Hi 10gen and welcome to the forum. Yes for me the barrel contour and weight as well as the safety were the two main reasons for not purchasing one. The safety I could have lived with and re-programmed my thumb but the barrel just turned me off. I too wanted to buy a 275 but with that barrel it was like a varmint rifle. I had mentally prepared myself to save up and sell a number of other guns to help finance the purchase but when I actually went and handled the rifle in question I was underwhelmed.

Of course if they change the barrel profile then they also need to make new sights however I think they could have got away with two profiles. A slim one for the 275, 308, and 30-06 and a heavier one for the 8x57 and 9.3x62.

Blaser however are masters of mass production and using the smallest number of components possible across the range of products. You can see that for instance with their U/O double rifle which is nothing more than their combination gun with a rifle barrel insert fitted to the shotgun barrel. According to them it is done that way for regulation purposes which it does, but of course it also reduces manufacturing costs. You won't see any pictures by Blaser showing the insides of the actions on their break action guns because they are ugly. There is no gun makers craft, only clever engineering designed to work reliably and reduce manufacturing costs. Unfortunately it generally looks ugly. If Blaser were involved in the automotive trade they would be very successful.

I have wondered who Rigby's target audience is regarding this rifle and have come to the conclusion that it is not rifle enthusiasts like us but cashed up newbies. The popularity of deer stalking has increased dramatically in the UK as well as in most places around the world and while most people will buy a Sako or Blaser etc. there will be those that have a good job and reasonable amounts of disposable cash, and can afford $12000 without having to have a savings plan. They have a basic understanding of the Rigby history and like the image it portrays. They probably also know of Holland & Holland but do not want to spend 40000 pounds plus to own one and therefore the Rigby is ideal. I also believe that most of these new Rigby Highland owners are not the type to have a lot of guns, probably just the Rigby, a shotgun and a 22. Is that bad, no not at all, but I believe that is why the Highland Stalker is selling like hotcakes even though it doesn't excite the gun enthusiast.

The same thing happened with Jeep when they brought out the four door JK. Until then Jeeps were bought by enthusiasts who had always had Jeeps, had been four wheel driving most of their life and had some mechanical knowledge often working on their cars themselves. However when the JK came along that all changed. A new breed started buying these Jeeps because of the massive advertising campaign that Jeep ran at the time showing the adventure that came along with owning one and catchy slogans which made you feel like being part of a family if you owned a JK. It was very clever and they were bought up as fast as they could make them by people who had never been four wheel driving or camping before, had never worked on cars but liked the image. Mostly middle management, advertising and marketing people. The plan worked very well but was let down by Jeeps terrible customer service, poor reliability and horrendous parts prices. I believe the same type of customer is buying the Highland stalker. IMHO of course.

Waidmannsheil.