The Firearm Blog

The R8 is the latest rifle from high-end German rifle maker Blaser. Today I had the opportunity to shoot the R8 and was suitably impressed.

The R8 uses the standard Blaser straight-pull bolt system. Where it deviates from the other rifles in the Blaser stable is its trigger and magazine design.

Magazine

The trigger blade is incorporated into the detachable magazine. I cannot think of another rifle that has ever had this weird configuration. The reason for this is it allows a very compact design. The downside is that the magazines probably cost a small fortune!

The trigger does not have a reset spring. Instead it is rest by the bolt when cycled. This reduces the chance of losing game because the trigger system was dirty or frozen and failed to reset.

The rifle comes in a range of models. The Jaeger, Luxus, Attaché, Baronesse, Safari PH and Safari Luxus will be available in the US. Starting price is about $10,000.

[ Thanks to Morten for emailing me info about this rifle ].

Blaser, makers of premium hunting rifles, could not bring themselves to produce a real Black Rifle, but they have produced a new black matte colored model of the R 93 bolt action and the K 95 single shot rifle named the “Black Edition”.

R 93 Black Edition

K 95 Black Edition

Nice looking rifles, but then is every other Blaser rifle. There is really not much Blaser can do to a high end take-down hunting rifle that already has every feature you could need.

I am not sure of price or availability stateside.

Blaser, in partner ship with Norma, will be introducing a new line of magnum cartridges later this year. They are not giving out any detailed information until May, but they have said these are completely new cartridges, not based on any previous designs.

7mm Blaser Magnum, .300 Blaser Magnum, .338 Blaser Magnum and .375 Blaser Magnum
Factory cartridges will be sold by Blaser and Norma and will be available in August along with Blaser R93 rifles chambered for them.

More info here.

“0497″ spotted these photos at defense.gov.au. The rifles pictured appear to be the Blaser Tactical 2. The photos are of the Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) in Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan. Click to expand:

The Tactical 2 is available chambered in .223 Rem., .308 Win., .300 Win. Mag. and .338 Lapua Mag. and features the Blaser straight pull bolt system.

Blaser Tactical 2. Click to expand.

Australia recently purchased AU$161,716.66 worth of Blaser Tactical 2 rifles:

Blaser have developed one of those customize-a-rifle flash tools. Very useful to work out how many of your offspring need to be sold to purchase a premium European rifle!

The interface could be improved, especially when you select incompatible options but it is still fun to use. Currently the R93 bolt-action rifle is supported with K95 single-shot rifle and the F3 over-and-under shotgun coming soon.