The fourth-generation Browning BAR is the most substantive update to America's favorite hunting autoloader in decades, and the first independent range data is now public. Game & Fish ran the BAR MK 4 Hunter through five-shot strings on paper and field duty, and American Hunter walked the new line at launch. The short version: Browning threaded the barrel into the receiver the way a bolt-action maker would, and it shows where it counts.
The headline is the barrel-to-receiver interface. Browning button-rifles the barrel and threads it into the receiver, giving the seven-lug rotary bolt a more precise relationship with the chamber — normal on bolt guns, unusual on a gas autoloader. The gas piston system carries over with an integrated buffer, and because propellant gas never enters the receiver the action stays cleaner. The exterior is more angular, the pistol grip more vertical, and the Grade II Turkish walnut stock takes six shims for cast and drop. Browning sells it as autoloader speed with bolt-action accuracy.
Six chamberings: .243 Win, .308 Win, .270 Win and .30-06 on a 22-inch fluted sporter barrel at 7 pounds 2 ounces; 7mm Rem Mag and .300 Win Mag on a 24-inch barrel at 7 pounds 11 ounces. Capacity is 4+1 standard and 3+1 on magnums, through a hinged floorplate with a detachable box. There are no iron sights — the receiver is drilled and tapped — and length of pull is 13 3/4 inches. MSRP is $1,639.99 in standard chamberings and $1,739.99 in magnums, with the left-hand Hunter at $1,709.99. Browning lists eight MK 4 variants, four of them southpaw.
Game & Fish measured five-shot groups of 1.24 to 1.78 inches at 100 yards from the .308 Win test rifle, with the gold single-stage trigger averaging 3.25 pounds, lighter than earlier BARs, and no functional stoppages reported. Two caveats matter. The rifle is not sub-MOA with every load, and it is more involved to clean than a bolt action. The muzzle is crowned but not threaded.
That last detail is worth arguing about. Suppressor ownership keeps widening, and the direction of travel in statehouses and courtrooms is toward treating moderators as ordinary accessories rather than a tax-stamp curiosity. Hunters are shopping accordingly, and a factory-threaded muzzle is now a line item on the checklist. The MK 4 Hunter does not offer one, though Browning does thread the muzzle on its AB3 Pro. If a can is in your future, price a gunsmith threading job before you commit, or buy a rifle built for it: the suppressed Ruger American Predator route costs less than the BAR and trades the fast second shot for suppressor readiness.
Timber whitetail, driven deer, hogs in a creek bottom, bear over bait — hunts where the second shot arrives fast and the range is short. The gas system plus the Inflex II pad make it one of the softest full-power .30-06s on the market, which matters for recoil-sensitive shooters. What it is not: a mountain rifle, a target rifle, or a suppressor host out of the box. Spot-and-stalk hunters counting ounces should stay with a bolt gun. If you want a fast second shot without a gas gun, the Henry Supreme in .300 Blackout is a different answer to the same question.
The BAR name goes back to John Browning's 1918 automatic rifle, and the sporting version has been in continuous production long enough that WWII-production BARs remain a collector category. That history is part of why the platform has a deep gunsmith and parts network behind it.
At $1,640 the MK 4 Hunter is priced like a good bolt action and delivers a better trigger than earlier BARs, a stiffer barrel interface and the fastest follow-up shot in its class. Buy it if the hunt is close and quick. Skip it if the hunt is long and quiet. Either way the transfer works like any other rifle: line up your dealer before the box lands, and if you want the counter-side checklist first, find an FFL dealer in Texas at fflsearch.net.