It seems the Blaser R8 is a source of much debate these days. Some positive, some negative. Those that own them seem to love them. Those that don't, seem to either be indifferent, or simply hate them. Not much middle ground.
It also is a fact that the 458 Winchester has garnered it's share of criticism over the years as well. But today, much like the R8, people either love or hate it. Not much middle ground.
While on my recent hunt in Zimbabwe, I had great succes with an R8 in 375 H&H. However, I didn't really get as much utility from it as I could have. Because, I also carried along a Winchester 70 416 Rem Mag, I limited myself to having to bring along a big, long, heavy rifle case, and henceforth not using the R8 to it's fullest potential.
You see, one of the beauties of the R8 is that it is easily taken down and can be carried in a very short, lightweight carry case. It is also very easy to add another barrel in a different caliber in this same short, lightweight carry case. On my recent trip, I did not gain this advantage, and had to lug 47lbs of guns and scopes in a huge hard sided case. We also had to load this monstrosity in a charter plane, with other huge, long, heavy gun cases that some of the other guys had. I thought, there has to be a better way! Trouble is, I knew there was a better way! Never again. Next time it will be an R8 with two barrels, if there is a call for both a medium and large bore on the same trip.
In walks the R8 Jaeger Safari 458 Winchester.
While perusing my favorite crack house, aka Gunbroker, I ran across a heck of a "deal" on a new R8 Jaeger Safari in 458 Winchester. Sure, I'd rather it was a Lott, but at this price I thought, what the heck, I can always have the barrel rechambered if I ever felt I NEEDED to. The gun is beautiful, and surprisingly short with it's 23.5" barrel. 9lbs on the dot, and with the kickstop in the butt, it balances quite nicely. Kind of proportioned like a sumo wrestler. Short and fat. The barrel band front and shallow V rear sight comes to point like a well fitted double gun. Beauty and function together in the same package.
The benefits of having a long magazine and using the 458 Win Mag to it's full potential is something that most do not discuss. For most 458 Winchesters don't have this feature. The Winchester 70 in this caliber comes with a block in the magazine that prevents the loading of ammunition longer than factory specs. And other rifles built on "medium" actions are quite the same. But, once you have a firearm that indeed does have a longer "magnum" length magazine, you can load the rounds to a longer OAL, which comes very close to the OAL of the 458 Lott. This allows us to taylor our ammo according to our needs. The current crop of copper and brass bullets come with several bands that can be used as crimping grooves. Barnes TSX, and CEB Raptors and Solids feature these bands. We can also use the Lee Factory Crimp Die to crimp a standard bullet in place at the desired OAL. By doing this, we are able to compete shoulder to shoulder with the Lott, and use longer bullets than can be comfortably seated at the factory OAL of the Win Mag. The 458 Win Mag has a longer throat in the chamber than does the Lott, so this in turn makes us able to easily match the Lott with the shorter 2.5" cartridge cases. Just load the bullets out a little longer and voila!
I'll do some load work up and chronograph testing, but I'm guessing I can get an easy 2350 fps with 450gr bullets and 2250 with 500 gr bullets, with no heavy powder compression.
So there you have it. A pig of a caliber dressed up as a beautiful lady. We'll see if she needs more lipstick.
The pics don't do it justice. The wood is much nicer than it looks here.
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