Bradshaw BRSS Review: A Different Twist

I enjoy walking through the aisles at the Dallas Safari Club Convention to see the work of smaller shops and bespoke rifle makers. The DSC Convention has a greater focus on hunters. While the SHOT Show offers a wide range of firearms from airguns to high-tech black and multi-shot rifles, it is more geared towards hunters. DSC is the place to be if you want to see the best double rifle or a gun made for the most rugged terrain. Bradshaw Gun & Rifle, renowned for its rising-block single and double rifles as well as side lever falling block designs, will have it. After catching up, I noticed a unique rifle in Bradshaw’s more well-known products, one with a perfectly rounded receiver. I was immediately interested. The Bradshaw BRSS Single-shot is a unique rotary-action, based on a Hoenig double barrel rifle. Photo: Massaro Media Group. Bradshaw gave me one of the lightest, most balanced stalking rifles that I have ever handled. The BRSS is so comfortable to hold, thanks to its cylindrical action. It hardly feels like a gun. The receiver has no squared edges, and because Bradshaw has stocked it, the weight of the rifle is deceivingly light for its length. I politely asked Bradshaw to send me one of these rifles for review. Bradshaw sent out a beautifully decorated example chambered in the 7x57R cartridge, which is a great choice for a single shot. Just twist and shout! The Bradshaw BRSS is opened by rotating 90 degrees to the right, then pulling backward. Massaro Media Group. Several different methods have been used over the last 150 years to seal the breech on a centerfire revolver and still handle the pressures created during the firing of the round. For many single-shot designs, the break-action with locking levers is common. Another option is the very strong fall block, which uses levers to raise and lower a block of steel in order to seal the breech. For repeating rifles, such as the common bolt action (or “turnbolt” as it’s known across the pond), a steel bolt with extended lugs are run into a racingway and rotated at 50 to 90°, locking the bolt shut. The rotary action, which is slightly oval in cross section, used in the Bradshaw BRSS, is, on closer inspection, a sort-of enlarged version the bolt-action theory. The rifle is made up of two parts: the receiver and extractor are located on the forend, while the bolt face is at the butt. The butt is rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise and a protruding hinged “key” is inserted in a cutout on the face of forend. The entire butt then is pushed forward, until the lugs at the rear slide into raceways on the fore. After the butt has been inserted, it is rotated clockwise 90 degrees to lock the action. Photo: Massaro Media Group. The hinge on the key allows you to tilt the open action just enough to remove spent cases (or cartridges in the case of unloading). The breech and keyed arms have a cocking mechanism that pushes striker into cocked when the action is open. The BRSS key has a small lug that pulls the extractor backward, allowing the cartridge/case to be removed manually, as there isn’t an ejector. The gun has a small lever on top that acts as a safety. When swung left, the rifle is in safe mode, and when swung right, it can be fired. The idea of a single shot rifle is a new one. With a single shot rifle, there’s no magazine to add weight to the gun. The overall package will be lighter and shorter. The 7x57R has a slim and sleek barrel profile that Bradshaw chose. I measured the barrel diameter to be 0.622 inches at the midpoint, and 0.520 inches at the muzzle. This is not a corpulent, cookie cutter stock design that betrays a barreled action’s scheme. This is a sleek stock design with a splinter front, a rear stock that features a thin, open-wrist, a shadow-line cheekpiece, and a length-of-pull of 14 1/2 inches. It fits me perfectly. Bradshaw has balanced a lightweight barreled gun with a stock which gives the shooter only what they need, and not a toothpick worth of wood extra. It’s refreshing to find a maker who knows how much to remove from a stock and not leave too much. Photo: Massaro Media Group. The butt culminates with a classic red recursion pad, fitted correctly to the figured Walnut stock. What a figure! You could stare at this stock for hours, absorbed in the three-dimensionality and figure of the premium walnut. Bradshaw’s stock is a work of art. It is exquisitely checkered fore and aft, with classy angles and lines. The BRSS comes with a 140-degree wide V rear sight, a fine brass bead for the front sight, and iron sights. It also has the option of a scope. The rear portion is used as a scope ring base, while the other is attached to the forward portion of a cylindrical action. This keeps the scope on the front of the rifle. Bradshaw installed Talley base so that the rifle could be sighted. I asked Bradshaw to tell me the story behind his unique twist on a design already unique. He was happy to oblige: “The story really begins with a series of failures… struggling for more than five years with the design and manufacture of falling block double rifles,” Bradshaw explained. “I’ve lost track of how many different versions I designed and tried, but I can’t remember. The end result was an over-complicated, bulky and ‘not-so-fun-to-manufacture’ action. I made several serviceable falling block doubles, but they were never the rifle I had envisioned as my ideal.The cylindrical action–actually slightly oval in cross-section–carries wonderfully in the hand and is surely visually appealing. Photo: Massaro Media Group. “I read Ron Spomer’s piece on the Hoenig Rotary Action and immediately searched Google Patents in order to understand how the action worked,” said Bradshaw. “This happened in 2016 and 2017.” I noticed that Mr. Hoenig’s patent had expired in 2015. I decided to build my own rotary action, but as a single shot rather than a double rifle as Mr. Hoenig usually made. I started turning an action on my machine and then an idea struck me: I could do what George Hoenig achieved by condensing his bolt action into a rotary action. I could also do it with a falling-block action. I had a rising-block, single-shot prototype action two weeks later. The next four years were devoted to perfecting and marketing my rising-block singles and double rifles.””Fast-forward to the fall of 2020, and the acquisition of a CNC lathe,” continued Bradshaw. “I decided I would revisit the rotary action. I built a prototype SXS action which I didn’t like. It was too bulky and cumbersome for me to reload, compared to my doubles with rising-blocks. They became something I really enjoy when I focused on the single-shot rotary action. I carried and hunted the prototype in 7x65R chambered for two years. The rifle has been used to take many hogs and coyotes, but its best feature is how easy it is to carry in the field and break down for travel. I think the oval action, rather than the round one, makes the single-shot model stand out. Photo: Massaro Media Group. “I did change a few features from Mr. Hoenig’s original design,” acknowledged Bradshaw. “The first thing is the safety. It’s not a radical change. It works in a similar way to the original design. I changed it from horizontal to vertical. The link connecting the rotating breech with the barrel ring was the second change. Hoenig designed a link with a latch that was spring-loaded. Pulling the extractor from the extracted position, while the action is open, disengages the latch of the link, allowing the receiver to be removed. It was just one more part to make and fit, tune, and time. I chose a simpler ‘keyed-dowel’ arrangement, which is easier to manufacture but still provides the same functionality and simplicity as the overall design. I also changed the hinge length of the rotating breech link to provide a stop that limits how much the action gap opens for extracting and loading.” “My design philosophy is build actions as simply as possible with an absolute economy in parts and to build these parts very robustly to guarantee strength and longevity,” Bradshaw said. “I also placed a lot of emphasis on creating rifles that are sleek, low-profile, easy to handle, and shootable. Both my rising-block action and rotary actions meet all of these criteria. It’s an excellent place to be a designer and a manufacturer.” Mr. Bradshaw, I could not agree more. The 7×57 Mauser dates back to the 19th Century, when it was developed by Peter Paul Mauser and adopted as Spain’s military cartridge in1893. This cartridge, used in the Spanish-American War, would inspire the U.S. Army’s development of the.30-06 Springfield. The 7x57R cartridge is nothing more than a rimmed version of the tried and true 7×57 Mauser cartridge, capable of fulfilling the hunting role. These 173 grain slugs produced three-shot groups measuring approximately 1.2 inches, and made neat little paper punch holes in the targets. Photo: Massaro Media Group.Dubbed 7x57R, (R for rimmed), this rimless variant is identical in size and performance. The only difference is the base and the rim. It’s not as popular as the rimless model, but it is still a good choice for hunting in general. For my test ammo I used Sellier & Bellot’s 173-grain loads at a muzzle speed of 2,379 fps. The formula of heavy bullets in a moderate caliber at a moderate muzzle speed, which was popular in the late 19th century, will work just as well today. These cartridges are fully reloadable and boxer primed. To test the accuracy of the lightweight wonder, I mounted the Leupold VX-6HD scope with Talley 30mm rings. I then set up the target at 100 yards. The smooth trigger pull was the first thing that I noticed. According to my Lyman digital scale, it broke at 3 pounds 4 ounces with just a little creep and almost no excess travel. Recoil was manageable. At the bench, the lightweight BRSS exhibited a good amount of muzzle jumping, but the 7x57R’s recoil was manageable. Photo: Massaro Media Group.As you might expect with a rifle that tips the scales at 5 pounds, 11 ounces–unscoped–and with a pencil-thin barrel, there was an appreciable amount of muzzle jump. The thin barrel, which heats up rapidly, made it difficult to get back on target. I limited groups to three shots and the Bradshaw BRSS consistently delivered three 173-grain slugs in a 1.2-inch group (again on the 100-yard target). I’m sure that this rifle would be better off with a custom load, but for a standard factory load, it’s accurate enough for hunting. The Bradshaw BRSS is a gentleman’s gun that will last for generations. This is not a cookie-cutter gun, and it will stand out from the crowd. Bradshaw spared no expenses on the rifle that I tested. The color case hardening was done with gold inlays. The scroll engraving, fine stock lines, and hand-cut checks all scream bespoke rifle. This gun starts at just $7,500, but in the configuration shown in this article it costs $9,500. This rifle is a functional work of art. I can’t imagine how long it takes to make. The rifle is balanced, has beautiful lines and exudes quality craftsmanship. The action may initially seem strange, but it quickly becomes second nature. I can only imagine the comfort of carrying this lightweight rifle on the tracks for eland and kudu in the African heat. The compact design is perfect for a leopard blind, where you only have one shot. Or when you’re sitting on a bait for a bear. The Bradshaw BRSS has an extractor but no ejector. It’s easy to remove a spent cartridge from the chamber since it is only available in rimmed calibers. Photo: Massaro Media Group.Bradshaw makes the BRSS available in a wide range of rimmed cartridges, from.22 Hornet up to 9.3x74R. There are many options. I wonder how a.300 H&H flanged would feel in this gun. If you want something unique, you can inquire about a.350 Rigby No. The.333 Jeffery flanged or the.333 Jeffery No. 2. I was very happy to have the Bradshaw BRSS back in Bradshaw’s shop. Maybe one day I’ll have one of my own, but for now, you and I both can feed our daydreams at BradshawGunAndRifle.com.Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the July 2023 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.More Hunting Rifles:NEXT STEP: Download Your Free Storm Tactical Printable Target Pack62 Printable MOA Targets with DOT Drills – Rifle Range in YARDSThis impressive target pack from our friends at Storm Tactical contains62 printable targetsfor rifle and handgun range use. The target grids and bullseyes are in MOA. Subscribe to the Gun Digest newsletter and we will send you your print-at home target pack immediately. Enter your email below.