I have 30s tubed with match weight Brileys.

Service was outstanding; I walked into the Blaser shop at the World with a very minor ejector issue and walked out with a flawlessly functioning ejector 5 minutes later.

I would buy one again. They can not be beat at their price point and I think they equal or surpass the K80s and Kolars in build quality. The Blaser is clearly superior in its design and engineering. I enjoy the trigger as much or more than the K80s that I've shot. I've spent but limited time shooting a Kolar, but my opinion is the that the Blaser again excels here. Time will yet tell about ultimate durability and reliability, but I've had no problems with mine so far nor have I heard of any elsewhere.

They are selling well and with the new Blaser USA, prices have gone up, as many predicted they would. If you look around you might be able to find someone with the old price and save a few pennies on a most commendable purchase.

 

I purchased a F3 from Robert Paxton last year, my first year in competitive skeet. I have the 30 inch barrels with the Briley tubeset. I must be getting close to 10k rounds through it as I practice two to three times a week. The only issue to date is a couple of light hits on Fiocci primers (reloads), doesn't happen with the winchesters. It's really not worth bringing up. The gun has been absolutely 100% reliable. I like the way the gun swings, the triggers are excellent and the finish on the barrels is still perfect. I haven't found a downside to these guns yet. I would still like to buy the heavy barrel and under barrel to complete the set and I would love to see Blaser make some 28g barrels that fit the 12g.

 

I have had mine now for going on 2 years with many, many thousands of rounds. They are a fine gun that anyone considering a nicer competition gun should consider. I am really starting to shoot mine well and think I will have many happy years with it.

My previous gun an ASE 90 that I shot for about 7 years was and is a great gun. But believe it or not I have had fewer problems with my Blaser than my ASE 90. With the ASE I would break on average one ejector a year. A couple of years I broke 2. I had to replace hammers a couple of times etc. Nothing major but going on the 2 years that I have had my Blaser I have not had a single issue or misfire. They are just a great gun. I did do one thing to mine is refinish the stock as I don't care to much for oil finish. They tend not to hold up well under my use. I have lost track of the number shells through mine but it has to be close to 40 or 50k.

Good Luck

Al

 

I think they equal or surpass the K80s and Kolars in build quality. The Blaser is clearly superior in its design and engineering.

That is a very big statement, Mike. I have no beef with Blasers and have only heard good things about them. But if you want to make such a broad statement as "clearly superior in its design and engineering", I would expect you to back that up with a comparative engineering analysis of the Blaser (design and engineering characteristics) to these guns. Otherwise, perhaps just sing the accolades of your Blaser without detrimental comparison K-80s and Kolars, but especially K-80s, have been proven over a great deal of time and ammo.

Cheers

 

I bought a blaser and haven`t regretted it. I researched the design features on the blaser and found it can be rebuiilt at home. I especially liked the idea of fully interchangable barrels with NO fitting. I just took advantage of that recently purchasing a 30 inch barrel,after I had originally got a 32. The internal weight system is especially nice for balance. I felt the triggers the equal of any gun I`ve tried. I priced k guns and perazzi`s. For exactly half I bought a blaser. I feel its still the better gun as price had no bearing on my purchase. I bought in my mind the first modern O/U in a good while.

That said I`m not knocking perazzi or the k guns. I especially like the DT 10 also. All fine guns that get the job done. That is why they make different models for different opinions and people`s taste.

 

Stephen, I appreciate your feelings. I do not think that I was being in any way derogatory towards K80s or Kolars.

Here are my points in favor of the engineering of the Blaser:

1) It is physically impossible for the gun to double or fan-fire. There is a nifty little block in the trigger assembly that was engineered to make it so.

2) Blaser barrel lengths all weigh and balance the same. They are engineered this way. I am referring to the sporting barrels. The game barrels are lighter, but across the lengths the game barrels weigh the same. It is my understanding that the skeet specific barrel is only available in a 30 and this is the barrel that has a corresponding "heavy" barrel.

3) The entirety of the trigger assembly all functions inline. Firing pins, strikers and springs are all inline. It was designed this way. No rotating hammers or angled firing pins.

4) The trigger springs, as are the ejector springs, are enclosed. If they break, they continue to function until they can be replaced.

5) All of the springs are reset by the opening of the gun so there is no resistance to closing it. This is a "nice" kind of feature that makes the preshot routine just a touch more effortless.

6) The underbite locking lug fits into a cutout in the receiver floor, allowing the use of a very simple yet strong lockup system while maintaining a very low profile receiver.

7) The locking lug is also exceptionally easily replaced should it ever wear to the pointing of needing replacement.

8: The breechface of the receiver is also easily replaceable.

9) The Blaser Balancer is a thing of wonder and beauty.

10) The forend is designed without any mechanicals in the underside to molest the hand that caresses the wood there. In fact, the forend serves no mechanical purpose as it does on other guns (other than to delimit the movement of the barrels when opening the gun) and has just a simple catch on its front edge to hold itself to a corresponding little lug under the barrels.

11) As is the case with K80s, the barrel lugs in the receiver are easily replaceable for wear, should that become necessary.

12) The locking lever is easily covertible between left or right-handed opening in a matter of 5 minutes or so.

13) The Blaser available factory adjustable buttpad is not only adjustable for drop/rise and cant (my term for the rotation around the axis of the stock bolthole that makes it settle nicely into the shoulder pocket) but also for pitch.

14) These are just some points that come readily to mind. I'm sure there are more. Fly me out to the North-South, Stephen, and I'll let you play with my Blaser all weekend long (as long as I'm not shooting it!) :lol:

 

15) As cbxchris mentioned, all Blaser barrels, stocks, forends and receivers are interchangeable with no fitting required.

 

Mike - I would love to have you come to the NorthSouth...heck, I promise to put you on a great squad if you come...flying you out...well, maybe Blaser will sponsor you :lol:

As I have said, I have not heard a single bad thing about the guns and I'm looking forward to actually seeing on in person..I expect that will happen fairly soon as the gun becomes more well known among the target fraternity. Shotgunners tend to be tradition oriented and it takes a while to penetrate the market, particularly for higher end guns.

Congrats by the way, I understand you did very well in the windy conditions in LV.

Remember, Jun 8 - 10th, in DC, be there :wink:

Cheers

Stephen

 

Looks like the price went down $1,000 since last year. You can have one brandy new in the mid 4's. I think the matched barrels weight/ballance is a stupid concept. First off the different lengths do feel different. Just because the ballance in the same place and weight the same doesn't mean they will swing the same. The two bricks and a broomstick analogy says it all. But in any event, most want the barrels to get more lively the shorter they get, which isn't the case with Blaser. They feel stubby in the shorter lengths. They are primarily a rifle company.
I like the lock design, and I think it is a viable platform, but it is in its infancy.

 

I disagree with your statement about the barrels becoming more lively. I do like my 30`s much better than the 32`s. I know because I made the change.
Blaser may be a rifle company but I`ve heard little wrong with the blaser f3 to make them change the design.
Do you realise how many updates and changes krieghoff has made through the years? Nothing major such as a reciever change but many small updates which have made it a better gun. I`d expect blaser at some point to also make some minor changes.
Smokeball honestly it sounded like you got up on the wrong side of bed this morning. No one is knocking other guns just passing along the info they have gotten from actually owning a blaser. Do you own one?

 

Doesn't Krieghoff make rifles. I owned three K32's, have shot K80's and Kolars. All are good guns without a doubt. With the Blaser I can change or clean my own firing pins and springs in about two minutes if ever needed. (doesn't say much for my reloads)

 

360, I don't know about rifles in the generally understood sense, but they make break action double rifles and drillings.

 

Krieghoff also made a bolt action rifle. I had one recently. It was built on a Mauser 98 action, small ring, and it had a half round half octagon with a full length integral rib and integral front sight ramp and sling swivel stud. The barrel itself was worth the price of admission.

Blaser makes some very innovative excellent single shot rifles that can accomodate extra barrels for different calibers. It is not surprising that they bring some new and interesting options to the table with regard to shotguns.

 

There's only one thing lacking at this time, or I personally would be shooting one. That being a release trigger system.

Contacted them a couple of months ago and found that they are working on one at this very moment. Said it would very likely be of the drop-in style so that they could offer either style of trigger system, and be interchangeable.

Expected time of availability was either late this year or early next year.

I knew that they would have to come up with one soon, because they are planning to heavily cater to the trap gun market also. As we all know, trap shooters are heavy users of release triggers. That being the case, it was a no-brainer that they simply had to provide the release system to get anywhere in the Trap gun market.

THe F3 makes a great platform for any style break open shotgun. With their excellent barrel interchangeability, then providing the stock to match the dicipline of choice, you can make any type shotgun you can imagine. Skeet, Trap, Sporting, Field, or Combination. Limitless possibilities here.

DLM

 

The first one I handled was John Bidwell's, which was a 30" that I thought was really nice. Had a great stock not set up for somebody with giant hands, and a lively set of barrels. At that point I did some further investigation. Unfortunately that gun had nothing to do with any of the production guns I have seen in the USA. He said they were going to do a Bidwell signature edition, that would be a copy of what he was shooting, but it never appeared. I believe he was shooting a version of the field barrels with thinwalls. The very first literature said they were going to have a hanger system. The ones I would like to see done are fixed chokes with a hanger system, or factory thinwall Briley's with the hanger. The industry practice of swaging barrels so you can put heavy chokes up there is convenient for them, but not very nice to swing.

 

Smokeball,

From an engineering standpoint as well as a durability standpoint, thin wall chokes suck.

Sure, for guns that don't have screw-ins, that's sometimes the only thing that will work. The barrels are simply too thin for anything else.

However, designing the barrels for those ultra thin and ultra delicate choke tubes, would be foolhardy. Sure, it probably adds another ounce or so to the end of the barrels, but that's a small price to pay for the huge difference in dependability that the standard choke tubes provide.

DLM

 

If you want less weight up front use titanium chokes. They don't weight much more than a thin wall. Dave, I guess the old saying goes you cannot please all the people all of the time. However I have been very pleased with mine.

From what I was told and I cannot verify the accuracy of the information, is that one of the engineers that worked for Krieghoff and was one of the Key people that did the changes from the K32 to the k80 works for Blaser now and was whom did most of the engineering on the Blaser F3. I know the service guy at the world shoot worked for Krieghoff.

While I agree Mike at times gets a little over exuberant for somone with so little experiance. I understand how excited he gets. I feel much the same way. I also agree if I did not own a Blaser I would own a Perazzi. I feel the build quality of Perazzi, Krieghoff, Kolar, Higher end Berettas, etc. are all very good and all the guns are very durable.

There is a very good local Krieghoff trained gunsmith in my city that I laughed at before I bought my Blaser. You have to remember I worked as a machinist for 15 years. Before I bought the gun he told me you realize that the parts of the Blaser are not hand fit they are all made on CNC equipment. As if this was a negative thing. I told him that is what I want. I promise that that CNC is a hell of a lot better than me. This is also one of the reasons that the parts between guns are interchangable. It makes alot of sense to me and it works. If nothing else Blaser has made the manufacturing of high quality guns much better.

Good Luck

Al

 

Al I read where each indivdual blaser is hand built not on a production line at all. Each gun is built by a factory gunsmith who gathers parts and builds the gun one at a time then assures it will interchange with any standard blaser part whatever that may be. That assembler puts his ID on the gun and it is then sent to proof testing with firing for POI. Not at all a assembly line gun.

 

When I spoke with the guys from Blaser at the worlds this year they told me that one piece is hand fitted, everything else is CNC. That's fine with me. I spoke to them just recently and mentioned a video for disassembly/assembly, if I can work on my gun all the better for cleaning and I'll say it, repairing. Glock is not the prettiest gun out there but I'll take one any time. If the whole gun is CNC it just means they did their work upfront in the design stages. Now the barrels are still hand fitted.

 

from an engineering standpoint as well as a durability standpoint, thin wall chokes suck

From a gun handling standpoint swaged barrels and 2 ounce chokes SUCK. Its convenient and cheaper for the manufacturer, those are the two redeeming features of doing it. But most of us don't care what's easy and cheap to do, we care what the gun fells like.

 

Has anyone actually purchased on extra barrel set for their Blaser? If so, how much did the barrels cost? I've done a little poking around and have been quoted anywhere from $3200 to $3600 for a 32" sporting barrel set.

BTW, I love mine. 30" with Briley match weight tubes.

Lee

 

bubbalee you have a PM.....

 

When we bought our F3's last November, the cost of a second barrel was $2,495 at Pacific Sporting Arms.

 

They've gone up a bunch, Bob--straight from Mr. Herkowitz to me to you.

Thank you, Blaser USA!!

It's my limited understanding that much the same thing happened with Beretta USA.

The F3s themselves, contrary to prevailing opinion, have also increased in price, as I noted above somewhere in this thread....

 

http://www.gunsamerica.com/classifieds/ ... 86264.aspx

Here's one from Pacific, Brandy new 30" upgraded wood, for $4,675. There are half a dozen at this price. As I recall that's about a $1,000 discount from list.