Browning buckmark reviews/thoughts.

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kscardsfan

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I know this is the S&W forum, but I also know we all own a whole bunch of other guns too lol, so here goes:
Does anyone here have a browning buckmark pistol? What do you think of it/would you recomend it to a friend? How ammo sensitive is it? How hard is cleaning, maintainence, and reliability? How are the mags/expensive/difficult to find them? I'm kind of in the market for a good .22lr pistol to compliment my model 18 so I can train more and still be able to buy food, gas, clothes, etc ;) Thanks for your help/tips.
 
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I have several friends who have and like them.

I don't have any problem with them, but prefer the Ruger MkII as a beginners bullseye pistol, since there are a lot more bullseye specific accessories available, although that has changed somewhat over the years.

As a general training, plinking and small game pistol, you could do far worse than a Buckmark.
 
I have two, and when I go shooting, one of them is usually along. Great guns. Cheap too.
 
Yes, yes,not specific,easy, not hard to find.:D

Yes, I have one and the are great 22's come in many different flavors. Only gun I like better is the older Ruger Mark 2. Not the 3.

DSC00784Small.jpg
 
My dad has a Buckmark and it's a fine pistol - accurate, reliable, and not particular about its ammo. That being said, I still prefer Mark II Rugers because of the shape of their grips. My Ruger Government Target Model has in excess of 20,000 rounds through it and it will still shoot offhand half dollar groups at 25 yards
 
I'm not looking for a bullseye gun, mostly cause I don't shoot bullseye (I'm way too loose on my reloading tolerances for pistol rounds lol). I like the ruger mkII series guns, but I don't dig the euro style mag releases. I would rather keep my muscle memory as close as possible no matter if I am plinking or doing cheap training drills. I've found one for $250 at a local pawn shop, but I am thinking of negotiating the price some. I think 2 bills would be more fair. What does the concensus think lol?
 
kscardsfan said:
I'm not looking for a bullseye gun, mostly cause I don't shoot bullseye (I'm way too loose on my reloading tolerances for pistol rounds lol). I like the ruger mkII series guns, but I don't dig the euro style mag releases. I would rather keep my muscle memory as close as possible no matter if I am plinking or doing cheap training drills. I've found one for $250 at a local pawn shop, but I am thinking of negotiating the price some. I think 2 bills would be more fair. What does the concensus think lol?
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If the heel of butt magazine release of the Ruger MkII and MkIII bother you, there's always the 45/22.
 
I used to have one many years ago, I did not understand the nuances of 22lr at that time. I fed it the cheapest ammo I could find at the time, Remington Yellow Jackets, and it jammed constantly. Instead of knowing to finding proper ammo I blamed the firearm and sold it for money towards a 681. Had I known then what I know now I would have tried a bunch of ammo until I found what it liked and might not have been so quick to sell it off. It was a well made and accurate pistol.
 
I'd give my left...well you know what, for a 681 lol. I am lucky that I grew up around lots of people who are crazy about their 22lr pistols so I knew that they are a little sensitive about the ammo you feed them. But my requirement for a plinking/general purpose 22 is that it has to be able to digest crappy bulk pack ammo if I feed it.
 
I've got a 5 1/2" bull barrel Buckmark Camper.....not real picky about what ammo it likes and very accurate. As long as you keep it lubed it will run a LONG time without a teardown/full cleaning. My only caveat is that the two allen screws that hold the rear sight bridge on will work loose over time and the gun will begin to jam. Some LIGHT DUTY Locktite will fix the problem.
 
I have two of the little fellers- a 5 1/2" camper and a regular 5 1/2" slab barrel.

The only concern, but it's a little one, is the changes that they have done over the years to the slide assembly. Both of mine are different, and although I have a couple of extra springs, C-clips and buffers for each, I'm not too happy about the new camper with the plastic firing pin assembly frame, but I've never had a problem out of it.

Pick up a couple of extra recoil springs and buffers.
 
To be fair most gun guys are opposed to plastic assemblies in their guns. Have you noticed anything wrong with the firing pin assembly on yours?
 
My Buckmark Camper has been cut to 4" and threaded for a silencer. It is a great silencer host, and it is a gun I shoot all the time. Silencers really grime up any firearm, but mine runs and runs with minimal cleaning. Accessories are available, mags are available.....
Mine is a tackdriver with Ely Match ammo, and Wolf M/T ammo as well....
What is not to like???
 
I've got a 5.5 Buckmark Plus that I've had for about 10 years now. I love it. Extremely accurate and reliable.
I think the whole Browning vs Ruger arguement boils down to which grip angle you prefer. I like the Buckmark.
 
I just want a good plinker, and this one has the potential to be a good target gun too if I ever chose to go that route with it. Good sights, probably a decent trigger (based on the numerous other browning I've shot), and a longer sight radius to work with.
 
I've got the 5 1/2 inch barrel Buckmark Camper. It is the base model and is a great little gun for plinking. It is also easy to add different sights, rail and scopes to. Mine is not particular about ammo although now I mostly use CCI SV. It is a nice, fairly inexpensive target plinker.
 
I had a Buckmark Camper

It was a large gun for a .22 pistol. It worked well enough, but it never grew on me and I sold it to a fellow from this board. I prefer the discontinued series of S&W's in the second photo.
 

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