For years now, long-range shooters and other seasoned pros in the hunting world have been telling Blaser they want the R8’s magazine capacity to be increased, particularly for extremely high calibres such as the .300 Norma Magnum or the .338 Lapua Magnum. Why were customers asking for this? Well, the magazine in the R8 could only hold two of these bulky rounds. With an additional cartridge in the barrel, that’s a maximum of three rounds in the rifle. So it requires frequent reloading, especially for long-range shooting.
The ever-increasing demand for thick magnum calibres and the associated desire for an increased magazine capacity has been a headache for the Blaser Development department for a long time. Simply extending the long-established R8 magazine, which could hold four or even five standard-calibre cartridges, was not feasible because the trigger and trigger guard are integrated into the magazine housing – a solution that made the extremely popular ultra-compact design of the R8 possible in the first place. So what were our options? Dismiss the idea of increasing the magazine capacity once more?
