Blaser, love them or hate them?

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To be honest if I had a £ for every time a noob short stroked a long action turn bolt I'd be rich.
If you want to see professional's do it, stand on a firing line when a sniper candidates does it with a 7.62...Blaser click my @rse:lol:

I saw a mate run over his R93 on my concrete drive not once but twice. He reversed over it, felt the bump, stopped and drove forward over it again.:doh: The result? no damage, no marks, no loss of zero and one embarrassed stalker.

I hate the price but love the compactness, especially in a long action chambering. The trigger is better than anything other than a Jewell IMHO.

Any rifle can blow up, having a turn bolt is no guarantee that you will come out of it intact, it's all a bad day.

I have a Sako 75 that has been rebuilt and fettled more times than I can remember. It's like a formula one racing car, if everything is perfect it is stupidly accurate. If even one component is off by the tiniest of margins it has a hissy fit. It's cost me more than a Blaser and I suspect if many on here were honest a lot of the custom/semi customs rifle owners are in the same boat.

I won't be spending any more on the Sako when this last barrel is shot out, I think I'll take the pish-taking on the chin and pick up an R8 (none thumb hole) and go stalking instead. It's got to beat endless fine tuning in an effort to find out why the rifle doesn't like the latest batch of 150 gn.

ATB
 
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Blaser are pushing the technology and are definately far from traditional. I have no doubt that they are accurate, reliable etc. their straight pulls are undoubtedly popular in some quarters. Their single shots, doubles, drillings and combination guns with their very strong lock up and free floating barrels bring a new level of potential accuracy to this genre. But I just don't like their styling or feel. I am not sure that I want Torx headed screws on any gun that I own, Allen headed are bad enough. I much prefer the feeling and styling of a classically built rifle or shotgun - solid steel and walnut, steel properly fitted and hardened etc. and accurate enough to put a bullet through the engine room at reasonable range. But thats just my preference.
 
I have only used one Blaser, found it to be very very accurate .The trigger was really nice, not as nice as my Jewell though. Wouldn't buy one though, just not my cup of tea

Al
 
Thar said:
I am known for my Blaser knocking, although to be honest some of it is to see the Blaser owners without a sense of humour bite.

There is no doubt that the marketing has made them a aspirational product for some people, this has not doubt allowed the manufactures to price them higher than they otherwise might be able to in the market place. The mounts are the price of a second hand turn bolt.

The biggest plus point of the Blaser for me would be it’s the short length.

While accurate by all accounts, very very few can or need to exploit the ability of any rifle to shoot much less than 1” in a stalking situation, shooting off sticks, lying in bog, even from a high seat with a rail if the butt is not supported, not many will be able to shoot .2”.

The downsides are,
Such a complicated action, no detachable magazine, unless you go for the more expensive R8, the infamous Blaser click if the bolt is not hammed home hard, you need to full length size your brass to ensure that they recycle according to some owners. If the action does let go due to collet failure the bolt takes half you head away.
He is the famous photos that get all the Blaser owners upset, but they tell a thousand words.







If you were a good looking chap before you brought your Blaser you might not be afterwards :D

There are more important things in life to worry about though, if you like your Blaser fair play, oh yes I can afford one if I wanted one.

ATB

Tahr
Click to expand...

This is the only recorded event of this ever happening and as has been said, was a reloading user error.. most if not all rifles would have come apart under the circumstances... The US military conducted tests on the military version and removed sections from the collet 1 by 1.. it still held together after many had been removed and it was cleared safe for use by them.

Apparently the R8 action was modified slightly so that, in the event of a catastroughic failure, the slide couldn't come straight back as it could on some of the earlier models, it would be deflected upwards.. that statement could do with verifying by someone in the know.. it is what I was lead to believe by a gunsmith.
 
Had a client with a Blaser that could not get the bolt open live round in chamber would not open nor fire that rifle had to go back to the manufacturers.

However any rifle can develop a fault regardless of make, I am a Sako fan but I had a Sako go off when chambering a round, bolt came flying back but the bolt lock held it did not come out I had a very sore hand for a couple of Weeks but could have been much worse, especially scary when you see those pictures.
 
I've had a fair few rifles over the years, the ones that fail seem to be the more exspensive ones. Three Sako 85's all failed, one lasted ten months the next lasted two months and the last one only lasted weeks. The only 75 I had had an issue with a circlip on the trigger unit falling off. Sauer 202 had a new trigger unit put on and the barrel wore out before it was two years. Both my Remies are still going strong and cost half the price!

​Al
 
Look at it another way if you like it & are in it for the long haul re-barreling is as simple as buying a new one!
 
12-E54DC450-1391966-1280-100.webp
(100m, 36grn N140, 90grn Sierra fmj)

This is why I use a Blaser, it is not because other rifles are inaccurate, it is because the Blaser can be depended on to be accurate.
:thumb:
atb Tim
 
timbrayford said:
View attachment 33206
(100m, 36grn N140, 90grn Sierra fmj)

This is why I use a Blaser, it is not because other rifles are inaccurate, it is because the Blaser can be depended on to be accurate.
:thumb:
atb Tim
Click to expand...

this is is meaningless , many many turn bolts could do this and they would mostly be cheaper than the blaser ?

I have a 15yo remmy in 308 that will do this with its original remmy barrel , it's been bedded but it's still a cheaper option than the blaser ? (And with factory tap ammo)
 
Vipa said:
This is the only recorded event of this ever happening and as has been said, was a reloading user error.. most if not all rifles would have come apart under the circumstances... The US military conducted tests on the military version and removed sections from the collet 1 by 1.. it still held together after many had been removed and it was cleared safe for use by them.

Apparently the R8 action was modified slightly so that, in the event of a catastroughic failure, the slide couldn't come straight back as it could on some of the earlier models, it would be deflected upwards.. that statement could do with verifying by someone in the know.. it is what I was lead to believe by a gunsmith.
Click to expand...

The use of a pistol powder has only been mentioned on this website by Blaser owners to my knowledge. IIRC the other ammunition was tested out the batch which was used in the rifle that exploded nothing wrong could be found with it, highly unlikely that one case would be filled with a different powder to the rest.

There were about half a dozen other documented failures(see below) most with high pressure/big bore rifles although none with almost tragic consequences.

Blaser did modify the action of the R93 not just the R8 afterwards, although they denied any liability for the accident, the use of reloaded ammo invalidated the rifles warranty.

When a turn bolt fails it normally lets go at the chamber, it doesn’t shear off the bolt lugs and let the bolt come back into your face.

Below is a out take from the following report:- http://www.deportiro.com/english_articles/al10_english_version.shtml

1 Accident near Münster with a Blaser rifle model R93 caliber 6,5x68
1 Accident near Koblenz recently with a Blaser rifle R93 caliber .300 Weatherby
1 Accident in Africa with a Blaser rifle model R93 caliber .416 Rem Mag, that then was stolen
2 Accidents near Nantes, one with a Blaser R93 caliber .375 H&H and another with a .300 Winchester Magnum
1 Accident near Paris with a Blaser R93 caliber .375 H&H
1 Accident in Austria
After the last accident, the CEO of Blaser company, Mr. Knöbel, said to the press that in all the models of his brands sometimes wrong ammunition, in bad state or bad reloaded could cause the gun rupture and the shooter could be injured.

This is certainly valid: that a blown of a gun could be produced ocasionally for various reasons, but what is not normal or common is that the shooter results injured in his head or face. For this matter I´m distributing this information to every important media of the world so, by them, to communicate with me every users that have suffered problems or hurts with Blaser rifles Model R93 of any caliber.

A gun engineer of Germany, Mr. Arndt G. Kriegeskorte, after making a technical analysis of the R93 action and saying that they are risky and insecure for the shooters, was menaced formally by Blaser that if he continue telling about his findings will be demanded by Euros 200.000 (about us$ 250.000.-)


ATB

Tahr
 
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