Bergara USA adds new lower-priced Performance series for hunting and sport

Bergara USA is launching the new, affordable Performance Series of bolt-action rifles for sport shooters and hunters. These classic-looking guns will be offered with long and short actions in a handful of popular and flexible calibers.

Bergara is an acclaimed name in barrel manufacturing and a world-renown rifle maker but a lot of their products are out of reach for a lot of shooters. The Performance series, all priced under $1,000, changes everything.

These new rifles are a welcome addition to the shooting world. Right now the biggest market for bolt guns is the entry-level. While it’s great to see companies offer bolt-action rifles under $500, prices start to climb steeply once shooters start looking something a little nicer and more accurate. These fall right into the perfect price point for the experienced shooter who wants something more solid without turning to semi-custom rifles.

“Bergara Barrels, OEM supplier to several of the world’s top rifle manufacturers, incorporates a proprietary rifling by which Bergara’s custom rifles have become widely respected by big game hunters, law enforcement and long-range shooting enthusiasts,” said Bergara in a press release. “Now, the same accuracy boasting Bergara barrels are available to American hunters and sport shooters in the Bergara Performance Series rifles at an affordable price.”

The Performance Series currently has two rifles, the entry-level B-14 Hunter, with a simple synthetic stock, and the B-14 Timber, with an oil-finished walnut stock. Hunter models are priced at $825 and Timbers at $950. They’re both no-frills rifles with railed receivers, unthreaded barrels and internal magazines. They have lightly textured stocks with two sling swivel studs.

These rifles are much more competitively-priced than Bergara’s Premier rifles which start in the mid $3,000 range, but are still built up to Bergara’s high standards. Both rifles have a coned bolt nose and breech for consistent, reliable and smooth feeding and a sliding plate extractor for repeatable alignment.

Even though the Hunter and Timber use different stock materials both models use the same pillar-bedded action for repeatable accuracy. But most importantly, they use the same barrels as the high-end rifles that Bergara is famous for.

At the heart of the B-14 Series are Bergara’s 4140 chromalloy steel barrels. They have a simple matte blued finish and are 22 inches long for short-action rifles and 24 inches for long-action. The Hunter and Timber rifles are being launched chambered for .308 and .270 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, 6.5 Creedmoor and .300 Winchester Magnum.

Bergara’s four-step rifling process produces barrels with .002-inch tolerances on the grooves, which are in-line with the best hand-lapped barrels. They’re also honed, not reamed, which produces fewer tool marks in the bore. Finally, they’re completely stress-relieved after machining, for a consistent crystalline structure for best accuracy.

If you’re looking for something a cut above the new crop of budget bolt guns, keep an eye out for the new Bergara Performance series.

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