Review: Beretta BRX1 straight-pull centrefire rifle

Fast, outstandingly accurate and in many ways unconventional, Beretta’s BRX1 straight-pull rifle bridges the gap between the Savage Impulse and Blaser R8.

The Italian firm of Beretta is the great-grandfather of the firearms industry with documented lineage and family ownership dating back almost 500 years. Clearly then, Beretta is the oldest arms manufacturer in the world and today it is most famous for its shotguns and semi-automatic pistols.

Beretta BRX1 test — The BRX is a clever yet unconventional rifle with modern European styling

Not so well known, though, is the fact that Beretta has made a couple of commercial rifles, in the 1980s and 1990s, albeit it briefly.

The company’s most recent tilt at the sporting rifle market is with a massively constructed straight-pull BRX1, which has a number of uncommon and interesting features. It is a straight-pull bolt-action unlike any other.

The primary advantage of a straight-pull action is the speed with which the rifle can be loaded. Europeans hunt lots of driven game, so the ability to quickly cycle the action without losing proper cheek weld and sight of the game is a big advantage. Thanks to the BRX1 system, reloading the BXR can be accomplished with incredible speed that cannot be matched by any other type of manual bolt action.

Beretta’s system is entirely different to anything I’ve seen before — an unorthodox and possibly radical method of modern modular engineering.

The chassis, which forms the action ‘bed’, is precisely formed from aircraft-grade alloy and the receiver ring and barrel bolt to it with two Allen-head screws that are captive to the stock so you won’t lose them.

A detachable box magazine made entirely of polymer fits in a mortise precision-formed for it in the chassis. It has an integral release catch moulded on each side and holds five rounds of .308 Winchester ammo. The side walls are coloured bright orange; the follower and floorplate are black. Fitting flush with the bottom of the chassis, it’s easy to remove and replace.

The most unusual feature of the BRX1 is a receiver ring that’s only 67mm (2⅝”) long and lacks a conventional full-length action with sidewalls and a bridge at the rear. Instead, the short receiver ring has an unorthodox 48mm (1⅞”) long rearward extension for attaching a Picatinny rail, which increases its length by extending an extra 57mm (2¼”) to the rear.

The underside of the receiver ring has a slot to accommodate an alloy recoil lug protruding upward from a slot in the front portion of the chassis. The fore-end is secured to the front of the chassis by a horizontal screw, aided by two screws which retain the barrel and receiver ring. This is easily the most innovative and rigid method of attachment I’ve ever seen on a rifle with a two-piece stock.

The receiver ring is a solid chunk of 4140 steel machined to engage a rotating bolt head that slides in a steel insert which is, in turn, encased in a massive alloy carrier. A flat-bottomed steel insert is grooved to run on rails which stretch the full length of the alloy chassis.

Taken out of the rifle, the BRX1’s bolt carrier is massive. It has a large bolt handle raked back at an angle of 45 degrees and runs on steel rails that line up with raceways incorporated into the chassis. Lock-up is via eight very small, narrow locking lugs equidistantly spaced around the bolt-head which combine for a locking system of exceptional strength.

The lugs are 11mm (.433”) long and 3.5mm (.138”) wide. They enter the receiver ring through slots between an identical set of lugs, before rotating just enough to lock up.

The bolt has a typical plunger-style ejector and a sliding plate extractor set in its recessed face.

The barrel and receiver ring attach to the aluminium alloy chassis via two screws. The chassis has a length of 26cm (10¼”) and forms a rugged bedding platform which fulfils the role of a full-length receiver and contains what would normally be the action’s sidewalls, with magazine well and rear tang made integral with it.

The trigger, cocking mechanism and striker together with the bolt stop and trigger guard are housed in an independent alloy unit positioned at the rear of the magazine well.

The Beretta’s safety is a manual cocking design that lowers or raises the striker in relation to the firing pin, providing a design that allows the rifle to be safely carried with a cartridge in the chamber and uncocked. It functions to block trigger movement, yet can also directly block the sear.

Cycling the bolt cocks the rifle, readying it to fire, and a red bar is visible behind the manual cocking piece, which is operated by your thumb. To make the rifle safe, ease the cocking piece back until a white bar is revealed. To re-cock, push the thumb piece forward again until the red strip reappears.

The trigger unit is removable by simply lifting a catch at the rear, which releases it, allowing it to be slid forward inside the magazine well and dropped out. One tip: when replacing the bolt, first depress the striker arm which will be in the upright position; it will override the bolt stop.

The BRX’s trigger pull quality is not compromised by being removable. In fact, removing gives access to the three-step adjustment for weight of pull. The trigger on my test rifle initially broke at a clean, crisp and consistent 1kg (just over 2lb) which was its lightest setting— great for targets but rather light for my own preference. A spring-loaded toggle on the side of the trigger housing allows you to step it up to 1.25kg and 1.5kg.

Paying attention to the rifle’s ergonomics: The good-looking two-piece polymer composite stock is virtually indestructible, and thermo-stable under the most extreme conditions. The butt stock has a thick, rounded comb sloping upwards toward the rear. Length of pull is 365mm (14.4”), but the Extralight recoil pad has a spacer which can be removed to shorten the LOP by 13mm (½”).

The pistol grip is nicely curved and there’s a thumb groove on each side of the nose of the comb for the base of your thumb. The fore-end is rounded on the bottom with two longitudinal grooves along its upper edges which allow a steady grasp in your fingers.

The stock is equipped with a pair of sling swivel bases and has a functional all-over textured finish with coarser panels on grip and fore-end in place of chequering. The fore-end is reinforced inside with X-shaped struts, is solidly attached to the receiver ring and allows the barrel to float along its full length.

The barrel of this rifle had a length of 57cm (22.4”) and, judging by the performance of my test rifle, is match quality. The diameter is 28.65mm (1.128”) at the receiver ring and it’s straight-tapered to reach 16mm (.628”) at the start of the M14 threaded muzzle.

The BRX1 contains exotic design features I’ve never seen which expand the field of modern firearms technology. But if you are wondering why the rifle is so accurate, its alloy chassis and method of attaching the stock by using two screws to hold the receiver ring and another to tension it, together with a simple slot to contain the recoil lug, make for a very strong and rigid assembly.

There’s none of the looseness endemic to many two-piece stocks. It’s an ingenious design and one capable of incredibly effective and consistent accuracy in any kind of weather and hunting conditions, for shot after shot.

Furthermore, the receiver ring with short extension allows for a light alloy chassis that reduces the weight of the overall rifle. As it is, the rifle is no lightweight, so foot hunters should appreciate this feature.

The BRX1 is innovative, safe, versatile and speedy. The bolt cycling and function of the rifle is smooth, clean and reliable, with not a single malfunction during testing.

To evaluate the BRX’s functioning and accuracy, we fired five factory hunting loads in various bullet types for the .308 Winchester. It fired sub-MOA groups with all the different loads; accuracy with Sellier & Bellot 150gn SPCE in particular was outstanding. The results are shown in the table.

To check how consistently the BRX1 would group various factory loads, I fired a single round of each brand into a five-shot group at 100 yards. It measured 1.63” (equivalent to about 45mm at 100m, or 1⅔ MOA). I’d call that an unusual degree of consistency!

Most impressive was the rifle’s speed. Shooting at 200yd, the times I shot would be almost impossible to equal with a turn-bolt action. The BRX allowed me to get the rifle set solidly atop the sandbags, fire, note the impact, then rack the bolt smoothly without disturbing my sight picture, enabling me to send another shot within seconds.

It also helped that the BRX, with its high, straight comb and hefty weight, is mild to shoot.

It’s too heavy for lugging around the high sierras, but for plains and open country hunting its ability to deliver fast repeat shots, the way it swings smoothly offhand on running game, combined with its inherent accuracy will endear it to many experienced riflemen.