I have had a Blaser R93 Professional for several years with barrels in .30/06, .300 Win mag, .338 Win mag. 9.3x62 and .375 H&H. I bought it new, prior to the introduction of the R8.
It is well thought out, precisely built and packs easily for travel. The .30/06 and 9.3x62 barrels shoot .5 MOA with factory ammunition. I find the other barrels to be ammo sensitive and 1.5 MOA is the best I can get out of them.
The rifle can be disassembled for travel, including scope removal, then reassembled upon arrival and it returns to exact zero. Every time!
The trigger is crisp. Mine breaks at 2.75 lbs. I have two bolt assemblies. One has a .473 bolt face, the other a .532. Changing calibers takes all of two minutes.
There are two types of QD Blaser scope mounts. One uses rings, the other is meant for scopes with a rail mount. I use either Swaro Z6 rail mount scopes or the equivalent Zeiss product and they work perfectly. When I bought the rifle (new), it came with a setup wherein activating the cocking mechanism also activated the red dot in the Zeiss scope. This never worked properly and my Blaser dealer replaced the bolt and let me pick the scope of my choice (an upgrade, actually) at no extra charge.
The .30/06 is a great all arounder. Without a traditional "action", it is about 4" shorter than a traditional rifle with the same length barrel (22"). A .375 Blaser with a 26" barrel is no longer than a traditional .375 would be with a 22" barrel. The 9.3x62 with a 22" barrel is the perfect pig rifle.
There is no "safety" as such. Instead, there is a cock/decock lever, much like that on the Krieghoff double rifles. Since I was already used to the Krieghoff, I liked it a lot. It is perfectly safe to carry the rifle uncocked with a round chambered. It will not fire from the decock position,, even if dropped.
I recently shot an R8 and didn't like it as much. The R93 felt lighter and livelier. For standard calibers, I would prefer the R93. For the really big stuff, the R8 would make more sense. The R93 and R8 barrels are not interchangeable between the two models.
The downside is that the rifle with a few different barrels is damned expensive. Especially if you put a decent scope on each barrel so you don't have to rezero after changing barrels. One of the great attributes of the Blaser is that with one "receiver", you can have multiple caliber available to hunt/shoot with. That said, each barrel runs about a grand, and you can buy a Model 70 or Kimber for about that much.
I have never taken my R93 to Africa. I was going to one year and my PH asked me not to, stating that he did not believe they were "Africa tough" and that he had several clients bring them in the past and they all developed some sort of "issue". He did not elaborate further. That said, I've had two friends who brought their Blaser R93's to Africa and they were pleased with their performance with no problems whatsoever. YMMV.
