RFI on Begara HMR in 308.

[gringop]

I might have a chance at a left hand (I am am left handed) Begara HMR in 308 for sub $900. I'm still waiting to hear back and trying to make up my mind.

The only other large centerfire rifles I have are a Ruger #1 in 7mm Mag and a M1A. I know if I get this I will want/need some good glass and maybe even a 30 cal suppressor. ($$$$$$$)

Looking for any info good or bad re. this rifle. My use case will be paper punching, some deer hunting and thermal hog/coyote hunting. I already have 308 dies and components for reloading.

https://www.bergara.online/us/rifles/b14/hmr-rifle/

Gringop

[Pnut]

I picked up an HMR .308 about a year ago and have no complaints. I have a Vortex Viper PST on it. I just use it for punching paper. The gun is more accurate than I am.

A lot of people recommended I go with different calibers, but I stuck with .308 because of ammo price, availability, and I dont do any competitive shooting.

Bergara’s customer service was great. When I purchased the rifle, I also got the Bergara scope rail. When I was installing the rail, one of the retaining bolts broke as I was torquing them down. Bergara covered the shipping to extract the bolt and installed the rail at no cost. They told me it was a faulty bolt since it snapped at 15 in/lbs. When I got the gun back, they included a gift certificate to use on their web store. I used it to purchase a TriggerTech trigger!

Another thing to note… depending on the manufacture date of your gun, they might have changed the factory trigger. The manual that came with my gun said that I needed to remove the action from the stock to access the trigger adjustment screw. When I did this, there was no screw?!?! I contacted Bergara and they informed me that they changed the trigger on current production guns but hadn’t updated the owners manual. The newer triggers have the adjustment screw right in front of the trigger that can be accessed without taking the gun apart. The stock trigger is nice, but the TriggerTech is even better.

[Nephrology]

I have a franken-Bergara (two technically). See pics below. The one on the left is most similar to the HMR. It is a B14 action, with HMR Pro 6.5 CM barrel installed on it cut to 20, bedded in the HMR Pro stock. Sports area 419 bolt knob, atlas CAL, Meopta Optika6 3-18 scope. The rifle in the green Magpul chassis is the HMR Pro action with a Preferred Barrel Blanks 24" tube spun on plus other goodies including a triggertech diamond.

Overall I am happy with them. I think the Tikka TAC is worth a careful eyeball if you're looking at guns of this genre too.

[Whiskey]

In my friend group there's probably 6 or 7 HMR's from .22 up to .308 and some 6.5 in between (in left and right handed versions). I had the 308 myself and it did everything I wanted it to do essentially out of the box. I had been looking at outfitting a Remington 700 but with the price of the Bergara, it was a very simple off the shelf solution. I shot three deer and a couple competitions with mine before I handed it off to my kid. I don't think you can go wrong.