This A-bolt Mountin Ti is shown full-length with a Zeiss 3-9X scope.

The first rifle I took to Africa during the early 1970s was a Safari Grade Browning in .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. Among other things, I bumped off my very first Cape buffalo with that rifle. In those days Browning bolt guns were built in Belgium by Fabrique Nationale, and two basic actions were used: the FN Mauser for long cartridges and the Sako action for cartridges of medium and short lengths. Those early High Powers, as Browning called them, were fine rifles. But they were quite expensive to manufacture, and it showed in their prices. When I acquired my .375 I could have bought a Winchester Model 70 in the same caliber for $65 less.

In 1977 Browning replaced its series of High Power rifles with a rifle designed by Joe Badali. The design of the new BBR (short for Browning Bolt Rifle), along with the fact that it was manufactured in Japan, where production labor rates were lower, allowed Browning to introduce it at a price more in line with those of bolt guns built by Winchester and Remington. With a 60-degree bolt rotation, unique swing-down magazine, decent trigger and a bolt shroud that did a great job of protecting the shooter in the event of a ruptured case or blown primer, the BBR was not a bad rifle, but it was a bit overweight, and its action lacked the trimness of the old High Power actions.

Realizing this, Browning management made the decision to lighten up and scale down the BBR action and reintroduce it in 1984 as the A-Bolt. The new rifle weighed about a pound less. Among other changes, its bolt had three large locking lugs rather than nine smaller ones. Eventually, it would also be offered with a left-hand action.

Of the design features inherited by the A-Bolt from the BBR, the swing-down magazine box has to be considered the very best of them. I say this because it offers all the advantages of a detachable magazine without the disadvantage of possibly dropping out and becoming lost in the field.

The swing-down magazine box can be loaded with cartridges in four ways.

The magazine of the rifle can be loaded with cartridges in four ways: through the ejection port, as Paul Mauser preferred; with the magazine box swung down but still attached to the hinged floorplate; or with it completely detached from the floorplate; or remove the empty magazine box from the floorplate, and quickly snap in a loaded one. The latter two methods allow the magazine to be recharged while the bolt is closed and locked on a cartridge in the chamber--not a bad option to have on a rifle to be used for hunting dangerous game.

The bolt release is on the left side of the receiver bridge; the barrel screws into a hardened-steel insert inside the titanium receiver.

Another nifty idea the A-Bolt borrows from the BBR is scissors-style follower struts (in lieu of the more common leaf-spring-powered follower), which discourage the nose of a cartridge from tipping downward in the magazine box as the bolt pushes it toward the chamber. This is why the A-Bolt feeds Winchester's fat and stubby WSM family of cartridges like grease on glass.