R8 Custom Barrels-Dream Come True!

[mikecatt13]

I bought a J Sip and Sons barrel last year in 8mm Rem Mag. It is a good shooter but is not the quality of Blaser. After reading the comments above I looked at J Sip's website and they are not listing nor indicating Blaser barrels at all.

Do you care to elaborate as far as what you are seeing as the difference between them to make that conclusion about the quality?

 

[Red Leg]

Is there any reason to believe the barrels made by Blaser are better? I’ve spoken with the gents at J Sip.

My R8 arrived today. I got the Ultimate stock (thumbhole) with a 375H&H barrel. Next will be a .300 WM barrel followed by a second R8 for my son, but I’m not sure which stock, probably the synthetic professional.
While I admit being influenced by those on this forum, I really fell in love with the rifle at SCI in 2017 and have been dreaming of it since.

And I will make another observation: a 4 person 21 day trip to Namibia this June is significantly more cost, so I might as well hunt with the preferred rifle.

You can get standard weight actual Blaser barrels (I prefer that weight) - including .375 with sights - from Europtic for under $1300.

 

[Fastrig]

Did some prowling around the net. They seem to have patents pending and issued for the take down system along with the rest of the unique action itself - originally the '93 and then changed with the R8 which includes the unique barrel receiver design. They even treat it as a seperate serial numbered component. I am not Alan Dershowitz, but assuming the patents haven't expired, I suspect they have pretty solid ground on this one. When I was in my corporate life (we were a $30 billion defense giant), we aggressively protected our intellectual property - hardware and software. Won a lot more than we lost, and could at least tie the thieves up in court for years.

Code swipers piss me off, so any of those guys you nailed I’m giving you a standing ovation for. The two times we got letters were because we built a better mouse trap to solve X function and the big guys didn’t care for it. Think they were just trying to rattle our cage to see if we would flinch, nope . Patents are a touchy one for sure, never had to deal with those thank goodness. Guess if they have some sort of special design I could see it but if the barrel is a basic connection system, and I honestly haven’t looked close at the R8 barrel ends to speak on them intelligently, and is similar to anything else out there, they could have a problem enforcing it. I believe the serialization may be a compliance thing though since it essentially creates a new rifle on the fly. It’s a great concept in rifle design, and they have executed it brilliantly, but Blaser isn’t the first to come up with the concept, though they and Sauer may have refined it to the Nth degree...their bolt action is unique and can definitely see that one being enforced. Is the receiver part of the barrel design on the R8 or does the barrel simply connect into their unique receiver? Haven’t pulled one apart so you have me curious now. Going to pull the Merkel apart to see how their take down functions in regards to the receiver end of the barrel. I do know there are two ways to change out the barrel, one when you aren’t changing bolt heads and one when you are. I skimmed over that section of the manual as I wan’t planning on changing out the bolt head.

 

[Fastrig]

You can get standard weight actual Blaser barrels (I prefer that weight) - including .375 with sights - from Europtic for under $1300.

That’s not bad. The ones I was looking at, semi-weighted and fluted were 800 to a grand more than that. If you want shorter barrel than their standard length in a caliber they seem to get real pricey for that, which I don’t get.

 

[Ed Lally]

It seems that almost all of the ads and internet sites for Blaser Dealers list only List Prices. I finally found my GO-TO Blaser dealer: Bobby at Cove Creek Outfitters (bobby@covecreekoutfitters.com). I bought a brand new .375 H&H Blaser Barrel from Bobby in standard profile with sights for $1050 shipped to my door in three days. Also a Magnum Bolt and Bolt Holder shipped for $695. Bobby also sells a .458 Selous Safari Barrel for $2450, delivered. Hard to beat prices. J Sip & Sons wants $1000 for a barrel, $300 for sights, $75 for a sling stud and $25 for shipping. For my .375 barrel, J Sips wants $1400 shipped. Admittedly, the J Sips sights are a cut above the standard Blaser .375 sights, so there is some value added there, however, I saved $350 with Bobby and have a real Blaser Barrel. The J Sips barrels appear to be excellent however there are some differences. The J Sips uses "Tool Steel" in the area for the Blaser bolt lockup and threads their barrel into this part while it appears that the Blaser barrel is made from one piece of steel. Blaser uses a different barrel coating than J Sips, who uses cerakote. Blaser hammer forges their barrels and rifling while J Sips cuts their rifling and turns their barrels. I believe that the steel in the Blaser barrel is much harder. I say this because I had an aftermarket muzzle break installed on a Blaser Barrel in .300 WBY barrel and had to pay extra for the threading of the barrel due to the extra time and tooling it took to cut the threads. For standard barrels, I'll buy Blasers, but for a .458 or similar Selous Safari barrel with fiber optic sights, the J Sips at $1,400 shipped is much more attractive than the best price I can find (Cove Creek at $2,450 with standard sights). I just had an email exchange with Justin Sip and he is starting a batch of new barrels and he is adding one for me. Justin Sip <sales@jsipandsons.com>

 

[Tra3]

+1 for Cove Creek. I just bought my R8 from them. They were very reasonable to work with.

 

[Red Leg]

It seems that almost all of the ads and internet sites for Blaser Dealers list only List Prices. I finally found my GO-TO Blaser dealer: Bobby at Cove Creek Outfitters (bobby@covecreekoutfitters.com). I bought a brand new .375 H&H Blaser Barrel from Bobby in standard profile with sights for $1050 shipped to my door in three days. Also a Magnum Bolt and Bolt Holder shipped for $695. Bobby also sells a .458 Selous Safari Barrel for $2450, delivered. Hard to beat prices. J Sip & Sons wants $1000 for a barrel, $300 for sights, $75 for a sling stud and $25 for shipping. For my .375 barrel, J Sips wants $1400 shipped. Admittedly, the J Sips sights are a cut above the standard Blaser .375 sights, so there is some value added there, however, I saved $350 with Bobby and have a real Blaser Barrel. The J Sips barrels appear to be excellent however there are some differences. The J Sips uses "Tool Steel" in the area for the Blaser bolt lockup and threads their barrel into this part while it appears that the Blaser barrel is made from one piece of steel. Blaser uses a different barrel coating than J Sips, who uses cerakote. Blaser hammer forges their barrels and rifling while J Sips cuts their rifling and turns their barrels. I believe that the steel in the Blaser barrel is much harder. I say this because I had an aftermarket muzzle break installed on a Blaser Barrel in .300 WBY barrel and had to pay extra for the threading of the barrel due to the extra time and tooling it took to cut the threads. For standard barrels, I'll buy Blasers, but for a .458 or similar Selous Safari barrel with fiber optic sights, the J Sips at $1,400 shipped is much more attractive than the best price I can find (Cove Creek at $2,450 with standard sights). I just had an email exchange with Justin Sip and he is starting a batch of new barrels and he is adding one for me. Justin Sip <sales@jsipandsons.com>

Those are terrific prices.

 

[Mike Van Horn]

Hmm. 212 gr ELD x at 2860 in the PRC and 200 gr ELD x from my .300 Win Mag at 2850. And why should I care?

I agree

Compare the PRC to the 300 Weatherby. It doesn't do anything the Weatherby hasn't been doing for a long time. The Weatherby comes with a sub-moa guarantee. And it feeds just fine with the belt, just like many other cartridges

 

[lwaters]

I think the PRC is supposed to be more accurate. The bullets are seated out so I don't know if it will fit through a standard length action. It is basically 375 Ruger neck down to 30 caliber which handloader could seat the bullets deeper.

 

[Red Leg]

I think the PRC is supposed to be more accurate. The bullets are seated out so I don't know if it will fit through a standard length action. It is basically 375 Ruger neck down to 30 caliber which handloader could seat the bullets deeper.

In my .300 Win Mag R8 barrel, the 200 gr ELD X shoots 1/2 MOA from the rest. There is very little really new under the sun.

 

[BigSteve57]

In my .300 Win Mag R8 barrel, the 200 gr ELD X shoots 1/2 MOA from the rest. There is very little really new under the sun.

I'm going to have to try those. I've been using Remington PSPCL and didn't do that well; 1- 1 1/2 MOA IIRC.
Were these factory loads that you used?

 

[Red Leg]

I'm going to have to try those. I've been using Remington PSPCL and didn't do that well; 1- 1 1/2 MOA IIRC.
Were these factory loads that you used?

Yes

 

[BeeMaa]

In my .300 Win Mag R8 barrel, the 200 gr ELD X shoots 1/2 MOA from the rest. There is very little really new under the sun.

For the purposes of hunting I very much agree with you.
However I'm not taking aim at animals that I'm paying for at ranges exceeding 500 yards.
For those into long range targets and the military...obviously they perceive a difference.

For the majority of common hunting calibers, IMO Blaser has a good selection.
I've not laid eyes on a JS&S barrel but would very much like to do a side by side comparison.

 

[dchamp]

Do you care to elaborate as far as what you are seeing as the difference between them to make that conclusion about the quality?

I don't know exactly the treatment Blaser uses on their barrels but I prefer it to Cerokote. Also when I received my barrel from J.Sip The notches cut for the Scope mount were off not allowing a scope to be mounted. To J.Sip's credit he was able to fix it. But when I received the fixed barrel one of the stud bolts unscrewed from the barrel which I fixed with some Loctite.
Please don't get me wrong I am not unhappy with my barrel from J.Sip it's just that if Blaser is offering a barrel in a caliber I want then I would buy it over another's barrel as long as they were both within a certain price range.

 

[Glenn Slaven]

I bought a .30-06 from him today. The nice thing about having a custom barrel made is it can be marked “.30 US Govt” for the caliber. Meaning I should be able to take that barrel as well as my 17 year old daughters .30-‘06 MRC rifle, since she can’t import her own and I can’t have two rifles in the same caliber.

 

[Philip Glass]

T

I agree

Compare the PRC to the 300 Weatherby. It doesn't do anything the Weatherby hasn't been doing for a long time. The Weatherby comes with a sub-moa guarantee. And it feeds just fine with the belt, just like many other cartridges

the military snipers just performed a test of all available long range calibers. The .300 PRC won by far. So on paper there are many choices it just gets interesting when some of these new calibers get put to the test. I am sure there are hundreds of opinions on this but it’s neat to know what is really on the cutting edge.
Philip

 

[Philip Glass]

I’ve got a new .300 PRC barrel coming from J Sip hopefully it will beat me home from Spring Break! Incredible prices and service from them thus far. Hitting my 800 yard gong most every time with the 6.5 PRC so obviously I can’t wait for the .300 PRC. Good fun!
Philip

 

[Glenn Slaven]

I really like the fact you can get calibers from him that just aren’t available from Blaser like y’all have said. He and I talked today and I think the next barrel is going to be .416 RM or .470 Capstick. I think the latter is pretty cool even though I’m sure it will not be easy on the shoulder.

 

[Opposite Pole]

I don't know exactly the treatment Blaser uses on their barrels but I prefer it to Cerokote.

Plasma Nitriding

 

[BeeMaa]

I really like the fact you can get calibers from him that just aren’t available from Blaser like y’all have said. He and I talked today and I think the next barrel is going to be .416 RM or .470 Capstick. I think the latter is pretty cool even though I’m sure it will not be easy on the shoulder.

My 416RM barrel is in at Euro Optic but I haven't picked it up yet.
Still waiting on the scope for it, so it can wait a bit.
When I do get it, I'll give you a shout.

You know, I would recommend stamping it 7.62x63mm instead.
Just to avoid any possible confusion with "Caliber 30, M1".