&
THE BRUGGER THOMET REVIEW
The lower chassis features mounting points for an Picatinny accessory rail and, at its forend, features a Parker-Hale style bipod, adjustable from 6 to 9 inches and featuring silently sprung, folding legs incorporating vertical, horizontal and rotational axis of movement.
The 24 inch medium/heavy contour barrel features 6 flutes and an internal twist rate of 1 in 11. The handbook supplied, recommends 168 grain bullets out to 600 metres and 190 grain up to 1000 metres but that is realistically talking ‘human torso’ targets and WE don’t go there! Target shooters know that without a 30-32 inch barrel, the 308 Winchester cartridge is generally entering the transonic region before 1000 yards - never mind metres.
A muzzle-brake is fitted to the barrel and this is a lateral, rather than radial design, meaning you don’t get dust-signature from the ground blown into your face – or worse, indicating your position to the enemy. It does of course need to be correctly indexed but this is done during manufacture. The handbook claims a recoil reduction of 40%.
The sound moderator supplied with the rifle is of steel construction and screws ontothe muzzle- brake. This is where a fully designed `integrated system` shines as, other than removing the thread protector, the brake need not be removed and the moderator screws over the brake and an
themselves
in their literature.
I fed the B+T a selection of my proven handloads in both 155 and 168 gr bullet weights and there was little to choose between either. When magazine-feeding a rifle - and therefore having little control over bullet-jump to the lands - I tend to prefer a tangent ogive match bullet, especially as this is
no hunting rifle. A Sierra 155 Matchking travelling at 2750 fps was happily shooting ¼ - 3/8 inch groups at 100 yards in calm conditions and the gun was very tolerant of shooter technique as point of aim/impact did not move with a different shooter behind the butt. This was no doubt attributable in part to the minimal levels of felt-recoil due to the weighty gun and the very efficient brake.
10
internal O-ring seals the unit as one solid lump - i.e. the brake’s lateral ports are sealed within the moderator. The brake won’t of course work inside the moderator as it cannot vent to atmosphere but now the moderator itself has taken over both flash- suppression, noise-reduction (stated at 33dB) and recoil reduction.
So, how does it shoot?
Well, to put it mildly, it is very, very good. Although a 308 is seen as somewhat tame by modern standards, it is a calibre of fine breeding and pedigree. It will never deliver the highest velocities or ballistic efficiency but it is capable of outstanding accuracy and remember, this is a rifle aimed at police and military users where the designated 7.62x51 chambering is an internationally known benchmark (funny they call it the APR 308?). The rifle was fitted with my Schmidt & Bender PMII 5-25 x 56 scope, which is similar to the one Brügger & Thomet specify
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