Browning X-Bolt Speed Rifle under the Christmas Tree |

Browning X-Bolt Speed in 7mm Rem Mag

My readers are aware that I am hunting moose in Newfoundland again. My last moose fell to a single shot from my .375 Ruger, but because of recoil, I took precious seconds to chamber a second round. By the time I had a round in the chamber, the moose fell.

I did not practice this chambering of a second round. I suppose if I were hunting Cape Buffalo, my practice would have been quite different …as if my life depended on it.

As many have said, “Moose often do not fall quickly to a single shot.” And they can move quickly into cover making a second shot more difficult.

The shooter must be prepared to quickly, eject the spent case, rechambering a new round and follow-up with a second or even third shot. There is plenty of video evidence of this follow-up on the internet.

With larger traditional heavy recoiling rifle calibers like. a 300 Win Mag or heavier, the shooter takes more time due to recoil. He lifts the Mauser like bolt high at 90 degrees, pulls back hard to empty the chamber and closes the bolt with a second round.

The Browning X-Bolt “Speed” in 7mm Remington Magnum above has one of the fastest bolt throws on the market today. The “speed” refers to the short bolt throw 60 degrees to eject and smoothly chamber a second round.

Bolt throw Speed was key to my purchase and I tested many bolts first hand as I shopped.

I purchased this rifle with a 26 inch fluted barrel in 7mm Remington Magnum with a removable muzzle brake. I installed my Leupold VX-6 3-18 just like in the image above. Love that scope!!

Since I reload, I found some new reloading dies for it.

Trigger pull is adjustable down to 3 pound but came set to 4 pounds. The caliber choice 7mm Remington Magnum works for both short or long range shots out to 500 yards with Nosler’s 175g ABLR. On paper, ballistic data says the ABLR leaves the muzzle at around 3000 fps with max load RL 22 powder. We will see what I get for accuracy as some rifle barrel twist rates have stability issues for the bullet.

My ballistics chart says, at 500 yds at sea level and 40ºF the 175g ABLR will clock 2332 fps and have 2113 ft-lbs of delivered energy.

More soon!!