk, but I do know she has more guts than I do..
“She has her dogs run them down and hold them, then she moves in with her bowie.”
She must have been married once.
(*I* wouldn’t wanna mess with her…)
I thought the barrel on my Weatherby looked thin.
Hey it’s in 6.5CM and 5 other calibers .
But as long as its in 6.5CM other calibers don’t matter.