Ambidextrous!
As Daniel O’Dea discovered, the Beretta BRX1 swings both ways
Last year when I covered the US SHOT Show I reported on the Beretta BRX1. Newly launched to the US market at the time, it was my ‘pick for the most interesting new bolt gun’. My overview read: “A straight pull bolt-action rifle featuring a reversable linear bolt allowing for conversion to left-handed operation in moments without tools. An eight-lug bolt head (16 in Magnum calibres) provides strong lock-up, an interchangeable barrel system for calibre change and an adjustable trigger and stock.” On returning home one of the first things I did was contact Beretta Australia with the view of taking a better look at the BRX1 when one became available, which it duly did.
The BRX1 is a truly modular rifle and at the show the Beretta rep run through all its USPs (unique selling points), demonstrating in moments how the rifle could be converted from right to left-hand operation. And not just on which side the bolt handle would be, but which side the cases would eject. The rifle has a pretty much open-top receiver with the bolt riding in a carrier on rails machined into the chassis.
As such when the bolt and carrier are drawn to the rear, the breech and magazine are completely exposed except for a short extension of the receiver on which scope rail interface is mounted. This open design means you can top off the magazine from either side, easily inspect the chamber and/or potentially clear obstructions should one occur. The design vaguely reminded me of another famous Beretta in their 92 Series pistol, also noted for its open slide design.
Anyway, as there’s no receiver tube as such there’s nothing to stop cases ejecting to the left or right, it’s just a matter of how you set up the bolt. Right-to-left conversion is straightforward. Removing the bolt and carrier assembly, locate the cam pin on the top side of the assembly just reward of the bolthead itself. The pin is spring-loaded and while pressing down, draw the bolt forward out of the carrier. In turn the bolt head and body separate by sliding the head sideways (either direction), separating two sides of a keyway. Rotating the bolthead 180 degrees and sliding the two halves back together re-orientates both the ejector and extractor on the bolt face, so when all put back together cases will now eject from the left.
But before you put it all back together you can also swap the bolt handle over. To do this just flip the carrier assembly over and locate a small press stud which resembles a flat-headed screw about level with the bolt handle shaft. Pressing this down with a pen, screwdriver, bullet tip or whatever’s handy, slide the bolt handle out the carrier and reinsert it on the other side. Hey presto, your right-handed gun is now completely left-handed.
If you like you can also mix and match. Say for instance you’re spotlighting from a truck solo and want to work the bolt right-handed, though it would be handy for cases to eject to the left back into the cab. Likewise, if shooting off a fixed rest or bipod, the idea of working the bolt on the left and keeping your strong hand on the grip and trigger might appeal. No problem with the BRX1.
Another neat modular feature is the three-position adjustable trigger pack. This is done by first removing the bolt assembly which exposes a small tab at the rear of the action, the trigger latch. Using a small screwdriver or similar, depress a latch lever while lifting the trigger latch tab upwards. Once in the ‘up’ position you can slide the whole trigger pack forward and out through the magazine well. On the side of the trigger pack is a button which can be manipulated into three separate slots. According to the factory, the top slot gives trigger pressure of 1kg, middle 1.25kg and lowest 1.5kg, which translates as roughly 2, 3 and 4lbs in old language. It appears to me manipulation of the button downward simply increases spring tension on the trigger spring, in turn increasing the trigger pressure. Simple but effective and I assume most will set it on 2lbs and forget it.
Barrels on the BRX1 are interchangeable via two 6mm Hex bolts accessed via the underside of the fore-end. The barrel beds with precision directly on to the rifle’s aircraft-grade aluminum chassis, mating a generous recoil lug, this fit ensuring consistent bedding geography. “Keeps the barrel in the same place at all times,” according to factory literature. At time of writing barrels are available in five chamberings: 300 Win Mag, 30/06, .308 Win, .243 Win and 6.5CM. Those last four share the same bolt head but a beefed up 16-lug unit needs to be swapped for the .300 Win Mag. Swapping the bolt head is basically the same process as outlined earlier for changing the ejection direction, simple and without tools.
Still on the barrels, all are cold-hammer forged and importantly both chamber and bore (rifling) are forged at the same time, as opposed to chambers being reamed in a separate process, this said to provide “perfect coaxiality and accuracy”. Spellcheck didn’t like ‘coaxiality’ which basically means a measurement of how closely aligned the axes of two or more components are. The factory guarantees accuracy for all calibres of 1MOA for a three-shot group.
The magazine has a five-round capacity in all calibres including the .300 Win Mag big boy. It’s a flush-fitting unit, again in all calibres, and there’s little chance you’ll lose it based on the fact it has dual opposing catches to hold it in and is blaze orange in colour. There are four (calibre dependent) magazine option stamps A-D on the front edge, A for the .300WM, B the 30/06, C the .308 and D for both the .243 and 6.5 Creedmoor.
First released with synthetic furniture, the rifle sent for testing coincided with the local release of new wooden furniture variants available in two grades of timber. Chambered in .308 Winchester the rifle supplied had Grade 1 oiled walnut, straight-grained with little figure yet attractive all the same. The pistol grip features fine checkering with a light palmswell to both sides in keeping with the ambidextrous theme.
The Beretta logo is embossed on the grip cap and length of pull is adjustable via polymer spaces which conveniently have their thickness printed on the side. A Beretta ‘Extralight’ recoil pad, a technology well developed on their shotguns, finishes the buttstock and QD sling studs are present for sling attachment.
The rifle has a three-position safety catch on the rear of the bolt carrier for operation with the thumb. It’s one of those set-ups where you push a thumb tab forward with a tilting thumb piece locking it in position, so you need to push and tilt up to lock and push and tilt down to release.
Safety is ‘on’ with the tab to the rear, at which point both bolt and trigger are locked (we’ll call this Position 1). Pushing the tab forward about 4mm reveals a white bar (Position 2), where the trigger is still locked but the bolt can be opened to reload or clear the gun. Pushing the thumb piece a further 8-10mm reveals a red bar (Position 3) the fire position.
Just my opinion but I’m not a fan of this safety at all. I can’t fault its operation, it works perfectly as designed, but I find it both awkward and difficult to use. Rather than instinctive, to me it’s a trained exercise to release (activate) the safety with the thumb-tilting business. Likewise, forward pressure to the fire position is very heavy. I tried measuring it with my Lyman trigger gauge which stops at 12lbs and it topped out, so heavier than that.
If you were using it a lot you might need some thumb exercises. Joking of course and having said that, the safety would be far from a deal-breaker for this otherwise excellent rifle. In fact I feel much the same about the similar safety catch on the Blazer R8 straight-pull, so the BRX1 enjoys good company in that respect.
At the range I tried several factory ammo brands of different projectile weight and construction. I had little trouble replicating the sub-MOA three-shot factory accuracy guarantee with more than one brand and a few more just creeping over. Most groups presented as three-shot triangles spaced apart yet within or close to that one-inch mark centre to centre, excellent accuracy for a hunting rifle with a sporting weight and profiled barrel. I also had little issue consistently ringing steel on my 200m hanging plate rack with 300mm discs.
The action is slick and fast to operate, making follow-up shots a breeze and the rifle’s well balanced as you might expect from a company in the business of building fine competition shotguns. As one of Beretta Australia’s test rifles it came mounted with Steiner 4-16 Predator 4 scope with its bright optics and excellent clarity, making a very befitting partnership.
The whole package weighed 3.8kg unloaded, not the lightest but definitely in the ‘if you think it’s too heavy man up’ category. I did manage one outing afield after pigs, lugging my heavy frame up hill and down dale for four kilometers, only to spot some likely characters dashing across the nearby hillside just as I returned home, disappearing into a sea of berry and bush. My overall impression is if I were to be tasked with carrying a BRX1 afield on a more permanent basis, I’d in no way be unsatisfied. Another very fine product from the Beretta stable for sure.