I purchased a Blaser from Great Lakes about a year ago for a very good price and ended up returning it for a full refund during the 3 day acceptance period. It was advertised as a new trap gun close out (old style) when the Super Traps were coming out. The people at Great Lakes and Blaser were very good and reputable, but here is the story:

1. Upon receipt, I inspected the gun and found the barrels dirty. Blaser and Great Lakes told me that the factory in Germany doesn't clean the barrels after they come from the Proof House. Blaser US said they were arguing with the factory about that, but couldn't get them to clean the gun after proofing. Blaser US understood that the US buyer expected clean barrels. I got over that and cleaned the barrels to be shinny mirrors.

2. Looking down the shinny mirror barrels, I saw concentric ring/waves where the rib was attached to the top barrel. That probably would not effect the pattern, but I didn't want to buy a new expensive gun like that. I called the US factory and talked to the gunsmith. He said that was probably caused by overheating the barrels when the rib was welded. He would have given me new barrel, but being a close out, he didn't have any. This left me with no choice but to return the gun.

The Blaser was a nice gun and had some great features, but I believe that they had some quality problems at the time. I hope that they have corrected them. I then bought a K-80 and have been very happy with that. I would like to try a Blaser again sometime. I like the weight and balance of my K-80 for skeet and trap. I think the Blaser would make a great Sporting Clays gun, given its handling characteristics.

Billy Gross

Sorry about taking so long but I just got around to uploading the pictures of my stock. As you can see by the email from Rich Kaysa below, he was going to put this on a new gun for a customer and hope they didnt complain. He also said him and his crew all agreed this was a satisfactory repair to bring the gun back to as new condition. As you can plainly see this is not anything near new condition. My guess is that 99.9% of people would be pissed if they recieved this stock on what is supposed to be a $9,000 gun. To be honest I don't really see how anybody can defend blaser is this case. As you can see there are pictures and an email proving exactly what Blaser has done here. Also, keep in mind the gun looks ten times worse in real life compared to the pictures. It's still pretty easy to see the left hand side of the stock where it is completly dicolored, and has a "milky finish to it". On the other side of the stock you can see the scratches where they attempted to touch it up and wetsand it back down. Take a look at the pictured and make your own judgment.

"On Mar 30, 2012, at 7:11 PM, Rich Kaysa wrote: I am sorry for this. The stock and the forearm where packet in the same area for just the stock. UPS will not give any one anything due to the fact your gun case is not damaged. Your choice is simple you pay the 350 or receive the gun back with the original stock. And FYI I was going to put your stock on another gun and send it out. Our whole office looked at the fix and all said it looked great. Again thank you for your under standing in this matter.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone"

I wouldn't bitch about that, but then again....your pictures suck and they are 100% larger than the actual stock.

Setterman. I made the pic a bit smaller so hopefully it isnt as distorted. You can see where it gets "wavy" and "milky". From that "wavy" part, and all the way to the left up to the reciever is a totally different finish. I do appreciate your honesty though. At least now I know not to buy anything from you if you consider this a brand new $9,000 gun.

This pic looks a lot better before it gets uploaded, but imagine this times ten in real life. Not sure if you can see the cirles by the reciever or not. Crappy picture quality or not it's still not what most people would want on a brand new gun.

This threaded reminded me of a qoutation by the world's greatest car salesman, Joe Girard, who said, "Let me sell you a lemon so I can show you we have the greatest service department."

My shooting partner bought a used, very high grade Blaser skeet combo. The trigger misfired so Blaser replaced the entire mechanism for free and returned it with a new ABS case at no charge. The barrel weight came loose on the 12g and couldn't be repaired in the USA so they gave him a new barrel at no charge. The post for the comb came loose and they replaced both of them at no charge. Every one of these incidents was completed within a few weeks at no charge and done on a gun that was purchased used.

I was very impressed by the service of Blaser USA.

Wow! I shoot a $1700 Browning and the finish is better than that. For $9 grand I might not be the most happy camper for their customer service person to deal with. I'm sorry but they should have replaced the stock and taken care of their customer. I can see the scratches in the photos and the repair should have never left the factory. I'm a newbie to the O/U world but it seems there are a lot of returns for things that shouldn't break even though they are well handled by Blaser. There is something to be said for getting it right the first time. A good customer service rep can melt a major pain in the A$$ down to a small itch without making it look like a big deal.

Don't look too hard at the finish on the receiver or forend latch of your Browning as you might see some rust coming through as have many others. Then you can return it to Browning and wait about a year for it to return!!

Well Dawg if all I had was a little rust on my Citori I would fix it myself. However I don't as my wood and metal are beautiful. I wouldn't be happy with a year turnaround but if the unit had to have a barrel or receiver replaced I suppose I could swallow it. And at $1700 a copy I would go out and pick up another or two. And furthermore If I got the treatment he received from Blazer then I wouldn't buy another Browning product. However I am tickled to death with mine and I would be very surprised if it ever let me down.

We have had a recent flood of the F3's in our area lately as a few of the local all americans have been shooting them for the last few years. As an outsider looking in I have some concerns about the gun and their quality.

1. The breech faces are removable. Why would you need to replace the breech faces unless they are a planned failure point? I may not understand the internal mechanics and it could possibly be designed that way for a reason, I have never been given a believable answer from anyone shooting them.

2. The previous post commented about the lemon and the service shop. I agree with that statement completely. Every gun I have seen locally has had something repaired on it in the first month of ownership. And somehow the owners are happy when they are given a t-shirt or free barrel weight or other trinket. To me, I wouldn't want my gun in the shop and if it did, I hope to not get on a first name basis with the gunsmiths as I don't want a gun that breaks that often.

3. For some reason, all but one of the local shooters' (including the all americans) averages went down when switching to the F3's ( they may have bounced back but I still don't think any of them are shooting them as well as their previous guns.)

4. Relating to the previous comment: I tried one of these guns and they are extremely fast. Not just quick but whippy and uncontrollable in my opinion. I shoot a Perazzi and many people comment on how fast it swings and the lock time but I was actually caught off guard when I shot the Blaser and could not get comfortable with it. From what I see, the common misses on the shooters I watch with the Blasers are shooting way too quick.

5. For some reason most of the people that I see shooting the F3's cannot shoot the single barrels consistently and tend to shoot the doubles well. I think it may relate back to the speed and uncontrollability of the gun in general.

6. I understand they are based off of the Kreighoff design with some modifications but to me I just do not see the price for what you are getting. To me, for a few thousand more, you can get a gun that has had clear pasts and established gunsmiths as well as parts availability around the US. Regardless of brand whether K, P, K, or Seitz and similars.

All in all I don't think that the guns are proven enough yet and while the customer service is good, I don't think that there should be this many problems with a gun in that price range.

I chose the Perazzi for the simple reason that when the gun breaks down (any machine is eventually going to fail) I can do most of the repairs myself at the shoot and there is probably someone there with a piece or part that I may not have (just look at the gun racks and usually the winners). I am not sending a gun back and forth through the mail and missing an opportunity to shoot. Also, the gun is simple to work on and you don't need a mechanical engineering degree to understand the internal working like the Kreighoff.

Just my two cents,

Chris

I bought a Blaser combo from Guns Unlimited, and the unsingle sounded like a tuning fork with every shot. Blaser said that they had "never experienced the problem" and refused to do anything about it. Dan got the gun back, and I went back to my Kolar. Who needs this shit? For nine grand you shouldn't have to listen to some marketing moron give you the spin about why it must be your imagination.

I put the Blaser hat they sent me in the Goodwill bag!

The last two posts pretty much say it all as far as my interest in the gun. To many parts breaking for a $9k gun.

Plenty of shooters believed they bought a cheap K-80-along with Guerini and Beretta purchasers. They were wrong!!

If you don't want any any problems with the gun buy it from Blaser directly some of these problems are because of the dealer you are buying from. I'm very happy with my blaser and so is my son I shot 98 right out of the box with no adjustments and my son broke 100. That's just my opinion.

guinner16, If what appears to be a milky finish, you are right, they should replace the wood or refinish it. Better yet, let you hire someone to refinish it. Sounds like you may have "burnt a bridge" with Blaser earlier. Can't help you there. I personally have never been mistreated by anyone at Blaser, including John.

There are actually quite a few Blasers in the winners circle considering the newness of the gun. Especially in sporting.

The biggest problem with the Blaser is it is TOO flexible. Few shooters figure out the right weight distribution and give up. If you have an old gun and you know the weight distribution, you can make the Blaser match it. Few want to take the time and effort to do it right, or know how.

The breech face on MX8 sporter is worn out. I'll be having firing pins hang up soon. Wish my MX8 had a removeable breech face.

Blaser does not sell direct to customers. They support their dealers. Ron

The clubs offering these guns as raffle prizes will be happy to read these posts.

I had a really nice Blaser plastic combo case, sorry I sold it ... I never bought the gun that would of come in the case because I know far to many people who have paid good money for a bad product when they bought a Blaser and had to go through the tortures of hell to get it fixed or reasonably repaired so they could sell it at a loss ... I like the looks of them but do not want a gun thats a problem ... WPT ... (YAC) ...

I am glad that I am not the only one that feels my way about these guns. They are basically a cheap Kreighoff but you only seem to get the cheap part. My gun may be ugly and 30-40 year old technology in a new shell but it works and will continue to into the future.

As for the blasers winning in sporting. I can remember when I first started shooting about 10-12 years ago that the Beretta 391's were the big winner, then browning, kreighoffs, etc. But there were a lot of guns that came and went just as quick like zoli, gamba, and kemens. i think the blasers will be a similar fad then the people that sink the money into them will have a heck of a time when service is needed.

Dick please read these threads, as you were so mad at me when I loaned you those shell and the rib blew off your gun as you can see it wasn't my fault, and please Dick don't make the same misstake and buy one for your daughter as you also remember it has that black magic marker blueing it that came off so easy, please think twice and then think again. It wasn't so bad to put up with the problems when they first come out they were only 6500.00 but they are asking 9 to ten thousand, buy a perazzi. Your friend Stan

When I hear this many stories about what "great customer service" Blaser has it is a cause for concern.

In all my years of shooting I never returned a Kreighoff or Beretta for a "customer service experience". Perhaps I have been lucky but it seems that there are so many stories about returned guns to Blaser.

I wish I could ask the UPS driver how many they get back!!

I think Claybreaker808 nailed it with "Let me sell you a lemon so I can show you we have the greatest service department.".

Hopefully I will never find out how good or bad the Browning service department is.

Let me start out by saying that I recently purchased a Super Luxus grade trap combo from Bob Schultz. I did have some trigger issues that were eventually traced to the custom Wenig stock that is on the gun. I have a Browning Golden Clays XT and I did have a Kreighoff KS-5 Special. Someone above said that the rib on their Blaser sounded like a tuning fork when they shot it. The Kreighoff I had sounded the same way. Part of the reason that I eventually sold the gun. I beleive that the Blaser has the highest quality of any gun that I have ever owned. What is very interesting to me is that with all the Blaser bashing going on in this post that I have not seen one comment from Blaser or Blaser USA defending their product. I love my new Blaser and am really starting to shoot it well,and am hoping to just get better with it. Hopefully I will continue to enjoy my gun and never have any of the issues with mine that some of you are experiencing.

Jim Bradbury

Jim, I don't wish to bash something of which I have no experience with as I have never owned one. So If I am guilty then I stand corrected. I'm sure the guns, when properly produced, are as good as any in that price range. However as a newbie to the o/u world I find it a little alarming that so many folks are reporting issues that had to be corrected by Blaser. Most were very happy with the repairs and service by the way. I just can't get happy about dumping $9k on something others had to send back to the factory in the numbers indicated above. I agree totally with you that Blaser should pipe up and promote (defend) their product. Everyone occasionally manufactures a turd. My trigger guard on my Citori became loose after a few hundred rounds. Also it had a spot of galling where the receiver meets the handguard. I was able to easily correct both of these issues in less than a half hour. I figured it was par for a mass produced $1700 gun. But for $9k that sucker better drive itself back to Blaser if it breaks. I am glad you are happy with your Blaser. I hope it lasts you forever and not even your grandkids can't wear it out.

Is a German Krieghoff trap special really worth $17,000 and better than a $12,000 German Blaser. I doubt it.

well it doesnt realy look that bad ,I was in in southern ohio in 03 had a new beretta i bought in canton .it shot so bad that day i made it ride home in the bed of the truck outside the case !! it never shot bad since ...HONEST

smsnyder, put your glasses on please!!

In all seriousness, they are good guns for 6500.00, but for 9000.00 buy a perazzi or you can own a k80 for about 7500.00. A blazer isn't even in the same class. I have been going to a lot of major shoots. Last year at the grand all my friends were saying to each other, have you gone up and had your triggers fixed yet (the siers were hanging up and not firing). Have you gone up and gotten your new reciever, (the blueing was coming off). Then the pins on the rib were shearing off, so everyone was having that updated. The adjustments on the 4 way stock were not long enough and coming loose all the time. On one person's gun the forarm would not come off the gun;he sent it back. I was hearing about point of impact issues on the over and under barrels. At the spring grand I saw two different people walking to the blazer tent with the rib in one hand and barrel in the other. A friend of mine after his fifth trip to the tent got his blazer gun fixed and walked over and bought a perazzi. In all cases blazer warrantied all problems, (except the blueing, they told all my friends there hands were highly acidic (all the sudden, never had this accidic problem with any other gun) but they did take care of this also. They brought the gun out to fast before they had the bugs worked out, and I hope they get them worked out. But for right now, I am glad I can afford a perazzi and a kreighoff and don't have to shoot one of the blazers. I think I would quit shooting. Thanks Stan

It seems like an inordinate percentage of shooters who rave about their Blasers end up getting rid of them shortly therafter. Dr. Longsh!t among them.

-Gary

Stumpy- you speak from experiance- you sound like an expert gun reviewer or are you just blowing off steam?

How many Blasers have you owned, K80's or your are a P gun shooter. Tell me why you need to buy a "trigger group" w/ it's own holster for $1595 release or pull your choice. Never understood why a guy needs to spend over $1500 for a spare part just to get through a shoot and then reblue the gun after the bluing is gone after 2 years on a $14K gun- very impressive! Yea I shot P guns for about 10 years on Military skeet teams- good guns but not better than Blasers in my book.

I Own a Blaser and have shot K80's for over 10 years, and am impressed with the gun and would recommend it to anyone- their service is great!Oh Stumpy, what is the P gun warranty on a $14K gun?

I don't think I need to be an expert to observe the problems going on with that gun. My observation comes from having 6 of my friends now shooting these guns. All six have had the problems I discussed in the previous thread. All six, if only one has had a problem, I would not be on this thread, but all six.I will also agree to say a ford never has problems or a chev or a mazda is ridiculous, as they all have service centers, but these problems have been a little excesive as the other people in the threads have also been saying. As far as the blueing I only buy silver ones. And your point is correct there service is great and I agree, perazzi service sucks it is the worst and they are rude as--hol--. And saying that most trap guns on the line are perazzi's. Why, very little problems carry a spare spring in you pocket and you will make it fine. In ten years I have never broke one my son has broke 1. I also have the k guns super reliable, the only thing I don't like, if it goes down you have major pains, but very rare, great gun. I will give the blazer gun a 10 on a lot of thing, but reliable 0. At this time I don't own one and I don't want one and I would not recomment one. Just my thoughts and I'm sure don't mean anything to you. If I had one shot, and one only and my life depended on it, no way would I pick up a blazer. It would be P or K anytime. Thanks Stan

Stumper,it looks like we shooters have a real problem- all the Trap guns out there are problems or are no good!

P Guns- lousy service, need to carry $1500 spare trigger groups,painted on bluing and no warranty

K Guns- complicated, very rare and could go down

Kolars/Lujtics- god only knows!

Alfermanns,Seitz,Bowen,and other Brands- god only knows!

Look, buy a gun you like,have it serviced, and shoot it well.A gun is like a guy's choice of a wife- It's not a good thing to piss all over another guy's gun or wife!

Just one guy's opinion.

Stumpi- If I was as rich as you, I'd buy 3 Blasers & use them as stakes for your tomatoes!