| Rod4861 |
| (.300 member) |
| 03/02/19 11:12 AM |
Re: Blaser Rifles:Are they more marketing than engineering?
|
Quote:
The reason no one sees African PHs using Blasers is one, they cost too much, and two, they are unreliable crap ... why would ANYONE who is a serious PH carry a Blaser, when a PH could carry a reliable and trustworthy Mauser 98. CZ etc? Even the Blaser double rifles are crap and unreliable. One of our members purchased one, yes they are cheaper, he sold it before the year was out.
The R93's are well known for being dangerous. A member of years gone by had the earlier model of Blaser than the R93. He wanted to sell it. I was interested in buying it, but the price at the time was too high for me. An extremely light firearm, in 7 mm Rem Mag and .375 H&H, about 6 1/4 lbs including ammo and scope in .375. It was not pleasant to shoot.
Anyway he said the common name in German for the Blaser was "Rausch-Bomb" (or something like that).
The R8 was redisgned supposedly to remove the denied alleged problem fo the Blaser R93's bolt of blowing back into people's faces ...
However its design is also crap. A magazine of 2 rounds for at least some chamberings. Also who on Earth designs a rifle where the trigger is part of the removable magazine??? Utter crap design ...
Having said all that, I would consider having the R8 in an hot magnum cartridge chambering suitable for plains or mountain hunting, and in a light version of the rifle. The shorter length and lightweight would be handy for mountain shooting. And a inadequate magazine of two rounds only, is still one more than a single shot. And not too much of a hinderance for mountain trophy hunting.
As for the R93, seems OK, but how can one have confidence shooting it, not knowing if you are going to have an explosion in your face, even if rare. As the alleged problems IMO are very real.
I don't own any Blasers. I would consider a single shot Blaser, which are reputed to be accurate.
I have never owned nor shot a R93 and know nothing of them except from what I have read. The only Blaser which I have fired is the R8, which I own. I have 3 barrels for it; 30/06 (4 shot mag) 9.3x62 (4 shot magazine) and a 223 (5 shot). I have hunted with it in extremes from -18C to 38C. It has been in snow, dust, sleet and rain. It is NOT a safe Queen. I know the R8 very well. I cannot fault the rifle. It is my first choice for hunting anything in the Americas and if I ever get there, Europe.
As for mountain trophy hunting; any cartridge suitable is going to have a (R8) magazine capacity of 3 at the very minimum. I doubt if many sheep get nailed with 505's or even 416 Rigbys for that matter.
I'm at a loose to see how the removable magazine/trigger housing is a disadvantage. Do you have any examples of instances where that has been a problem? I haven't heard of any and tend to look at that feature as a positive.
The R93 may have faults?? I can't say as I have no first hand experience. But I can definitely say, from experience, that there are no flies on the R8.
Rod