Bergara B-14 Stoke Rifle: Compact and Highly Capable for Hunting

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As a rifle nut, I’ve spent a great deal of time agonizing over the ideal setup for a given hunting scenario. The fact is, though, that I have enough experience to make most rifles work in a pinch. Besides, I’m 6-1 and 215 pounds, so just about any off-the-rack rifle fits me reasonably well. When I became a father, though, I faced a completely different dilemma: What is the ideal hunting rifle setup for my children?

The fact is that there aren’t many good factory options when it comes to big game rifles for smaller hunters. But the new B-14 Stoke from Bergara was created to fill this important niche.

The Stoke is built around the proven Bergara B-14 action. This push-feed system is loosely based on the Remington 700 but with some notable departures. Like the 700, the B-14 uses a cylindrical receiver and a two-lug bolt, but it also incorporates a coned breech that is more conducive to reliable feeding.

The B-14 uses a sliding plate extractor and a spring-loaded plunger-type ejector. The B-14 has a .150-inch counterbore in the bolt, so the case head is fully supported. Over the past few years, I have tested and hunted with numerous Bergara rifles built around the B-14 action, and all have been 100 percent reliable.

A Handle On Things

The B-14 uses a swept-back bolt handle with an oversized and knurled handle. The two-position safety lever is mounted on the right side of the tang where it is easy to access. The bolt can be cycled with the safety engaged.

Taking a new hunter afield with a bad trigger is setting them up for failure, which is one of the reasons I’ve rejected many budget-priced youth rifles. The B-14 Stoke has an excellent trigger. This sample broke at 2.8 pounds with zero creep. The trigger is adjustable from 2.8 to 4.4 pounds using a single hex screw that is accessible without removing the stock.

The B-14 Stoke is available in nine chamberings. Six are what we would consider short-action or .308-length cartridges: 7mm-08, .243 and so forth. My test rifle was chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor and fits in this category. These rifles use a standard internal magazine and a hinged floorplate. With standard short-action cartridges, the Stoke holds 4+1 while in the 6.5 PRC chambering it holds 3+1.

In addition, three .223-length cartridges are available that feed from AICS detachable magazines: .223 Rem., .300 BLK and .350 Legend. The magazines in these chamberings have a capacity of 5+1.

Light Recoil

A few of cartridges are worth special mention. A .22-250 is offered with a 1:9 twist that allows for the use of heavier deer-appropriate bullets where a .22 centerfire is legal for taking big game. Recoil is extremely light in this chambering and, in my experience, fast .22 centerfires are plenty deadly with the correct projectile.

The 6.5 PRC steps up the performance level without significant recoil. If elk were on the menu, this might be the best option. Finally, the relatively new .350 Legend is offered. This round is quickly building a reputation as an excellent short-range hunting cartridge ideal for new hunters, and it’s legal in states that permit straight-wall rifle cartridges. It’s encouraging that Bergara made the effort to match the chamberings with the rifle’s intended use.

Bergara is probably best known for the quality of its barrels. Produced at the company’s state-of-the-art facility in Spain, these steel barrels are straightened, drilled, honed, button-rifled and then finally stress-relieved.

The quality of Bergara’s barrels is so good that many other major rifle makers actually use them instead of producing their own. A few years ago, I found myself wandering the aisles of Bergara USA’s Lawrenceville, Georgia, headquarters. Reading the destinations printed on the crates of ready-to-ship barrels was eye-opening, to say the least.

Down The Barrel

The B-14 Stoke uses a No. 4.5 contour barrel made from 4140 steel, striking a nice balance between keeping the rifle light enough to handle while maintaining shootability and keeping felt recoil to a reasonable level. The barrel, like the receiver, is finished in Graphite Black Cerakote.

Six of the chamberings use 20-inch barrels, with 16.5-inch barrels for the AICS-equipped cartridges. All the barrels are threaded 5/8x24.

I have become a huge proponent of using suppressors on hunting rifles, especially with young or inexperienced shooters. Not only does a suppressor protect their hearing—and mine—but it also cuts recoil and muzzle blast, which makes the shooting experience far less intimidating. I would love to see a slightly shorter barrel in the Stoke’s larger chamberings to allow suppressor use while maintaining a reasonable overall length.

The stock is a rifle’s primary interface with a shooter. If the stock doesn’t fit, it will always be tough to shoot a rifle to its potential. This is the problem that children and smaller adults face. The stock on the B-14 Stoke is built with that challenge in mind.

Growing With The Shooter

The Stoke’s length of pull is 12.25 inches, compared to 13.5 inches or 13.75 inches on most factory rifles. Children grow, and the Stoke is designed to grow along with them. A series of quarter-inch spacers are included with the rifle. These are placed between the stock and the recoil pad, and they can be used to lengthen the stock as needed.

To create this stock, Bergara didn’t simply chop off the butt. It redesigned everything. The Stoke’s comb is raised slightly to correctly position the shooter’s eye with the scope. The stock’s fore-end is shortened as well, scaling it correctly to the overall dimensions. Even the grip has been altered to accommodate smaller shooters.

When setting up the rifle, I felt it was important to choose an optic and mount that complemented the dimensions. It would make little sense to engineer a great stock for a smaller shooter and then mount a scope too high for comfortable use. B-14 actions are compatible with scope bases designed for the Remington 700, so there are many choices on the market.

The test rifle came with a Picatinny rail, where I installed a set of APA low rings. I’ve found these rings to be some of the lowest available and often use them to mitigate the height of a rail when a stock’s comb isn’t adjustable.

Accuracy and Reliability

I mounted a Steiner Predator 8 2-16x42mm scope for testing. This scope has bright glass, a wide field of view and a relatively simple reticle. Its generous eye relief means it can be mounted well forward to ensure it won’t impact an inexperienced shooter during recoil. If a longer shot was necessary, I could manipulate the exposed elevation turret while the shooter focused on the target.

Since the length of pull is too short for me, I used a PAST recoil pad between my shoulder and the factory recoil pad when testing the rifle from the bench. I wasn’t surprised to find that the Bergara Stoke was capable of impressive accuracy, as you can see in the accompanying chart.

My go-to deer and hog load this season has been Hornady’s Outfitter 6.5 Creedmoor loaded with the lead-free 130-grain CX bullet, and it shot exceptionally well—with all three groups measuring well under one m.o.a. The Federal Terminal Ascent shot well, but the rifle didn’t care for the Nosler Accu­Bond Long Range load.

Accuracy is great to have, but reliability is vitally important for a hunting rifle. If it doesn’t shoot when you need it to, the ability to make tiny groups isn’t very useful. Thanks to the coned breech, the Bergara Stoke fed flawlessly. The extraction and ejection systems functioned equally well.

Lightweight Dream

Recoil was all but nonexistent with a suppressor installed. With a weight of around six pounds, depending on chambering, this rifle is portable without being so light that shootability and recoil control could become problematic.

My son James is 10 years old and, despite being the youngest, has been the most motivated hunter among my three children. I’ve been taking him on short hunts with me since he was in preschool and, at age seven, he demonstrated enough skill with a centerfire that I was willing to let him take a deer.

The problem was finding a rifle with a short length of pull and light recoil but with enough power to take a whitetail ethically. After a bit of experimenting, we ended up with a suppressed compact bolt action in 6.5 Creedmoor. He’s taken a dozen or so deer and feral hogs with this setup over the past three seasons but, to be honest, the rifle is still too long for him.

When I took him to the range with the B-14 Stoke, he didn’t mince words. “This rifle is perfect, Daddy,” he said. “Can we keep it?”

A Fit For Many

James’s enthusiasm notwithstanding, the Stoke is not intended exclusively for kids. People come in all sizes and shapes and the industry standard 13.5- to 13.75-inch length of pull isn’t a good fit for many of them. My dad was a foot taller than my mom and weighed twice as much. To think that they could both shoot well with a rifle of the same dimensions is a silly proposition. With more and more women shooting and hunting these days, it is important that the marketplace is working to fill that niche. I think the Stoke is one of the finest examples out there.

I’m a big fan of Bergara rifles and often recommend them to folks looking for a quality rifle at a fair price. Most of the “youth” rifles on the market are either budget-minded products with so-so quality or simply rifles with the stocks cut to a shorter length of pull. The Bergara Stoke is well thought out and well executed, specifically designed around shooters of smaller stature. Everything, from the stock to the barrel to the available chamberings, was chosen carefully. Despite the most compact dimensions, the rifle displays the same quality, reliability and accuracy that have made Bergara products so popular among hunters and shooters.

Bergara B-14 Stoke Specs

• Type: bolt-action centerfire
• Caliber: .223 Rem., .22-250 Rem., .243 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor (tested), 6.5 PRC, 7mm-08 Rem., .300 BLK, .308 Win., .350 Legend
• Capacity: 4+1
• Barrel: 20 in., 1:8 in. twist; threaded 5/8x24
• Overall Length: 38.5 in.
• Weight: 6 lb., 5.3 oz.
• Finish: Cerakote
• Stock: synthetic, 12.25 in. length of pull
• Sights: none; drilled and tapped
• Safety: two-position
• Trigger: single stage, 2.8 lb. pull (measured)
• MSRP: $929
• Manufacturer: Bergara, bergara.online/us

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