New itch; Blaser Tactical

[Mute]

I've shot with lothar walther barrels in the past. They're fantastic barrels but they don't have significantly longer barrel life and most certainly not five times more.

[Kwikvette]

See the barrels are hammer forged, but also subjected to plasma nitride. This is why they're much harder.

The more I read, the more I see that others are getting 5k+ rounds on their .243 etc. and life expectancy out of a .308 is about 13k+ rounds (and maintaining sub-moa accuracy).

I'll have to call Blaser tomorrow since I'm off work and find out what their take is.

Definitely want to get one, even if all the claims are false.

[longrange1]

See the barrels are hammer forged, but also subjected to plasma nitride. This is why they're much harder.

The more I read, the more I see that others are getting 5k+ rounds on their .243 etc. and life expectancy out of a .308 is about 13k+ rounds (and maintaining sub-moa accuracy).

I'll have to call Blaser tomorrow since I'm off work and find out what their take is.

Definitely want to get one, even if all the claims are false.

i say if you want one get one regardless...ive found when i want something im better off getting it because if i substitute something else for it it ends up costing me 2-3xs as much.

again i may be wrong here but 5k rounds through a 243 and still shoot 10" or less at 1000yds...i gotta call BS

a 308 for 13k and still shoot 1 minute at 600yds...MAYBE...but i seriously doubt it

300wm for 10k...or even 5k and still shoot 1 minute at 1000yds...well like i said id pay a hundo to see that...10k on a 300wm the lands would probably
be a couple of inches from the muzzle LOL!!

[ar15barrels]

subjected to plasma nitride.

Plasma nitriding is a generic name for Ionbond.
Ionbond can add between 50% to 100% additional barrel life over a non-treated bore depending on the heat capacity of the powder charge relative to the bore size.

It certainly will NOT add 900% though.

300 win mag definitely falls into a high heat category so I would not expect much more than a 60-75% barrel life improvement while 223 and 308 are low heat category cartridges that will see 75-90% extra barrel life benefit from ionbond.

Accurate barrel life on untreated 308 is typically 3000 rounds.
Accurate barrel life on untreated 300 win mag is usually around 1000 rounds.
My definition of when a barrel is no longer accurate is when it's group sizes double compared to when it was new.
Some people might be content to shoot a barrel FAR beyond the point it's group sizes have doubled and those people will report MUCH longer barrel life.

[bug_eyedmonster]

While my experiences with the Blaser is limited, I have shot one. A friend HAD one, we shot it to compare his .300 WM to my 7mm WM. I'm not sure about the barrel life claims, but I do know that price is north of $2,000 to replace their barrels, and he replaced his after about 2,200 rounds when he could not hold a decent group. After a new barrel was fitted, it was zeroed and shooting his expected groups. While their stocks seem to have a very love/hate look, they are very adjustable, and can be fitted with a great amount of time. The only problem is, once fitted prone, it will not be comfortable shooting on a bench, and vise versa. I can see the benefits of it, especially if you only ever plan to shoot it one particular position.

I had considered going this route, but since my rifle is a multi-tasker, I wanted to go with a more traditional stock. I will never say something negative about Blaser firearms, as they are of the best. I still shoot my Blaser F3 when I hit the trap range, and love their quality. Is that rifle worth it? Not for everyone, but they are cool, they shoot well, and are the end result of "German Engineering" and all.

jerry

[Discogodfather]

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier but it came up on a search, better late than never. The Blaser tactical rifles are my favorite of all, and I have owned them all. AI, SSG 3000, SSG 69's, PGM's, Desert Tech, you name it. Also have done the custom game in all kinds of formats.

The Blaser design isn't a native tactical rifle, it was designed first and foremost for European competitions called the UIT and CISM. They are basically standing, sitting, kneeling style 300 yard competitions. Blaser designed the rifle specifically for them, and they sold primarily in Europe from 1992-1997.

In 1997 Sig Sauer bought Blaser wholesale style and the Sig executives decided the rifle was perfect for tactical and tried to market it as such, with mixed results.

In the late 90's there was a general consensus that the rifle offered all kinds of features that the tactical world wanted, but it wasted optimized for that kind of use. Sig directed Blaser to ruggedize the design.

The second gen rifles came out in 2001 with the LRS2, and was a heavy duty polymer encased version of the first rifle. They got a ton of military and police sales from around the world.

The Blaser tactical rifes are the best design of all time because no other rifle on earth can match this list of performance and features:

1) Removable barrel that can be replaced by any other Blaser barrel
2) Removable bolt that can be replaced by any other Blaser bolt
3) Completely modular design, breaks down in under a minute
4) Very ergonomic design, especially in the second generation series
5) Switch from right to left hand bolt in 5 seconds
6) Switch ejection to either side by removing bolt
7) Fully ambidextrous with no tools
8) Carry rounds in chamber with zero chance of discharge with safety on (safety decocks firing pin)
9) Virtually any caliber- Blaser produced 27 different calibers for the LRS/LRS2 models and 4 for the Tac2
10) Scope attaches to barrel so zero does not change during takedown
11) Plasma nitirided barrels last well beyond 6000 rounds with usual maintenence

If there is a shortcoming to the design it's that they were very expensive, the barrels were very expensive, and currently SIG has had their export licence revoked and no spares are available. Parts are hard to come by.

These rifles require no gunsmith ever. You shoot a barrel out (which is hard to do) you just swap in a new barrel. Throw on a new bolt too, no need to ever headspace. If these rifles had been marketed better they would have clearly dominated the market, but alas Sig had other priorities. Blaser is really a tiny company and they never had the bandwidth to promote anything other than hunting stuff.

If you need more info check out my youtube videos.

[sigstroker]

Dang, it would have been cool to see that at Metcalf when I lived in San Jose.