What problems have you encountered with your Blaser R8?

[Mark A Ouellette]

@Altitude sickness and @Mark A Ouellette...for your bidding pleasure.

Blaser S2 500/416NE

Thanks that's a nice one with the sight, mount, and ammo... But with taxes, shipping, and Gun Broker buyer fee (1%) it will be $14,000. That is a fair price but not a great buy... I will wait...

 

[Tra3]

Operator error when not closing the bolt all the way. But that is not the rifle.

I have not had problems with the rifle. That covers 3 stocks (including a 4th action in LH) and 7 barrels. But I’m only 4 years and 100+ days of hunting with them. It has been worth the money.

 

[Altitude sickness]

BeeMaa, my point is that. For all the hate. I’m not seeing anyone dump the S2 for a great price. They are all still used/retail prices

 

[Inline6]

I’ve always dry fired on an empty. I never fired the gun on 375 barrel before and put in an empty fired in another rifle. The bolt closed up easily and dry fired but would not release. It would cock and dry fire again but still would not release. I tried until I got tired that evening. The next day it released easily after a few attempts and ejected the round. I don’t have an explanation but I lost some confidence in the R8 after that. A standard bolt action rifle you have options but with an R8 you just have to trust the engineering. I still really like the rifle as a rental rifle on hunts but I don’t think it will ever replace my conventional bolt action rifles as a first choice for my hunts after that.

Have dry fired mine 1000s of times. You are not going to hurt it.

Their are many things that could have caused this. One is the firing pin getting stuck inside the primer. That is a reason I would not recommend try this. Like @Mark A Ouellette mentioned above. At the .200 line some reamer are tighter than other. A fresh reamer is going to be looser than a worn one. (It a long rabbit hole). Some chambering are known to be a little on the loose side, so they make small base dies for this issue. It could have been when you dry fired on that case. It forced it past that line. Again hard to say.

As far as conference goes, I'll say this again. When hunting DG with hand loads, always use virgin brass.

I feel this is a user issue, like bad reloading practices would cause, not the gun it's. IMHO.

 

[BeeMaa]

BeeMaa, my point is that. For all the hate. I’m not seeing anyone dump the S2 for a great price. They are all still used/retail prices

Agreed. There is still a demand for the S2 and the prices reflect that fact. Not sure why they are shelf warmers in Germany.

Personally, I think this particular S2 is worth the asking price when comparing it to other offerings in the same class. However, I need a double rifle like I need another wrist watch. So I'll be passing on this opportunity.

 

[Datchew]

It's a really elegantly designed weapon.

The only thing I'd want is to drop about a pound in weight.
Unlikely to make that work in the action without material changes that may not survive as wear surfaces as long as the current option though.

I put a carbon stock on mine and didn't really lose a big amount.
It looks to me that most of the weight is in the barrel excepting the wood stocked versions.

Stress-wise, they need that beefy mass at the chamber end where 2 bolts in a saddle handle keeping it stable while that thick section bears the mounting interface of receiver, optic, chamber pressure, bolt lockup. Plus, while doing all that it holds the barrel free floating in cantilever.

 

[375Fox]

@375Fox please do not loose confidence in your Blaser. It functions as designed.

Blaser's have tight (minimum tolerance) chambers compared to many other rifles. There is nothing loose or sloppy about Blasers! They are precision instruments designed and manufactured to something like aerospace specifications! A crawl through the mud of trench warfare Mauser 98 or AK-47 they are not.

It is highly likely that your empty fired cartridge case was fired in a rifle with a slightly larger chamber. That cartridge case expanded to fill the other rifle's chamber during firing. Then, it contracted enough to extract it from the chamber. Young's Modulus, "everything is a spring..." but the cartridge case did not return to it's previously unfired dimensions.

All cases expand when fired to fill the chamber. The larger the chamber the more the expansion. This is how we fire-form brass for wildcat cartridges like the Ackley Improved (AI) cartridges. Then, after firing, the brass contracts but not all the way to the unfired dimensions. Once again, a larger chamber will produce fired brass of larger dimensions than will a smaller chamber such as found in Blasers.

A "turn bolt" action rifle provides camming and de-camming power to chamber and de-chamber and extract. A straight-pull action does not have the same level of camming power to cycle rounds that are out of (too large) tolerance for a tight chamber.

FYI: I have a Blaser S-2 double in .375 H&H. It is finicky about chambering reloaded ammo, even if it is full length resized. One of the chambers is more forgiving than the other but still likes virgin or Blaser-only brass. The problem is clearly chambers cut to the minimum SAAMI or CIP standards. I strongly believe the oversize problem occurs in the "head" of the cartridge case... I've measured the cases that will not chamber and their case heads are slightly larger.

What surprised me from the event is I did not force the bolt closed in any way so I expected it would eject the round easily. I’ve never had one fail me as a rental rifle but it’s difficult to forget the event with my rifle. It was also suggested that the firing pin possibly got stuck but there was a noticeable click every time it recocked and I pulled the trigger hoping it would release. Hopefully it will only be a one time event.

 

[Daisy]

"FYI: I have a Blaser S-2 double in .375 H&H. It is finicky about chambering reloaded ammo, even if it is full length resized. One of the chambers is more forgiving than the other but still likes virgin or Blaser-only brass. The problem is clearly chambers cut to the minimum SAAMI or CIP standards. I strongly believe the oversize problem occurs in the "head" of the cartridge case... I've measured the cases that will not chamber and their case heads are slightly larger."



Blaser can do many things.
What they can't do is build double rifles.
Although your problem may also occur with another manufacturer, to be fair.
In Germany Blaser double rifles are shelf warmer .

But R 8 is a big seller here.
Heavily used R 93 still cost a lot of money also.
Foxi

I’ll also take a shelf warmer.

 

[Foxi]

"Not sure why they are shelf warmers in Germany".

It's ugly and looks more like a shotgun with insert barrels.
If you can afford this price, we go to a gunsmith with the desire for a double rifle - but not to Blaser.
Not for a double.


@R93
Weapon detonations occur from time to time with other manufacturers in exactly the same way.
But a blocked barrel or overpressure and you have the bolt in your eye, that makes the R 93 really dangerous.
Overloaded ammunition also occurs with factory loads.
In this context, one should also ask why Blaser brought out the R8 as a reinforced R93.....
Nevertheless,Blaser remains the most innovative hunting rifle manufacturer.
Everyone else has been asleep for 100 years
Foxi

 

[SETH RINGER]

OUR .375HH R93 GOING BACK TO AFRICA IN A FEW MONTHS, NO DOUBT IN MY MIND IT WILL PERFORM.

 

[Rem280]

IDK if this is a problem, but dealer never followed up with me on the gun I was looking for. Guess they sell enough guns. @R&M FIREARMS solved my problems much cheaper with a badass Ruger.

 

[UpNorthMI]

Only operator errors:

1. Not fully closing bolt in very early days.
2. Using Magnum bold head with Standard barrel - No extraction !!

Otherwise it has knocked over everything I have aimed it at. The real test will come next month when my son and I take our R8's to Africa.

 

[TTundra]

I've had 2 failure to feeds out of an R8. Both at Media Day at SHOT shows. This is of course hundreds if not thousands of rounds fired with no maintenance.

That said, I've had FTE on 700s, FTF on mausers. If it's mechanical, things happen.

All that said, I'm still looking for the right R8 as it's the perfect traveling rifle in my mind. Hopefully will be flying with me for August '25 trip.

 

[Saul]

I have a sinking feeling that I am going to end up buying an R8.

 

[UpNorthMI]

They really do pack nicely for travel, time to spend some money, remember to budget for a Pelican 1700 case, mine's going to Africa in a few weeks, Turkish boar at the end of the year, trying to plan New Zealand for 2025. "the perfect traveling rifle" was the reason that made me buy an R8, now I have one I've grown to rather like it.

Good luck with your travels.

 

[smp005]

I have 4 R8s and an F3 Trap Combo. Never had a single issue with any of them!

 

[yhc]

None whatsoever.

 

[Green Chile]

I had this problem last week with the R8...switched barrels and the bolt wouldn't close. Maybe that's because the rimfire bolt was still installed.

 

[Daisy]

Only problem I have is I keep buying more barrels and receivers. Ha

 

[JohnCZ]

Only problem I have is I keep buying more barrels and receivers. Ha

Blaser drug problem….