Browning model 71
Browning Model 71 rifle chambered in 348 Winchester. It features a 20-inch barrel, 4-round capacity, brass bead front sight, adjustable rear sight, wood stock, and blued finish. Overall, this Browning is in good condition with normal use handling marks on the stock and receiver. The Bore condition is good with crisp rifling. Based on Browning’s serial lookup this gun was manufactured in Japan in 1987. This would be a good choice for recreational target shooting. Buy online today!
My Review of the Browning Model 71 348
I don’t use lever actions all the time, but I love them dearly. My all-time favorite is the Winchester Model 1886. Big but beautiful, with clean, elegant lines and smooth action. The ’86 was the first lever action designed for Winchester by John Moses Browning, and it was intended to house powerful, large-cased black-powder cartridges
But by the 1930s Winchester had a problem. Its Model 54 bolt action was successful, but at its heart, Winchester was a lever-action company when it came to rifles. The box magazine Savage 99 offered serious competition for the ’86, as did Marlin’s side-eject rifles. In this pre-scope era, Winchester’s ’94 was still doing fine, but the ’86 was costly, and sales were down
Engineers created manufacturing accommodations to reduce costs. They also went to work on a new cartridge that would max out the big action and be the most powerful and versatile round that could possibly be housed in a tubular magazine lever action. The rifle was the Winchester Model 71, introduced in 1935, replacing the ’86. Stock style and barrels differed, but cosmetically and almost mechanically, it is an ’86, although few parts are interchangeable. With it came the .348 Win. cartridge.
The success of Winchester’s effort to revive the large-caliber lever action is questionable, primarily as a matter of timing. Scopes came into common use after World War II, and it’s a challenge to scope a top-eject rifle like the 71. Also, rifle shooters were starting to understand the importance of bullet aerodynamics, and like all tubular-magazine rifles, the 71 was restricted to blunt-nosed bullets for safety reasons.