Just when I was making my mind up about buying or not a Blaser, I found out about FL sizing brass requirement for these rifles. It sounded weird you have to full length size brass each time or at least “bump back” case shoulder each time. Apparently if one only neck sizes the brass one can face an issue of this “annoying click”. I am saying click as I am not sure it is a “real” misfire when the firing pin is not hitting the primer hard enough it is more to do with the action not fully closing.
I made a few rounds using the brass fired in the Blaser, trimmed and neck sized. I wanted to check whether the issue people talked about was real or not. I quickly found out it was true. Half of the rounds would not fire first time in the rifle. Eventually I managed to get all of them to fire, but had to slam the bolt on the case hard couple of times. Not good if you have a medal buck standing in front of you…
I hope you find this information useful. I still like the Blaser, but this is something to be aware of. Please leave a comment here or on YouTube.
The reason the R93 doesn’t fire with a cartridge that is over maximum headspace is a safety feature of the design. It is interrupting the firing pin because the bolt is not fully in battery. This is a common event in many designs that block or restrict the firing pin if the action is not fully locked. The M16 and equivalent designs also do this. I see it happen every year as we prepare for the national matches and train new shooters. If they are used to reloading for a conventional bolt rifle and fail to move the shoulder back about .003 inches, you hear the dreaded click, a hand goes up, an alibi called and everyone waits while the issue is diagnosed. Happens every year and is an annoyance, but not nearly the annoyance it would be if the round was fired without the bolt fully closed. Same is true for the Blaser design, without this safety feature, there would be a catastrophic failure, if the round could fire without the bolt securely locked.
Thanks a lot for that comment Robert. Good explanation.
All the best,
Greg