Does anyone know any details on Blaser's metal finish? It's a matte finish but I don't think it's a blue. Also interested in how it wears and it's resistence to corrosion etc.

Thanks.

GG

It's a proprietary baked on coating called "black velvet". Impervious to water and highly scratch resistant.

I hunted in Alaska with my Blaser R-93. It rained every day, we were in a tent and I never could properly dry out the rifle the entire hunt. The only place any rust showed was on the scope ring screws. That Blaser finish is very good.

The Blaser finish is the most scratch and weather resistant finish I've had on any gun. I was amazed sometimes how good it was on the R93 I owned. I only wish I could find out where to get it done on other rifles too...

Guys

Thanks for getting back to me on this - I've recently taken delivery of a lovely little K95 single shot luxus model with oct barrel and was curious about the finish on the metal parts. Will be taking her out for first shots in the next few days - can't wait to see how she groups.

Cheers.

GG

GG, those little guns are usually amazingly accurate. I think it will be a pleasant surprise. What caliber did you get it in??
- mike

mho

It's a 7x65R.

GG

Aha, I think I might have collected some brass for you in that case. Did StuC forward you some RWS 7x65R brass?? (nice brass btw, )
- mike

Mike - that's the one!

Slightly on a new track - I am looking at a blaser 93 in.223 possibly with a match abrrel to replace my remmington 700VS .223. The remmington is beautifully accurate - rabbits at 480 paces but a little heavy and the idea of a take down swithc barrel is interesting.

As blaser users - do you think it will have the same accuracy as my Remington? and will it take down and reassemble with out cahnging point of impact?

I own a R93 Jagdmatch in .222 Rem (its fluted bull bbl. is made by Lothar Walther). A sweet shooting rifle but see by yourself :

quote:

Originally posted by Davyd:
As blaser users - do you think it will have the same accuracy as my Remington? and will it take down and reassemble with out cahnging point of impact?

My Blaser .223 (normal barrel) will average 5 shot groups in the fives with Rem bulk packed PLHP bullets. I expect it to be able to do better with better bullets - should I ever feel inclined to try.

R93s are quite amazing in terms of repeatability when either the scope is removed, or even when the gun has been reassembled. One should probably verify POI after reassembly - but if you gain confidence in the repeatability over time, maybe you'll feel comfortable leaving out that step in the future.

Changing a barrel takes about 2 minutes, plus perhaps an extra minute if you need to change caliber group. The bad thing is: you'll immediately want another barrel, and another, and another... Amazingly versatile platform.

Btw, sadly the LW barrel Andre has is no longer available for the R93. The new Jagdmatch (English: "Hunting Competition") barrels are made by the follow-on company from SIG in Switzerland (Swiss Arms) and are hammer forged - as are the regular Blaser barrels.

- mike

Davyd,

I think you'll be happy with a Blaser R93 in .223 Remington, I certainly am! The regular barrel is certainly accurate enough and the heavy barrel isn't so heavy that you would mind carrying it a bit either.

I've both .222 Remington (Weaver 6x16x42) and .223 Remington (BSA 6x24x50) in regular hunting barrel configuration on my R93. I use Speer 50 grain Hollow Points (simply economy of scale) in both calibers and they shoot equally well (read: fantastic!) Yes, I know.....I also ask myself why I own & shoot a .222 Remington & .223 Remington. The answer is simple - because......!

I have a Blaser Offroad stock (sythetic). If you use this stock with a Blaser Target (heavy) barrel then the forearm will have to be opened up to accept the bull barrel (they'll do this at the factory as a special order.) If you only want to use one forearm/stock then there will be a gap in the forearm that doesn't take too much away from the overall appearance and certainly not from the performance. If you have a regular wooden stock then you'll either have to, do the same, or change the forearm for the bull barrel when equipped with a normal forearm for regular barrels or purchase their Jagd Match forearm configuration or the one for their .375 H&H and .416 Remington forearms.

I agree with mho above, I started off with one rifle with a synthetic stock, fluted Attaché barrel in .30/06 Sprg. and a set of scope mounts. I now own 1 stock, 5 barrels w/mags. (.222, .223, .243, .30/06, .375H&H), 3 bolt heads and 9 sets of scope rings with scope combinations from 6x42's thru large hunting/target scopes and Red Dots - the system is so user friendly and makes such sense that you end up getting consumed by the endless possibilities.....my next purchase will be the 9.3x62 Mauser stubby (19") configuration.

Yes, the scope mounts, when installed and adjusted correctly go on & off without a glitch and deliver consistant aiming point repeatability - awesome!

Cheers,

Gerry (Blaser fan!)

mho

As Stu said, "thats the one". Thanks for that. I took her out to the range the other day for her first few shots - pretty ordinary groups so far - I hope I didn't get a dud!! Tried 2213sc powder 5 each of 52, 53, 54 and 55 grains behind the Hornady 154 gn pill. Best group was with 54 gns - about 2" at 100m. Will try 2209 next and see how that goes.

Will let you know.

GG

One thing I found about European 7mm's, is that the bore is often made to CIP specs - which has a slightly larger diameter (detailed numbers escape me at this point) than the regular .284". I don't know if that has any effect on reloading accuracy, but the difference is there. Few people realize the difference between European and US 7mm...

Another thing about European cartridges, is that they usually have a loooong freebore. Have you measured whether your bullet is seated close (like 0.005" - 0.30") off the lands?? Otherwise that may be worth trying. As long as you have enough neck to seat in, the single shot at least does not have any issues with mag length...

Hornadys are usually pretty accurate bullets. I don't know what other bullets you have access to?? To try a bullet with the Euro 7mm diameter, the RWS KS bullet is usually very accurate. In US diameters, Nosler BTs or AccuBonds are usually good bets. My initial guess is that you might find more luck towards the heavy end of the bullet spectrum , i.e. 160 - 175 grs, ask Blaser what twist rate your barrel is made with, or measure it yourself. If you can get it, the new Nosler 160 grs AccuBond is a very long bullet, and that may fit well if you need to load out to overcome a long freebore.

How did you prepare the cases?? And were you using the pick-ups Stu sent you?? I'd say for the initial load, FL size all, and sort to approach consistent case lots (headstamp) - perhaps weight sort? If the pick-ups won't do the trick, next thing to try might be some new 7x65R RWS brass. Norma also makes 7x65R brass, don't know what you can get a hold of?? Either RWS or Norma should be of excellent quality. If you are having trouble with group sizes, I'd stay away from Hirtenberger and Eastern European brass (JMHO).

Hope you find the sweet point, it will be there, I'm sure.

- mike

GG375,

mho has given you some great starting points for the 7x65R, sorry to hear the initial groups were only so-so, my expereince with Blaser has been otherwise. I've yet to see either an R93 or K95 that won't shoot exceptionally well right away. As a starting point I would also recommend Noslers, either Partitions, Accubonds or BT's in the heavier end of their weight spectrum and not worry so much about the powder charge as the O.A.L. for the cartridge. Since the Hornady's have a cannelure did you set the loaded length with the cannelure on the bullet? If so, I would think you're getting aloooot of bullet jump to the lands.

The R93's freebore is usually pretty short in the calibers I use and the K95 in 7x57R wasn't all that much longer. I do agree that Europeans generally tend to use looooonger freebored chambers than what I have experienced in the US although the R93 is an excpetion.

I purchased a StoneyPoint bullet length gauge and set the bullet seater for all of the hunting bullets for the R-93 and K95 barrels 0.30" off the lands. The results were good groups with just below maximum charges right away. In the R93 the loads were all pretty much at maximum length in the magazine and for the K95 (7x57R) the O.A.L. was very long and would not have fit in a 7x57 R93 magazine. Since you're using a single shot, doesn't make a hill of beans what O.A.L. you end up with as long as the case neck has enough purchase on the bullet.

I would; instead of driving yourself silly through the entire 7x65R reloading spectrum - ensure your bench techniques when load testing is spot on, simply because the K95 is very light, the scope mounts high so they tend to dance and bounce around all over the bags. Make sure your technique with shooting bags is good, you're using the same position every time. Vary forearm bag position from directly in front of the receiver (probably best) to the tip of the forearm. Also try grasping (lightly) the forearm with your front shooting hand around the front of the bags to control the muzzle flip as with a large caliber, (Read: .375 H&H and upwards technique), follow-through the shot with a good trigger pull. In my opinion this is critical with the K95 if not, they flip all over the place and you're left scratching your head?

Net, try:
1. O.A.L. 0.30" off the lands,
2. Bench technique with the light K95.

Good Luck, let us know how this progesses.

Cheers,

Gerry

Very good advice. You have to hold the foreend on the K95s for accurate shooting.

The RWS cases will almost certainly require the primer pockets deepening with a uniformer. My 6.5x57R RWS cases have all required this.

In a single shot any difficulty in closure can result in reduced accuracay (so I am told)Full length sizing is best.


My 5.6x50r barrel displayed poor accuracy at first - the reason? I tried to fire too many groups with too many combinations and just wasn't taking enough time and care. When I fired a careful 3 round group I got 0.5" straight away!

I would try a 140gr ballistic tip seated a calibre depth behind some VVN160 and real care on 3 shots. My K95 barrels have not required any real loading technique just careful holding!

Yours would be the only K95 not capable of 0.5" in the forum and I think there are about 8 or so!

BTW I think the finish is a bluing of some sort as blood does seem to effect it.

1895mk2,

YES!

The 7x57R (cannot comment on the 7x65R) with 140 BT's and VV N160 is the business - just shoots itty-bitty groups when I do my part! If you have to cover up a K95 3-shot group (and even most 5-shot groups) with more than a .5" target pastey then somethings gone amiss.....

The Blaser Black Velvet finish is very robust & forgiving but with my rifles, clothes, boots and other ancilliary equipment blood gets wiped/washed/cleaned-up as soon as I find it.

While blood is directly related to a successful hunter, what most of us are all about and gets on almost everything if we really do our sport alot; some of my most unforgiving mistakes and equipment boo-boo's were not removing blood straight away.....

Cheers,

Gerry

Thanks for all this excellent advice guys. So..........for my next efforts I'll leave everything as is except the seating depth and see how it goes. I'll use the powder weight that showed best promise in the original session - 54 gns 2213SC. A couple of you mentioned .30" off the lands - is that what you meant to say or did you mean .030"??.

If I'm still not happy, the next change will be to the Nosler range of projectiles with same load and OAL etc.

I did full length resize the RWS cases but didn't do the primer pockets, however my mate just bought me a set of Sinclair pocket uniformers so I'll treat the cases for the next try.

Interestingly while shooting the original groups I had one round that would not allow the rifle to close. Careful inspection of the case showed the rim to be slightly different to all the other RWS cases. It had a bevel around the circum of the rim and 2 stars or crosses on the headstanp along with the RWS stamp. Any ideas on that?

Will let you all know how I go - and once again thanks heaps for your suggestions.

GG

CG375

Any update?