Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Blaser R8 vs Winchester 70 ruggedness and reliability.

Is the Blaser R8 up to the Winchester Model 70's standard of ruggedness and reliability?

Are you just wanting a rugged rifle? What are your plans for it?

If so I'd be after a stainless Ruger 77.

Northern bush bashing utility rifle. Should handle most hunting, but key as a defensive tool for grizzlies if/when working in that part of town again. I'm leaning to a Featherweight in .30-06 with 220 grain Noslers.

Philly....I hunt the Adirondack Mountains with a Winchester 70. I did hunt a season with a Blaser R93 and had no issues, however I prefer the safety on the Winchester. I'd hunt up a New Haven classic stainless, drop it in an edge, and feed it Nosler Partitions from 180-220 depending upon which it prefers.

Northern bush sounds like a great place to be!😃

If you're a Canuck, I'd grab a BRNO zg47 and not look back. If you need a lightweight, a BRNO 21h. Internet geniuses say your jack full of them up nort.

Either one has reliable beyond covered.

Winchesters are built very well, and the triggers and the older version triggers are serviceable in the field.

Just took mine to BC and never had a single issue.

Having had both, here are my views.

The M70 is simpler and has fewer moving parts. Therefore ultimately its probably less likely in the long term to give problems. Its a good rifle but the R8 is something special.

I have had no issues with my R8 and I have had it absolutely caked in dust and also soaked wet conditions. No problems. It just feeds and shoots.

I have no experience with it in sub zero conditions however.

I no longer have an M70 and my R8 is my favourite hunting rifle. To me its the most instinctive rifle I have owned to hunt with. That is, once one gets used to the straight pull system and the decocking system (safety). And that does not take long.

The straight pull is so easy to use and very fast to reload, if that is required. Feeding form the mag is flawless.

The tang type decocking system is the best safety system that I have seen on any rifle thus far. When its decocked it CANNOT fire - its a physical impossibility and therefore its the only rifle thats genuinely safe to walk with a round chambered. The new Sauer 404 and the Steyr SM 12 now use the same system and I can see why.

The only problem I see with this decocking system is if one has arthritis in the thumb as it requires considerable pressure to recock the firing pin spring. It certainly cannot be done by accident!

Then there is the shortness, the handiness, the multiple caliber option, the ability to transport the rifle in a small case etc etc.

Just the price one has to deal with!