BLR from 1970

[pipehand]

Just picked up a beautiful BLR made in Belgium with the oil finished stock in .308. Have heard they like "small based" dies to accept reloads. Is that true? The rifle is sans scope and rings, but missing the filler screws in the receiver. Any input on the best base and rings combo to keep a 40 mm objective lensed scope as low as possible?

[Pete44ru]

BLR's & BAR's may not chamber even fully-resized cases, unless you try.

Many, if not most, require Small Base Dies - because of their minimum chambers & less camming power compared to a boltgun.

If I didn't have any dies for a BLR, I'd just get the Small Base set & heav done with it.

I'm sorry, I can't help out with BLR scope mounts (especially one with that large an obj lens) - I mounted a WGRS receiver peep sight on my 1971 .358Win.

.

[Hairtrigger]

The less you work brass the better.
If your BLR needs small base dies then so be it but if it does not you are needlessly working your brass excessively.
My Belgium made BLR in 308 works great with reloads using normal dies

[M. M. Wright]

My grandsons and I were shooting 4 BLRs in .308, (2 Belgian, 2 Jap) a week ago and I found that I needed to set the shoulder back a few thousandths more in order for my loads to chamber in all four. Just using normal full length die set adjusted for my very used Belgian. Put the sizing die in the lathe and took .005 off the end with a good carbide inserted tool. It was easy to cut so not as hard as I imagined. With the trimmed die adjusted down against the shell holder then backed off a little, loads then chambered in all rifles. The boys decided that reloading was almost as much fun as shooting.

[Bruce]

I highly recommend the DNZ Game Reaper one piece mounts. Scopes are different, but you should get clearance with their medium height set.

[pipehand]

Good news! Took a fired case that came from my Winchester M70 Featherweight and chambered it with no resistance in the BLR. Will look at the DNZ Gamereaper mounts. Thanks for the replies.

[Canuck Bob]

I had a 243 BLR from that era and it used standard RCBS dies and I only neck sized and just touched the shoulder a bit on a candle blackened case. I borrowed a buddies die set to check first. But it would chamber its own fired cases with minimum effort. You will like your rifle. Bolt action strong, clip mag, and an external hammer. A really good feature set for a tack driving powerful lever hunting rifle. I'm afraid I forgot much about my scope setup. All I remeber is that I used a variable with a small front lens so I could mount low. It was a Leupold light weight scope and Leupold rings and base which worked well and never wandered.

[pipehand]

I remember the sights on a BLR that I looked over when I was in my 20's as being some of the better open sights. These sights, however are very fuzzy. The front one I can make out ok, but the rear is a blur. Sights musn't age well, particularly the rear ones. They can be replaced with ghost rings, which usually have a better shelf life for some reason. As far as scopes go, the only large (50mm) objective scope I own is on an AR-15 varmint style upper. Those things need extra high rings anyway. The others are set up so that they line up to my eyeball with my cheek properly "welded" to the stock, meaning low rings and small objectives.

[Canuck Bob]

I once mounted a Leupold 2.5X Ultralite on my 444 and used the lowest rings. That scope has a straight tube and worked well. I do like a low mounted scope but I have no experience with large lens scopes. One thing they might give a little more hammer room because I seem to remember the hammer extension was a bit too close to the scope with gloves. It was decades ago I owned mine.