Browning Buckmark .22 Rim Fire Race Gun

Browning Buckmark .22

I've always liked the looks of the Browning Buckmarks. The heavy barrels, the full length scope mount, the military angle grip, some absolutely beautiful grip panels, all add to the esthetics. The Browning reputation for fine quality firearms certainly doesn't hurt either!

When the opportunity arose for a good deal on a Buckmark, with red dot scope, and in like-new condition, I jumped at it.

As I do with any new firearm, I took it home and disassembled it fully, cleaned it, lubed it, and became familiar with it's inside workings.

One thing I didn't like was that if you have a scope on it, the scope can cover up the rear-most scope rail socket headed mount screw. The rail has to come off the remove the slide. That means you have to re-zero the scope every time you remove the slide for cleaning. Not a big deal, but a minor aggravation.

A second thing I noticed was that the slide movement wasn't very smooth. It wasn't really very rough, but it just wasn't that Browning "greased glass" sort of smoothness. Granted, this was nearly a new Buckmark, so that certainly was a contributing factor. While I had it apart, I polished the sliding surfaces on the slide and frame, and it was noticeably smoother. Still not as smooth as I would have liked, but a lot better than it was. Putting two or three thousand rounds through it probably would have improved it even more. It was definitely decent, just not what I would expect from something from Browning.

A third snivel, (and all of these things I've mentioned here are very minor snivels) is the grip panels. If you have fairly small hands, the grips shown in the picture make it feel like you are hanging on to a two by four. That being said, I have to admit that once I got used to them, it felt better, and I was almost starting to like them. Go figure! Anyhow, changing to different grip panels is no big deal, and some of those fancy ones from Browning are works of art.

"So stop sniveling at tell us how it shoots!" I was impressed by how well it shot. From a bench rest it was clearly more accurate than I am. It chambered most anything I threw at it, and mis-feeds just didn't seem to happen. With a red dot on it, rapid fire was very good, and it seemed to come up on target easily. Unfortunately, I didn't get to shoot much over a brick of ammo through it before I made the mistake of letting a buddy of mine try it out.

It was sorta like a part of his hand! I probably shouldn't have sold it to him. Then I made another dumb mistake and showed him the "Taco" grip. Now I've got to shoot against him! Dumb - dumb - dumb!!

Overall impressions: The Buckmark is a handgun I have no problem recommending. They're great for plinking, reliable and accurate enough for club competition.

For a look at the entire Browning Buckmark line, go here and have a look.

If I weren't shooting Hi Standards, I'd probably be shooting Buckmarks. I liked it a lot!!