Lipsey’s Exclusive Browning Buck Mark Camper .22 LR Auto Pistol with Threaded Barrel

 

by Jeff Quinn

photography by Jeff Quinn & Boge Quinn

November 2nd, 2009 

 

 

 

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Lipsey’s, Incorporated, is a large firearms distributor located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Every year, they contract with some of the better firearms manufacturers to produce variations of their weapons exclusively for Lipsey’s and their dealers. These firearms have unique features or chamberings that can only be found from gun dealers who buy their firearms from Lipsey’s.  For many years, Ruger fans have wanted a .44 Special Flattop Blackhawk built on the old smaller .357 Magnum frame size. Everyone has talked about it, but Lipsey’s got it done, and are the exclusive distributor for that dandy sixgun until it becomes a standard catalog item in 2010. They also brought us the Boddington series of Ruger Number One single shot rifles, and many other exclusive firearms from Smith & Wesson, Bersa, Beretta, and others. Now, they have really hit a home run with this newest version of the excellent Browning Buck Mark .22 caliber pistol, their Camper Model, but with a threaded barrel to easily attach a sound suppressor, muzzle brake, or flash suppressor. 

The Browning Buck Mark was introduced in 1985, and is the natural progression of a long line of Browning .22 Long Rifle pistols. The internal design is not far removed from the grand old Colt Woodsman pistols, which are beloved by many. The Buck Mark series now includes about twenty-four different variations, including pistols and carbines, and the Buck Mark Camper is one of my favorites. The Camper model is finished in a handsome matte black, and wears a five and one-half inch heavy barrel, just slightly tapered. For Lipsey’s, Browning lengthened the barrel by about .390 inch, to add a threaded portion for the attachment of accessories. Like the other Buck Mark pistols, this one wears a superb set of sights; a fixed post front, with a fully click-adjustable rear, the base of which is integral with the top rib. The rear sight has a fine sixteen clicks per revolution, for precise adjustment. The rear face of the sight is serrated, and is arguably one of the best pistol sights made for accurate shooting, whether the target be paper, steel, or flesh.  The sight does not move with the slide as it does on some .22 pistol designs, but is rigidly mounted, and the sight picture is not disturbed when shooting, with an appropriate muzzle brake or suppressor. More on that later.

The grips are black synthetic, soft, but not too soft, if that makes any sense at all. They are soft enough for a good grip, but not so soft as to be of the spongy-feeling type. They are just right. Each grip panel has a moderate thumb rest, and work equally well for both right-handed and left-handed shooters. The thumb safety and slide release are on the left side, and work best for a right-handed shooter, but can be operated by a left-hander also, using the trigger finger.  The magazine release is on the left side, just at the rear of the trigger guard, exactly where God and John Browning intended it to be.  The magazine is made of steel, and holds ten rounds, for a loaded capacity of eleven. There is a button on the left side of the magazine to facilitate the easy loading of the mag. The magazine uses a coil spring for reliability.  The Buck Mark Camper has a magazine safety, which disconnects the trigger when the magazine is removed.

The slide is dished and serrated for a secure grip, and it locks in the open position on an empty magazine. The slide has a large claw extractor, and a fixed-blade ejector is attached to the frame. The pistol has the familiar Browning gold treatment on the trigger, and releases crisply with four pounds, three ounces of pressure on my sample. This Buck Mark Camper has a very, very comfortable feel to it, in my hand. The grip feels just perfect to me, and the slightly muzzle-heavy balance makes for a steady hold.  The combination of a machined aluminum frame and heavy steel barrel adds up to a solid weight of two pounds, three ounces on my scale, which is enough weight for a steady hold in the field or on the range, but not so heavy as to be a problem to pack in a good holster. To me, the pistol feels just right. I like it more than I thought I would, and the more I shoot it, the better I like it.

Shooting proved to be a real pleasure. The trigger makes it easy to predict when the shot will fire, with no perceptible creep or overtravel.  Reliability was one hundred percent. I had one failure-to-fire, and that was traced to a bad cartridge. The rim was properly dented by the firing pin, but it failed to ignite the powder charge. No fault of the pistol. Every other cartridge fed, fired, and ejected perfectly. From standard velocity target ammo, to high velocity hollowpoints, to the hyper-velocity varmint rounds, everything worked perfectly in this Browning pistol.

I was interested to see what effect, if any, barrel attachments would have on the accuracy of the pistol. The pistol displayed excellent accuracy with a variety of ammunition with no attachment. I did not have a Ransom Rest insert for the Buck Mark, so I rested the pistol atop my Target Shooting, Inc. pistol rest. This makes for a very comfortable and steady position for accuracy testing, but is dependent upon the shooter’s ability to uniformly line up the sights and press the trigger. I hand-held the pistol on the rest, and proceeded to shoot five-shot twenty-five yard groups as a base line from which to compare groups subsequently fired with a Primary Weapons Systems muzzle brake. This excellent brake is made for a 5.56mm AR-15 rifle, but the pistol has identical 1/2x28 threads, so I wanted to give this brake a try with the .22 LR cartridge. The first thing noticeable was the reduction in muzzle jump, compared to the bare pistol. While the .22 Long Rifle cartridge in a two and one-quarter pound pistol has very little muzzle jump, attaching the brake reduced it dramatically, allowing quicker follow-up shots. However, besides the reduction in muzzle jump, the group sizes were cut almost in half, with no changes except screwing off the thread protector and screwing on the brake. This performance was best noted while using the already-accurate PMC Rifle Match ammunition, and the brake also improved the accuracy with almost every other load tested as well.

I realize that many shooters either are prohibited by state law from owning a sound suppressor ("silencer"), but there are also many who can, and want to. Tactical Solutions makes some excellent suppressors that rival the performance of cans costing twice as much, and more. I have owned one of their Cascade .22 LR cans for over a year now, and find its performance to be superb, reducing the weapon’s sound signature, and most always improving the accuracy at the same time. The can weighs just a little over three ounces, but is very effective. Such was also the case with this Buck Mark Camper. Performance was improved, and the pistol was very quiet, sounding more like a pellet gun than a cartridge-firing pistol.

With the simple addition of the threaded barrel to the Buck Mark Camper pistol, Browning has added a feature that should have been available on the pistol from the beginning. Threading on a brake or suppressor is a very easy and inexpensive way to greatly improve the performance of the pistol, making the excellent Buck Mark pistol even better. As mentioned above, this Camper model is only available through your Lipsey’s firearms dealer. To find the location of a Lipsey’s dealer near you, click on the DEALER FINDER at www.lipseys.com.

If your favorite gun dealer is not a Lipsey’s dealer, he can contact Lipsey’s and correct that problem by calling 1-800-666-1333.

To order the very effective Primary Weapons Systems muzzle brake, go to www.primaryweapons.com.

For more information on the Tactical Solutions sound suppressors, go to www.tacticalsol.com.

To order the pistol rest shown, go to www.targetshooting.com.

The entire Buck Mark line consists excellent .22 Long Rifle caliber pistols, offering accuracy and a lot of shooting fun with low-priced ammunition. The Lipsey’s Buck Mark Camper is, in my opinion, an upgrade to the Browning line that was way overdue. It offers a great deal of versatility to an already great pistol. It is built with quality materials, built right, and built in the USA. I highly recommend it.

Jeff Quinn

For a list of dealers where you can buy this gun, go to:

 

Author tested the Buck Mark with the superb Tactical Solutions Cascade sound suppressor...

 

 

...and Primary Weapons Systems' very effective muzzle brake.

 

 

For accuracy testing, Jeff used a Target Shooting, Inc. pistol rest.

 

 

25-yard handheld rested groups.

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Click pictures for a larger version.

 

Lipsey's exclusive Browning Buck Mark Camper .22 auto pistol with threaded barrel.

 

 

 

 

Barrel is threaded for the attachment of accessories like a sound suppressor or muzzle brake.

 

 

Buck Mark comes with a protective soft padded case.

 

 

 

 

The Buck Mark has an excellent set of sights.

 

 

Synthetic grips are very comfortable.

 

 

Slide release & manual safety (top) and magazine release (bottom).

 

 

Steel magazine holds ten shots.

 

 

Magazine safety disconnects trigger when the magazine is removed.