Blaser R8 Field Evaluation

[Stinky Coyote]

haven't followed long term blaser stuff but that would be interesting to know if neglected chambers pit or build up such that case welds into the irregularities like a neglected blued rifle, don't think I've seen a report of that on a blaser but first hand seen it several times on non stainless regular rifles and caught some in time for friends whatever and cleaned up chamber before too late, also somehow screwed up at least one of my rifles sometime back and had to get a new barrel, stainless sure seems to offer a lot more forgiveness to that, I'm sure blaser is far different than this and much closer to stainless ability or equal or better? just a mental condition from being bitten in past for me and not so with stainless so when I saw signs of that little bit of surface spotting I got on it and cleaned up well but part of why I moved away from my k95 on top of wanting a repeater

 

[Formidilosus]

Update to post #2.

 

[Southern Lights]

@Formidilosus You said:

" The front lever does not have as much tension when tightening down as the rear- and I believe that is where the slight error is. I have not seen this with other Blasers I have used, so I will try to run it down."

If you are using the Blaser mount, the tension must be adjusted for the barrel it is fitted on. This is done with the "star" screw opposite the lever on the mount. It will require a Blaser mount adjustment screwdriver, or a very thin bladed one. Basically, you will need to tighten it a bit, then close the lever until it has just modest tension to do it finger tight. The front lever is too loose for that barrel and adjusting this screw will fix the problem as each barrel will have very slight differences from manufacturing. Make sure both levers are equally tight, but you don't need to dog them down.

Once completed for that barrel, you shouldn't really have to mess with it again except for just checking every now and then if it feels loose.

You can look up adjusting Blaser mounts online and see what I mean. You can see the two star shaped screws is in this image.

 

[TheWhitetailNut]

How would you say their long-term durability is, compared to something like a Tikka or a CRF M70 - things like small parts commonly breaking, or bigger durability issues?

Any thoughts or info on them as big-bore Dangerous Game guns, for Cape Buffalo, etc?

In the African bush, lore rules the day. I have found any grumblings about the R8 actually to be rooted in the R93. That said I pay attention to dust in mine. My favorite PH was duty bound to tell me the Blaser doesn't like dust when I pulled mine from the case. What I found while I was there though is their own R93 camp rifle in .375 had never been cleaned in over 20 years on the back of a Bakkie.

Mine wears a full custom fluted Krieger in .458 Lott or a factory .338.