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Making a mark - Browning's Buck Mark

by John Robinson

The first .22 auto target pistol that I owned was a Browning Challenger - a slender barrelled ten-shot auto with a high front blade and a marginally adjustable rear sight. The addition of a barrel weight made a slight improvement to its handling characteristics and while it was hardly a target pistol by today’s standards, it was reliable pistols of this type that gave a generation of target pistol shooters their start

The Buck Mark has a 140mm bull barrel and a Weaver top rib, making scope mounting simple. The pistol is suited for ISSF bullseye matches as well as rimfire silhouette.A target version of this pistol, with vent rib bull barrel and fancy walnut thumb rest grips, was also available at the time, but the standard barrel was unfortunately 12mm longer than the 150mm allowed in the standard pistol match rules. These Belgian-made selfloaders set a high quality standard and many are still in service 35 years later.

The current crop of Browning target selfloaders is no longer made in Belgium, but is produced in the USA and all are in the Buck Mark series. The latest manifestation is the Browning Buck Mark Target SE, which has a bull barrel, Weaver-style top rib and hooded front and rear sights. The barrel length is 140mm and barrel diameter is a full 22mm. The weight, unloaded, is just more than 1000g.

The first Buck Mark that I remember was the Silhouette model, with a 200mm barrel and wooden fore-end. This version is not listed in the 2001 catalogue, although it found favour with rimfire silhouette shooters as an economical production class pistol.

The Buck Mark comes packaged in a hardcase with locking keys, magazine and manualThe Target SE model received for review is set up more for rimfire silhouette than for standard pistol in my opinion, largely because of the sighting arrangements.

Before getting in to that, the operating characteristics of the Browning are of initial interest. The action is conventional blowback, with the slide being driven rearward by the cartridge and cycling to pick up a live round from the magazine. There is a lug sticking up at the rear of the frame that contains a buffer, which absorbs the impact of the rearward-moving slide and softens the felt recoil.

The trigger is non-adjustable, apart from a backlash adjusting screw in the face of the gold-plated trigger. On the test gun, the trigger released at about 1050g, which was about perfect for optimum standard pistol use and within the legal weight limits. The pistol came with only one magazine, which is unusual in a target gun, and I am sure that most owners would prefer the security of an additional magazine.

While it is not an issue in a pistol of this type, the Browning incorporates a plunger in the rear of the magazine well. This acts as a magazine ejector, dropping the magazine out of the gun very positively when the magazine release at the root of the trigger guard is pressed.

The grips in the test gun were oil-finished walnut, with a thumb rest on the left grip best suited to right-handed shooters. For a non-orthopaedic grip, I found the Buck Mark’s handle very comfortable and a good fit for my average-sized hand.

The Browning is quite deep through the frame, measuring 65mm from the front of the trigger to the back of the frame, so ladies and juniors may find this a bit of a handful.

The rear sight is fully adjustable for windage and elevation, although the adjustments are partly concealed by the clip-on steel hood. The front sight is a rectangular post that can be rotated through 90 degrees to change its apparent width. It is also hooded, so the reflections off the vertical posts are not a problem.

The front sight is covered by a hood (here removed) and has a rectangular pin, which can be rotated to vary the front sight width.The rear notch is quite deep and narrow and appears to me to have been set up specifically for rimfire silhouette. Sight widths about 3mm or more are typical on ISSF bullseye pistols, while the standard setting on the Browning is closer to 2mm.

Because of the small targets used in rimfire silhouette and the precision required, finer sights are the order of the day. The hoods on the sights also accommodate shooting outdoors (not under cover), which creates difficulties with open sights if the shooter is in the sun. Sun angles can make eight or ten clicks difference in the point of impact from morning to afternoon with unshaded sights as the light’s angle changes.

Silhouette accuracy is even more demanding than that required to shoot ten’s in ISSF matches, so I was interested to see how the Buck Mark would perform with a variety of .22 target ammo. I stuck with Winchester for these tests, as some new XTR target ammo was supplied by Olin Australia, who also supplied the test pistol.

I added some Winner, some old and doubtful Leader, Supreme Pistol and Super Pistol to the test program, as well as some of my precious Winchester Laser high-velocity match ammo. It is always hard to evaluate target ammo and target pistols by shooting hand-held groups, even off a bench rest, but at least relative performance can be determined.

The Buck Mark’s rear sight is fully click adjustable for windage and elevation. The grooves in the top rib are designed to accommodate Weaver-type scope mounts.The first test session involved chronographing the ammo through my Oehler Model 35 Chronotach and at least getting a rough idea of how the pistol handled and grouped.

Like most US-designed target selfloaders, the Buck Mark lacks the sophisticated handling characteristics of its European counterparts, largely because of the sight line being about 50mm above the shooting hand. This causes a fair bit of recoil movement and, while this is no handicap in the slow-fire matches, it makes it a little tougher in the timed fire events because of the recoil recovery characteristics of the pistol.

The Browning is a pleasant handgun to shoot, with its adequate weight and very good out-of-the-box trigger and most of the groups shot hovered around the 50 to 75mm mark. The only slight problem during the tests, where functioning was 100 per cent reliable with all ammo tested, came from the plastic case deflector. This gadget clips onto the sight rail and is positioned over the ejection port. It works well, deflecting empty cases downwards. Again, I think that this is a rimfire silhouette feature, as the match is rarely shot with the shooters in partitioned bays and hot cases flying around the firing line can lose friends and infuriate people. The deflector was easily dislodged in normal handling of the pistol and it fell off a couple of times, so owners may have to look at a better way of securing it to the rail.

Front and rear sights on the Buck Mark are fitted with hoods that clip onto the rib. These spring steel units are difficult to remove without scratching the finish on the rib and are best left in place. The case deflector above the ejection port is plastic and easily clips onto the rib.I was keen to fully evaluate the accuracy of the Browning, so I fitted a 4x Tasco rifle scope to the pistol in high (see-through) Weaver mounts. Standard height mounts will cause the scope to foul the sights. This allowed much more precise aiming and I was able to hold within the diameter of a .22 patch during the second testing session.

This was very revealing and indicated a considerable difference in ammunition performance. The old Leader, which I knew was not very accurate, proved it in the Browning, producing very erratic groups of up to 75mm for five shots. I have other older batches of Leader that shoot exceptionally well, but this one brick has proved very unfriendly in my own target guns.

The XTR was able to just manage ten-ring (50mm) groups, as was the Super Pistol, which in fact is the US made predecessor to the Australian made XTR. I did not have much Laser ammo to spare, but it also shot about the same as the XTR out of the Browning.

The best performer by far was the Supreme Pistol, which consistently shot better than Xring groups, with several under 20mm. With this ammo/pistol combination, there is no question that the Buck Mark is a competitive proposition as a production class silhouette pistol, while providing an accurate platform for any of the other .22 Long Rifle events.

Velocity statistics on the ammo tested through the Buck MarkThe velocity statistics on the ammo tested through the Buck Mark are listed in the table.

The good news also is the price, with dealers advertising prices less than $1000, which is excellent value in this era of $0.50 Aussie dollars.

The Browning is supplied in a moulded plastic case, with a trigger lock that consisted of a plastic-coated steel cable that loops through the magazine well and prevents the pistol from operating.

The test pistol was supplied by Olin Australia, distributor of Browning products. Information on other Browning Buck Mark models should be available through any pistol dealer.

Captions
Image 1: The Buck Mark has a 140mm bull barrel and a Weaver top rib, making scope mounting simple. The pistol is suited for ISSF bullseye matches as well as rimfire silhouette.
Image 2: The Buck Mark comes packaged in a hardcase with locking keys, magazine and manual - at less then $1000.
Image 3: The front sight is covered by a hood (here removed) and has a rectangular pin, which can be rotated to vary the front sight width.
Image 4: The Buck Mark’s rear sight is fully click adjustable for windage and elevation. The grooves in the top rib are designed to accommodate Weaver-type scope mounts.
Image 5: Front and rear sights on the Buck Mark are fitted with hoods that clip onto the rib. These spring steel units are difficult to remove without scratching the finish on the rib and are best left in place. The case deflector above the ejection port is plastic and easily clips onto the rib.