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The name of the Bergara Rifles company − headquartered in the Spanish town of Gipuzkoa, offering high-precision barrels and single-shot or bolt-action hunting and sporting rifles appreciated worldwide for their price-to-quality ratio − is well known by the international shooters' community. What some may not know is that the Company also has a north-American branch, Bergara USA, whose activities aren't limited to the international distribution of the Spanish-made rifles and barrels.
As a matter of fact, Bergara USA uses Spanish-made and American-made rifles or gun parts and components as a basis to prepare and assemble a custom rifles line conceived for long-range sports shooting and law enforcement tactical applications.
One of them, and indeed one of the best looking, is the BCR-17 Medium Tactical rifle, available in either a CADEX machined aluminium chassis or a McMillan A1-3 fibreglass stock.
Feeding through a variable-capacity AIAW detachgable magazine, the Bergara BCR-17 Medium Tactical rifle sports the company's own custom short bolt action, patterned after the one found on the Bergara BX-11 bolt action hunting rifle, with a standard rotating head; Bergara also manufactures the #5 profile, nitride-finished, 22-inch stainless steel barrel with an 1:10" rifling pitch.
Basic chambering for this model is .308 Winchester (a.k.a. 7,62x51mm), and the BCR-17 Medium Tactical rifle comes standardw with a Timney trigger, factory set on a 1.45 kg weight.
Other options include a Badger Ordnange M5 trigger guard, a KDF flash hider, 30mm Badger Ordnance scope rings, and many more. Baseline price for the Bergara BCR-17 Medium Tactical rifle tops 4000.00US$ in the United States.
The BCR-18 Medium Tactical variant is indeed technically similar to the BCR-17, although it's built on an Ashbury Precision Ordnance "Sporter" synthetic chassis, with a pistol grip and a fully adjustable stock that may be either fixed or side-folding.
The BCR-18 still sports Bergara's custom action, and a 22-inches #6 profile stainless steel barrel.
Optional features available for the Bergara BCR-18 Medium Tactical rifle are a rear monopod and a peculiar flash hider aptly dubbed the "Little Bastard", while the detachable magazine, the Timney Trigger and Bergara's own aluminium machined MIL-STD-1913 "Picatinny" 20 MOA rail are standard factory issue elements. The baseline price for the Bergara BCR-18 Medium Tactical rifle tops 4500.00US$ in the United States.
The BCR-19 Heavy Tactical rifle − available in the United States at a starting price of 4500.00US$ − is available in .308 Winchester or .300 Winchester Magnum as basic calibers, and is built around a McMillan A4 fibreglass stock manufactured under United States Marine Corps' standards; it also comes with a #7 profile, 22" stainless steel button-rifled barrel, and with either a Timney or a Shilen trigger.
Optional custom features include a plethora of muzzle configurations − threaded muzzle with protective cap, fixed or detachable flash hider, and many others − a .338 Lapua Magnum chambering with a KDF flash hider, Badger Ordnance 30mm scope rings or a factory scope configuration including optics mounting, testing, and zeroing for maximum out-of-the-box performance.
Last, but not least, the Bergara BCR-20 Heavy Tactical rifle is built around a fantastic Ashbury Precision Ordnance MOD-1 chassis and sports a #6 profile, 24" nitride finished and button-rifled barrel, a Timney trigger, and either a five-rounds or ten-rounds detachable magazine depending from the caliber − a plethora of them are actually available; also standard are a series of machined Picatinny rails for optics and tactical accessories.
The starting price for the Bergara BCR-20 Heavy Tactical rifle tops 5000.00US$ in the United States, but further features can be added − just like to all other models of the line − to suit the needs and the preferences of each individual shooter.
The Bergara custom rifles catalog for 2014 shows that the company also has a plethora of other custom guns available, most of which specifically conceived for hunting rather than for sports shooting or tactical applications.
Sure thing is, their starting prices are in the mid-to-low bracket in their price-to-quality ratio, and this could make them a viable option for shooters seeking high-end hunting, sports shooting or tactical rifles at budget price.
As far as we can tell, however, as of today none of these beautiful Bergara custom rifles is available outside of the United States. Our hope − and indeed the hope of many sports shooters worldwide − is that the authorized international distributors and retailers for Bergara rifles may want to reach agreements with the mother company to start global commerce of these finely tuned machines offered by the US-based branch.
