What problems have you encountered with your Blaser R8?

[Daisy]

It is a Magnum bolt head which I am using with 6.5 PRC

Will it close fully without ammo?

 

[Muskox]

The only reason I will ever own other bolt action rifles is for the Sniper rifle competitions.

I could be a happy old man with a few R8 receivers 8-10 barrels.

 

[dchamp]

Ah hah, I have had my first and only problem with a Blaser R8, it happened yesterday infact.

I haven’t shot any of my R8’s in a while because I have been playing with some other rifles. Yesterday I decided to go through the R8’s to make sure everything was in good working order since I was planning on working with a new load for a couple of them.

I assembled the first one, close the bolt and pressed the trigger and herd the dreaded thunk/click. I tried to pull the bolt handle back but it didn’t want to move. I thought this isn’t right so I smacked the bolt handle hard with the palm of my hand and it opened. I tried working the action a few more times trying the safety and such but still it would not work properly.

I grabbed another bolt & housing and that worked flawlessly. Then I swaped only the bolt heads and that too worked with the one but not the other. So then I deduced there is a problem with the bolt itself. I decided to first clean the dang bolt head. I grabbed an aerosol can of Bore Tech Blast and flushed any crud out of it. I wiped her down with a q-tip, put a drop of light oil on my finger and lubed any ware marks with it.

Wouldn’t you know, it cured the problem and now it works fine. I quess I should be more diligent in cleaning these darn guns.

 

[30.06king]

Ah hah, I have had my first and only problem with a Blaser R8, it happened yesterday infact.

I haven’t shot any of my R8’s in a while because I have been playing with some other rifles. Yesterday I decided to go through the R8’s to make sure everything was in good working order since I was planning on working with a new load for a couple of them.

I assembled the first one, close the bolt and pressed the trigger and herd the dreaded thunk/click. I tried to pull the bolt handle back but it didn’t want to move. I thought this isn’t right so I smacked the bolt handle hard with the palm of my hand and it opened. I tried working the action a few more times trying the safety and such but still it would not work properly.

I grabbed another bolt & housing and that worked flawlessly. Then I swaped only the bolt heads and that too worked with the one but not the other. So then I deduced there is a problem with the bolt itself. I decided to first clean the dang bolt head. I grabbed an aerosol can of Bore Tech Blast and flushed any crud out of it. I wiped her down with a q-tip, put a drop of light oil on my finger and lubed any ware marks with it.

Wouldn’t you know, it cured the problem and now it works fine. I quess I should be more diligent in cleaning these darn guns.

Also, I found it worth occasionally wiping crud out of the circular recess inside the barrel that the collet expands into. Over time with field use crud will accumulate there and smoother bolt lock up and unlocking is helped by keeping this recess fairly clean.
I'm an R93 owner / user, not R8.