The R93 In some iteration is what you usually see although there may be some new R8s now too. It's--the R93--fairly popular having sold over a 100k rifles and that was early in the decade.
Seems you know a lot about "them" (ie, more money than sense). What has been your experience with Blasers? The incredible accuracy? The take-down feature that let's you switch scoped barrels in different case head sizes in minutes? The light, compact ergonomics? The long list of of wood grades/synthetic and chambering choices? The detachable scope mounts that hold scope zero or fits on any other barrel?
I see what you mean. Nothing there anybody who is into rifles would like..
Europeans love them because many European countries only allow ownership of one rifle, and with the Blaser you can have one rifle in just about as many calibers as you like.
"Europeans love them because many European countries only allow ownership of one rifle." This is a common misconception. Many European countries have relatively liberal gun laws. A good example is France. I huntednot long ago in Finland with several European gun writers, one a French guy who regularly read American shooting magazines. Among other things, he owned almost 50 centerfire rifles, and several semiauto handguns.
Same deal in Germany--if you have enough money. It's a country with 80 million people in the same area as Montana, which has a little over a million people. There's a little public land, but almost all hunting takes place on private land, and consequently most hunters are pretty wealthy. They're used to paying a LOT more for rifles than we are, and also expect very high quality, including accuracy many Americans only expect from custom rifles. Plus, they travel a lot to hunt, so appreciate the handiness of Blasers.
I've actually shot Blasers (and other German rifles) and can appreciate their fine qualities. Don't own a Blaser now, mostly because I don't travel as much. But don't see why $1000 for another barrel is out of line, when many custom rifle companies in the U.S. charge close to that much to rebarrel a Remington 700--and the Blaser barrels are interchangeable, without any change in point of impact.
