Anyone in Europe heard anything about Blaser ceasing production of the R93 in response to an increasing number of 'blow-ups'? I've got a 'foot in both camps', so no axe to grind,but heard from a gunsmith that a big announcement was due. Posted in 'gunsmithing', too, but no response thus far.

Hi there cducat

I�ve also heard of Blaser blow up�s, as a matter of fact I read on a French hunting magazine a comment about this very subject.

They said that there are only 10 registered blow up�s since the beginning of production for the Blaser R93 rifle.

I will look up the magazine and give you full details shortly.

Update on the Blaser R93 blow ups

Here�s what I found on a French hunting magazine about the problems reported with Blaser R93 Rifles.

� The last reported incident evolving a R93 rifle occurred last 10th of January in Germany, a gunsmith who was sighting in a R93 in .300 Weatherby Magnum experienced a blow up upon firing the 15th round.
The bolt came off the rifle and hit the gunsmith in the face, causing the loss of his right eye and the thumb of the right hand. At the moment of the writing (May 2004) the local authorities had not found a cause for the incident.
The Deutsche institute for hunting and firearms DEVA, in collaboration with the local authorities and Blaser factory, is conducting tests on the remaining ammo.
According to Blaser Managers the DEVA institute tested a R93 to a pressure of 8000 bar, .300 Wthby Mag. Max pressure 4.400 bar (CIP standard).
The export manager for Blaser, Frank Zengerl, claims that they found blue and green markings on the primers of the rounds that caused the incident in Germany, which implies that the ammo could be reloaded.
With this one, According to the Argentinean Magazine - Deportiro, the total number of incidents reported with Blaser R93 rifles, comes to eight, on the last 10 years � 100 000 rifles manufactured.
One in Norway, two in Germany, one in Africa, one in Austria, and three in France. All the incidents are reported in rifles chambered for magnum cartridges 6,5x68mm; .300 and .375.
According to Blaser all the incidents reported are due to inappropriate ammo, developing excessive pressures. They report one incident caused by a .300 Win Mag round reloaded with black powder.
The DEVA institute will release the final results of their tests on August/September 2004. �

Hope this will help.

Let me know if you need some more information.

Thanks nsiro - I guess it's 'watch this space'!! In the meantime I'll use both my Blaser and Mausers etc.

cducat & nsiro

Davey Hughes who has Swazi had a really nasty accident with this blaser R-93.

The entire barrel peeled back to the chamber. The first bullet's jacket came off in the barrel. The second bullet hit the jacket and exploded the barrel.

According to Davey Hughes the barrel was a bad one, It would not shoot standard factory ammunition without locking the bolt. Blaser told him to moly-coat the projectiles to fix the problem!
http://home.snafu.de/l.moeller/Zylinderverschluss/Zylinderverschluss.htm

Cheers
/ JOHAN

The report of DEVA is available.
It says that much too high pressure is the reason for the accident. No word about a failure of the system or material.

http://www.dwj.de/aktuell/tdw.php?seite=1
Everything in German language.

BR

The link in the previous post is not actually to the DEVA report itself, rather it is to an article in the German gun magazine "DJW". Most of the article is dedicated to a statement from Blaser. However, the article does state:

Quote:

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Das Ergebnis des Gutachtens ist eindeutig: ?Der Gutachter schlie�t Fabrikations-, Konstruktions- und Bedienfehler aus und f�hrt den Schadensfall auf einen stark �berh�hten Gasdruck zur�ck, der von der geladenen Munition ausgegangen ist?.
Die Zerst�rung der R93 ist somit auf unzul�ssigen, massiv �berh�hten Gasdruck der Munition zur�ckzuf�hren. Die zus�tzliche metallurgische Untersuchung dokumentierte zudem die einwandfreie Beschaffenheit s�mtlicher Verschlussbauteile der Waffe selbst.
Damit wird die sichere Konstruktion der Blaser R93 sachverst�ndig und zweifelsfrei best�tigt.

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This is probably the closest the article comes to citing the Deva report itself.

I'll attempt a translation for our non German readers - our German speaking members will pardon any mistakes or obmissions, German is not my mother tongue.

Quote:

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The conclusion of the report is unambiguous: manufacturing and construction defects as well as handling errors are ruled out. The incident was caused by massively increased pressure resulting from the ammunition used.
The destruction of the R93 must therefore be blamed on the massively increased pressure produced by the ammunition. The additional metallurgic analysis verified the irreproachable state of all components in the locking mechanism of the weapon itself. Without a doubt, this expert conclusion confirms the safe construction of the Blaser R93.

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The remainder of the article is devoted to the Blaser statement. In this statement Blaser devotes some time to the issue of safety of the R93 vs. other, more traditionally constructed actions. The translation of this part is going to be a tad much for me today, though. Maybe somebody else will take over?
- mike

I will be very on my nerves when I see a blaser, they say when there is smoke there must be a fire.