The Strength of a Browning Action
I was at my friends machine shop a week ago having him rechamber a barrel for me. While there, an acquaintance of his came in with his son and a Browning A-Bolt in 270 Win locked up tighter than a drum. Fella said his 12 yr old son had been using the rifle that morning and had shot at a buck when it locked up tight and darned near knocked him out of the stand. We asked it the boy had used a handload but the fella said no, it was factory ammunition.
After completing the chambering of my barrel later, we had a chance to look at the Browning. Long story short, we had to use a leather mallet on the bolt handle to get the action open. When it did pop open, the case head fell out of the action along with the fired primer. I picked up the case head and immediately saw it was an RP case with 308 Win head stamp!
My friend had to use his 270 chamber reamer to remove approximately 80% of the case thickness before the case body finally released from the chamber wall using a hooked tool he had made to bite into that remainder of the case. Of course, the 308 case had been blown straight wall in the longer chamber. It's amazing the rifle held together while swaging the 308 bullet down to .277! A thorough check of the rifle and a test fire showed no damage to the rifle. I'm totally impressed by Browning quality and strength.
