Sæll Einar, eins og þú segir er mikið spjallað en lítið um alvöru sannanir, kanski ekki rétt að henda þessu hér fram nema hafa alvöru sannnanir en það hafa verið tilfelli sem rifflarnir hafa klikkað án of mikils þrístings í skoti skv Vienna proof house en miðað við fjölda í umferð eru þetta mjög öruggir rifflar.
The DEVA report on the Austrian accident has been posted at
http://www.waffen-online.de, go to "Diskussions-Forum", then "Jagd", thread "deva report zu r 93...".
Before our english-speaking friends come back and ask for a translation, I attempt a short summary:
A Blaser R93 in .300 Win.Mag. burst on the shooting range, after several shots with reloads. Parts of the lock were propelled rearward, causing serious injury below the eye of the shooter.
The reloaded ammo was tested at the Vienna proof house, and showed on average only a slight over-pressure (ca. 100 bar above the max. of 4300 bar, proof loads are 5590 bar).
The case causing the accident showed primer perforation and complete head separation in (to my opinion) untypical fashion: ca. one half of the separation occured directly at the bottom (or the belt) of the case, this of course caused significant gas escape to the rear.
The reloaded cases were not examined for any further flaws, like metal defects, or stretching due to improper headspace. It is also not mentioned, how often these cases were reloaded.
The destroyed R93 had a lock guide or rail system ("Verschlussführung") made of plastic.
DEVA attempted to simulate the accident with a similar rifle. The ammo used for this test was well inside max. pressure, but was prepared for case ruptures:
- primer perforation: no effect
- annealing: no effect
- a ring cut above the case bottom: still no effect, as the remaining case wall above the bottom still sealed the gas
- drilling a small hole in the case bottom, to direct gases backward: lock was instantly destroyed, lock parts were propelled backwards.
Conclusion: in case of gas escape the R93 with plastic lock rails is unsafe. Owners of such rifles should have replaced these parts by aluminum parts.
In a second test a R93 with such alu parts was used. Here the lock system held, no gas escape with cases prepared as above. Only when pressure was increased the almost 8000 bar, the barrel burst, leaving the lock intact.
The DEVA report did not include any further speculations on the possibility of similar accidents with the alu lock rail system (this is obviously standard since several years).
However it is stated that the R93 straight-pull lock has no back-up system to prevent bolt blow-back, in case of a gas escape or mechanical lock failure.
Annars virðast vera margir á netinu sem reina að finna Blaser allt til foráttu svo ég veit ekki hversu mikið er að marka þetta.
Verð að segja að Blaser R8 professional í 308 win er minn drauma veiði riffill sem ég mun fá mér einhvern daginn
