Thanks for putting this video together, this really hits close to home for me. I went round and round on getting a custom rifle ~5 years ago (I had it narrowed down to a Gunwerks no less). When I finally submitted that a Gunwerks was out of my budget I thought about getting a Remington 700 and customizing it myself because of all the after-market products available for a 700. I ended up getting factory Browning X-Bolt Long Range (the original version unported in .300WM with a composite stock). I went high end with the scope (a Night Force) - and bedded the scope mount to the rifle and lapped the scope rings. I reload my own ammo was I was able to customize the bullet, powder, charge, case-overall length, etc. to fine tune the load to the rifle. Out of the box the Browning shot just under a MOA for most over the counter ammo I tried (but not all). After a couple years of load development I have shot a couple sub 0.3 MOA 5-shot groups and consistently shoot around 0.5 MOA (if I do my part) with hunting style bullets (Barnes TTX and Nosler Accubond LR). I would have gotten to the end game a lot faster with a custom rifle, and I'm sure it would be a lot nicer rifle overall ... but just couldn't justify the price. I don't think you can go wrong with either rifle, but you are buying something different from Gunwerks. You're buying a system and if you don't buy from them and want to shoot long range ... you'll have to develop that system yourself, which is a lot of work and takes a lot of time. Can't go wrong with either IMO.

Liked the presentation. A family member who went the Gunwerks Rifle build in 6.5-284 Norma. He ordered the custom bullets and NF scope. An excellent rifle and over the past years has accounted for elk and deer. Agree with both Browning and Gunwerks on the subject of factory vs custom. Today there are exceptionally well build rifles. However the key to any build relates to the intended use. As a family we hunt in various terrain and regions. Shooting conditions and wind are constantly a factor in making a long shot. Game recovery being most important a shooter has to put time in his developing the fundamental to accurate shooting at close range and especially beyond 400-1000 yards. There is a significant learning cycle. Recently during the past 3 years friends are getting into LR shooting but fail to understand rifle barrel twist, barrel length, bullet type, bullet weight, bc, etc. Reloading in the off season to find the right balance is a valuable step in the right direction. Shooting in differing conditions such as open plains, desert and mountain terrain and forest give a Hunter a more realistic environment to train and prepare for hunting deer, antelope and elk. Thanks for the presentation. Excellent! SEMPER FIDELIS

Aaron and Mike Davidson are real masters of their trade and what they put in to the business and how they assist other people is just amazing!! Top class business. Excellent video and great comparison done

I gotta say as a lifelong Browning rifle owner I wanted to hate the Gunwerks guns but watching this video how could I. Aaron never once downgraded Browning. When he shot the Browning he shot it as well as he shot one of his own rifles. After seeing all the extra things they do to their guns I can understand why they cost what they do. I would be willing to save money over the course of a year or two and buy a Gunwerks rifle but to be honest I'm not that good enough to shoot 1000yds. I wouldn't be able to do the Gunwerks rifle justice at them kinda ranges. So I'll stick with my Brownings. I can shoot out to 500yds pretty consistently. This was a good honest comparison of two extremely accurate rifles. Nicely done sir.

Awesome, guys. Great production on the comparison.

Very good and honest video! Both rifles win in their own ways. Just depends on the individual, and how much your time is worth to you.

Another high quality video, great job!! Keep it up, I look forward to watching everything you guys put out!

Another great video on a topic I have been trying to learn more about ! Thanks again !

Excellent video! I just bought a Browning because I too can not afford a Gunwerks rifle. I thought Aaron was a really stand up guy for not trash talking about Browning to try and promote his guns. Again, very informative and excellent video!

Did anyone else see aaron almost smoke that bird during the 1000 yard shooting? that would of been epic. I love how he is not trash talking browning to try to sell more of his guns. Seems like a honest straight up guy.

That was pretty cool to see Aaron help getting the Browning settup and shooting it at 1k yards. Pretty cool guu.

Absolute solid production fellas

Love this video. So much truth. And, I am very excited as I just ordered my first Browning Rifle!! I ordered the xbolt mountain pro bronze in the new 6.8 Western

Erin with gunworks is the man …… did see the bird shot close .

I have a Bergara B14. Love it. Would love to have bought American, but didn’t; I am so new to bolt gunning that I’ve literally only fired 60 rounds total.

When you buy a custom rifle, you're saying "I want to shoot XYZ bullet at x,xxx fps to maximize ballistic performance". When you buy a high end factory rifle you're saying "I'll take a gun to shoot ABC caliber and I hope to find which high performance ammo does well in it"

I'm like you, always can learn more and hope to keep seeing great videos like this one discussing long range shooting.

Awesome!

Great video! Fortunately there is a market for both companies products. I love my brownings except for the triggers. I don’t understand how they produce great rifles and put the hardest to pull triggers that the adjustment is hardly any forcing to replace the spring if your lucky or end up replacing trigger. Wish I could put my Tikka trigger in my Browning. If you really enjoy shooting along with hunting, budget a trigger when purchasing a Browning. Thanks again

You didnt discuss cold bore shot which usually effects MOA and is what hunters need to know. Such as set your cross hairs in for the cold bore and know what to compensate for the next shot!

Love it, great video and topic as usual. So the question then becomes and perhaps episode 3... how do you match the ammunition to the rifle and its twist?

After sighting in your Browning and shooting at the 1000 yards, what would your plan be when then hunting somewhere else with different elevation, humidity, etc? Do you plan to just sight in at a 100 at your hunting location and have the confidence the 300-600 will be dead on? Or would you want to sight in all the way out to what you would consider your furthermost hunting shot would be?

anyone else catch when they showed the browning xbolt commercial the spent case hit the scope? same problem all mouser action rifles have specially with bigger scope turrets..

I love my X-Bolt. My All Weather stainless 7mm-08 shoots sub half-inch moa (.39”) with factory Barnes ammo.

I bought a 300 winmag Pro long range and I am totally amazed at his rifle. $1200 rifle! Fantastic! Dropped a great Muley in Wy last year. Is that a 24 or 26 inch barrel?

May sound like a silly question but I'm learning, what's the barrel length and twist rate?

i am still looking for the right ammo for my Sako.

I love my Browning X-Bolt Stalker Long Range chambered in 30-06.

I really wanted to give Aaron a load of crap about his hair but that boy can shoot so he can use whatever hair products he wants.

I'm not sure about the pro rifle but the other x bolt series iv shot have terrible triggers for the price compared to what you can get in another rifle, other than the rifle they're a solid rifle though

The Gunwerks guy has forgot more about long range shooting than most will ever learn. Amazing he can in just a short time work a factory rifle to shoot at that distance. Shows it most of the time is the man behind the rifle not the rifle. Since I can’t afford the Gunwerks rifle the Browning is close as I will ever need in a budget. This is a eye opening experience: thank you. I have been hunting most of my 63 years and I have never had to shoot a deer more than 500 yards. The Browning will do that everyday. The Gunwerks are definitely nice but average guy like me working on a job can’t afford it. Can always dream right!

I learnt everything I know from Aaron and Mike Davidson but I own a browning x-bolt medalion 300 win mag.

I love Gunwerks! Watch all there content religiously and dream of purchasing one of their rifles. But damn I am really starting to like the Xbolt!

At the end of the day SPEED is what gets the projectile THERE but its the ENERGY that KILLS . A friend got me to sight in his new .25.06 & 80 gn ammo . got it sighted in at 50 yds . I had sheet of A4 paper with my upside down T & THE SIDE OFF A OLD WASHING MACHINE that I taped the target to .when I shot it ,it looked like I had fired a shot gut at the target the copper jacket had disintegrated & shred the paper target .so new paper target move out to 200 yards ,it did the same thing .I got him to get some 120 gn ammo. I told him he had a real good varmint rifle ,but if you want to shoot Red Deer at 300yds you have to head shot, but a heart shot keep it to 200yds ..

I mean, for the average shooter looking to field hunt, unless you have the money and feel like spoiling yourself... browning is all you need. but for someone whos dedicated to smacking paper in a tight group or as tight a group as possible, you can see for yourself, that 1000yrd group is impressive. looks like half the size of the production rifle. id say a pretty solid product, and a pretty solid selling point. you get what you pay for, and by far that's a quality product by the custom builder.

Better then your reasoning of trajectory, it's much better to know about your ballistics of your rifle. This information gives everything anyone need to know including kinetic energy over distances, as well as your trajectory! You sound like a novice rather an experienced person on such matters...kindly said.

Have a 2 new Browning rifles, a BAR Mk3 and an X-Bolt Hunter both on 308, and still trying to find the right ammo for them. I have shot (tried) Winchester Deer Season extreme point 150gr and Browning BTX Rapid Expansion 155gr and honestly not happy with the results. I will try them both once again, however, any suggestions? Thank you

👆🏼This is such an under viewed video for the quality of knowledge. Arguably the smartest individuals in long range shooting at the moment, and just sharing it with everyone. Hunting season is in full swing in Alaska and I’ve had so many conversations with friends and people I don’t know about cartridge selection and rifle selection. Any time that conversation starts I share this video with them. Thank you for going out and being able to share this 👏🏼

Wow! Almost did not recognize Aaron with the long hair.

What caliber is your browning show here?

I own a custom rifle, and I own a few factory rifles. My factory is a Sako 85 Bavarian chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum and my custom is a Stiller Tac 300 chambered in .375 H&H Magnum with a benchmark barrel and McMillan Stock. Both at 100 yards with do sub Moa groups, without a muzzle brake. You cant buy accuracy you can only develop it. If I let someone with no shooting experience try my rifles out, price wouldn't matter a damn bit. This whole message that says 1000 yards out of the box can be very misleading, especially for newer folks to shooting that want to hunt long distance as it's the fad. When I took my hunting course, the first thing the taught you was ethics. Essentially I feel I want to give the animal as much chance as I'd want to live, but also produce the cleanest kill shot possible. In my opinion and general experience, this isnt achieved at long distances. We see alot of guys plough animals at 700+ but how many do we see run away?

Thanks but my factory rifle(Browning) does that too at a 5th of the price 😁

As u all know, they did have a segment of turning a factory rifle to shoot 1k.... they did it with a Remmy.

My 6.5 CM Browning X-Bolt Pro gives me 1/2 MOA accuracy with 140 gr. Hornady ELD-M factory ammo. My .300 Win. mag. Browning A-Bolt does likewise with two brands of factory loads when the BOSS brake is properly adjusted! Both rifles have stainless steel barreled actions, theX-Bolt Pro has factory burnt bronze Cerakote and the A-Bolt has aftermarket back Teflon coating. -> the X-bolt Pro is factory lapped and I lapped the A-Bolt with a NECO Fire Lapping kit with ammo I hand loaded. I live and hunt in Nevada so "long range" hunting (300 to 800 yards) is not uncommon. I choose the rifle to suit the game. For example I will only hunt a bull elk with the .300 Win mag. Yeah, I shoot my 6.5 CM Ruger Precision Rifle to 1,000 yards but that is for paper and steel. A 6.5 Creedmoor is not meant to kill big game at 1,000 yards, even an antelope. But my point is that I am ACCUSTOMED to shooting to 1,000 yard at various and often strange positions. So a 600 yard shot is, in decent conditions, very attainable for me. Practice before hunting is not just smart but ethical.

Mercedes only 10% better than Ford??? In your dreams!

My custom built 6.5cm from OTM Tactical is incredible.

Smaller caliber at the range = good Smaller caliber for hunting = bad

I love Browning! 🦌

Knowing your kit can hit at 1000 yards is great, but shooting game that far is beyond sketchy. We're not Carlos Hathcock, and our game doesn't shoot back. Be ethical and shoot game at a distance that insures you hit the kill zone.

No shit!! The law of diminishing returns. Way too much money in this country if guys are willing to blow $10,000 on a hunting rifle.

What caliber is your browning?

I don't believe any gun will shoot MOA at any distance with any ammo. all guns shoot differently with different ammo.

So is your Browning the Hell’s Canyon Speed?

Dam I didn't realize Aaron grew his hair out!

Sorry Browning... Bergara already did it

Where's the pride in building and mapin out your own? Thats finally why I gave up on something or sumbody makin something i might buy. I just hope we can still buy gun powder this year and the next. Our so call federal gov, gonna tax it out

Test some Ruger rifles with the custom rifles and you'll see how much you can SAVE!

My cheap ass Bergara puts a group the size of a dime for 579.00.

I killed a deer at 400 yards and the longest I’ve shot is 300.....

IMHO I don't care who you are, it is unethical to shoot game at over 400 yards (and this is questionable)! Your game deserves more respect than that. If a stray wind happens to gust at 800 yds. you could have a wounded animal. Besides, who wants to shoot an animal which has no chance and doesn't take any skill to approach. It can't smell, hear, or see you at those ranges.

I bought a Browning X bolt because of this and I regret it. 4-6 inches at 200yds is not acceptable. I shipped it off to Browning so now it's wait and see if they think a 1300.00 rifle should shoot better.

God damn Aaron cut your hair.

NO ONE WANTS A FLOOR PLATE; PEOPLE WANT A MAGAZINE THAT EXCEEDS 4 ROUNDS! BROWNING FALLS SHORT WHEN IT COMES TO ACCOMMODATING A MAGPUL MAGAZINES, WHICH IS WHY PEOPLE MOVE TO OTHER MANUFACTURES! WHEN WILL BROWNING CATCH ON?!!

Browning rifles are adequate. They will get the job done for the money. If you can afford Gunwerks then get it. Comparing chop meat to filet mignon is inherently fool hardy. The XBolt is not anywhere near a Gunwerks. Browning is too funny tossing promotional horse shit. I got an ABolt mountain titanium that is ok. They discontinued it. Why is that? I won’t buy another Browning. Any company that steps down in quality from its Fabrique Nationale days and touts a marketing pitch is full of shit. For an affordable option they will get the job done.From now on it’s custom only.