Browning X Bolt Max Long Range 65 Creedmoor Review
Browning X-Bolt Max Long Range Review
The new Browning X-Bolt Max Long Range has custom features and extremely practiced accurateness that are hard to crush.
August 26, 2019
Photos by Marker Fingar
Finding a good long-range hunting rifle is much harder than it sounds. Sure, building a custom rifle for the task is easy, only it'due south besides expensive. Then, that leaves product guns, only how do y'all know which is correct for you lot?
In my volume, the biggest win for long-range hunters in 2019 comes from Browning with its new X-Commodities Max Long Range. Why? The company has been perfecting the X-Bolt line since its 2008 inception by incorporating new features that continue adding to the rifle's accuracy potential. This year is no different, as Browning has added a new stock. This is the first time I've seen an easily adjustable stock on a production rifle that has the features and provides the accuracy necessary for hunting at extended distances.
Why Adaptability Matters
The stock on the X-Bolt Max Long Range has many features that every long-range hunter needs. Key amidst them are adjustability and light weight.
It'due south made from rigid and thick composite material. Information technology is not made from thin injection-molded plastic that lacks the rigidity needed to keep the barreled action from moving nether recoil. The composite textile that Browning selected is very rigid and light. Total weight for the rifle sits at just over viii pounds, which for a long-range hunting rifle is merely about ideal.
What impresses me the about well-nigh this stock is its adaptable comb and adjustable length of pull. Those 2 adjustments are admittedly critical for constructive long-range shooting. Of the two, the adjustable comb is the most critical.
Having an adjustable comb on a rifle allows a shooter to become a repeatable, solid and stable head position behind the scope. No matter what height the scope is mounted at, the shooter can raise the comb until there is plenty of contact between the rifle and their cheek. If the shooter relaxes their neck muscles and lets the rifle conduct the weight of their head, they have the best chance of communicable the round's touch on through the scope.
Beingness able to maintain a full field of view through the scope as the rifle recoils determines whether or not the shooter can watch their round affect. If information technology's a miss or impacts somewhere other than desired, the shooter can correct and send another shot rapidly without having to ask for a correction or look around to reacquire the creature.
Browning has a section of Picatinny rails that sits atop the receiver, and that's desirable because it allows enough of band-mounting options. Some scopes don't have a lot of maintube, so being able to mount rings in confined locations and so mount the scope for optimal eye relief without having to hit 2 niggling pieces of scope base of operations is refreshing. Any scope tin can fit on the X-Bolt Max Long Range.
Still in Stock
One of the biggest surprises that came from handling the Max Long Range occurred when I separated the barreled action from the stock. Imagine my surprise when I saw bedding compound, much like you'd observe on a custom-built rifle. The action had been bedded around the tenon, recoil lug and front activeness spiral also as effectually the rear action screw.
Just because someone dropped some bedding compound under the action doesn't hateful it was done correctly, and so I checked to encounter how well this particular barreled action was bedded to the stock. Every bit information technology turns out, it was an excellent bedding job.
The way to cheque any bedding task is to stand up the burglarize on its butt and place your left hand around the forend with your fingertips touching the seam between the barrel and the stock'southward butt channel, and then remove the rear action screw.
The magic happens when you loosen the forepart activeness screw, so make sure y'all're ready for it. Loosen the front spiral and endeavor to feel for movement with the fingertips of your left hand. If the barrel moves at all while loosening and removing the forepart action screw, the bedding doesn't practice a proficient job of stabilizing the barreled action.
In the case of this X-Bolt Max Long Range, there was absolutely no movement. In fact, I had a hard time getting the barreled action out of the stock and had to triple check to make sure at that place wasn't a third activeness screw somewhere. Information technology was and is an fantabulous bedding chore.
Every bit mentioned above, the Max Long Range has an adjustable comb besides as an adaptable length of pull. The length of pull adjusts via two spacers that ship with the rifle (one skinny, one fat). The owner also has the option to have the stock shortened by any competent gunsmith.
The rear-near portion of the comb and the rear of the toe are both parallel, so whatever stock-shortening won't crave reshaping the recoil pad to match the new contour. This is convenient when setting the burglarize upward for a immature or minor-framed shooter.
The stock's forend is likewise oriented for both long-range shooters and hunters. It is long plenty to provide acceptable existent estate for field shooting positions, has two sling-swivel studs and has a flat on the lesser. The flat is essential and helps the rifle sit all the same when laid across a haversack or some other field support.
Two sling-swivel studs should be mandatory for any hunting burglarize that might get shot in the decumbent. The Max has 3: two up front and one on the buttstock. The closest stud up front gives the sling a identify to attach, and the second sling-hinge stud serves as home to the bipod. This allows a rifle with a bipod to still exist comfortably carried afield.
Browning offers an accessory section of Picatinny rail that attaches to the forend using the two holes for the front sling-hinge studs. The end of the rails closest to the receiver has a location to mountain a sling, leaving a couple inches of Picatinny runway for use with a quick-detach bipod. This is such a sensible option I often wonder why more manufacturers don't follow adjust.
Range Time
Shooting the X-Bolt reminded me why these rifles are then popular. The iii-lug action gives it such a short bolt throw that at that place'south no way the shooter'southward hand will ever collide with the scope'due south ocular housing when cycling the action. This is a consideration for any long-range rifle because the scopes that shooters and hunters put on them tend to exist big with high magnification and have ocular housings to match.
The rifle is enjoyable to shoot, thanks to the smart stock blueprint. The flat toe rides rear supports well, and the vertical pistol grip places the shooting paw in a comfortable position. The rummage is besides wide enough that the shooter can rest their head on the stock for extended periods of time without discomfort.
If a hunter thinks he might have to lay on his rifle for a while earlier his casualty presents the desired shot, this is the burglarize to have. This may be the most comfy factory burglarize I've ever evaluated.
As far as accuracy is concerned, the rifle did better than I expected, and I had pretty high expectations. Browning spent a lot of time getting the barrels on the Max Long Range right, and a quick spin through the twist rates offered for each cartridge shows that they did what was right instead of what was convenient.
They put a 1:10-inch twist on the .308 Win., just they used a 1:8-inch twist on the .300 Win. Mag. That additional twist rate is necessary to be able to shoot the new 230-grain (and heavier) bullets in the .300 Win. Mag. Proficient luck finding a 1:viii-inch-twist .300 Win. Mag anywhere else.
Accurateness of my test rifle chambered in half dozen.5 Creedmoor with a 1:7-inch twist, 26-inch barrel was superb. At 100 yards, the rifle loved SIG Sauer'southward 140-gr. Match ammo, clustering one five-shot string into a tight .48-inch grouping. I tin can't expect to stretch its legs on longer ranges.
New rifles come out all the time, and it seems like most of them practice a pretty adept job of getting nigh things right. The Ten-Bolt Max Long Range is one of those rare gems that got everything correct, and it'll sell in the gun shop for right around $ane,000. That's non cheap by any means, only it is a tremendous value.
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Source: https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/browning-x-bolt-max-long-range-review/365595
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