Young Jonny takes a tour of the Blaser factory, and comes away with a new perspective.
Having watched the show a couple of times myself, I’m still trying to figure out whether I’m impressed or appalled. Maybe a bit of both, but I’m curious to see what my Readers think.
I haven’t watched the video yet, but I have been inside the Blaser/Mauser/Sauer factory in Isny, and I certainly was impressed, particularly by the barrel forging machines and the metrology lab.
When I was there, ten years or more ago, they still had old-school gunsmiths on site doing the custom shop work. They also have their own shooting range and Schiesskino, which was rather fun.
I saw a Blaser rifle for sale with their brand representative decades ago at LL Bean in Maine. At the time the rifle sold for about $2500 while most standard hunting rifles sold for $400-600. The Blaser had interchangeable barrels and bolt assemblies. I think this is particularly popular in Europe where owning one rifle is difficult enough.
The production process is fascinating. I guess you need a person to load the machines or robots and a person to unload the machines when the parts are completed. The only labor needed is to repair and calibrate the machines and assemble the rifles.
A quick google search resulted in finding one Blaser R8 for sale with a two barrel set in .270 and .375 H&H for about $14,500. Yep, it was used.
While I mourn the passing of master smiths, I believe modern CNC and metrology with it’s precision, repeatability and speed will consistently produce firearms, or any mechanical product, of a superior quality than “old fashioned” hand work. I’m talking about the performance of the product, not the aesthetics. Commonplace evidence of this is seen in car engines that routinely now run 200,000 miles if maintained, whereas 60 years ago, 100,000 miles was a big deal. I’ve worked on and been involved in the design of of very fast, complex manufacturing machinery, and saw first hand the difference in internal machine condition at rebuilds between the older machines and CNC-made machines, where wear was grossly evident in older examples vs. like new in the more modern ones.