Straight-Pull? Which is the best?

[DeadNutz]

So straight-pulls are gaining momentum in the U.S... Blaser, Strasser, Beretta and now Savage!
Here's where I need help with the pros/cons if you have experience with them.
Blaser and Strasser are starting out around $4500, but have the backbone of German engineering that you just can't beat. However, Beretta and Savage have a significant price drop for their straight-pull lineup. I think I am going to cut Savage out of the running because of the machining issues, bolt issues and bolt being blown back that I have heard about. The Beretta has me intrigued because the price is very reasonable and seems to provide a lot of nice features, but what am I missing?
Lets compare a Strasser RS14 to a Beretta BRX-1. What are we seeing? Pros/cons? I am usually one to say you pay for what you get...usually more satisfied with the higher priced item. I am wondering what others are thinking?

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

None.

 

[MK20]

Straight pull is theoretically better but the problem is nothing is standard and most aren't built for true precision.

You are essentially an early adopter with any of them but Blazer and they are purely hunting based.

 

[buffalowinter]

Blaser manufactures one of the most accurate sniper/target rifles ever made and it is straight pull.
Blaser R93 UIT Switch Barrel

Shooting at pennies at 100yds If you look closely on shot number 4, you can see the penny actually move as the bullet hits it tangentially.

The Blaser R93 is a straight-pull action precision rifle offered in a multitude of calibers and barrel lengths manufactured by the German firearms manufacturer Blaser. Designed by Blasers' designer Mr. Meinhard Zeh in 1993, it had a number of features rare on modern hunting rifles, including a manual cocking system and a proprietary Blaser saddle scope mount[ for mounting the optic directly to the quick-change barrel.


The Blaser R93 is a truly modular system built around an aluminum alloy frame, offering differing stocks and barrels varying length and thickness available in chamberings from .22 LR to .375 H&H Magnum/.416 Remington Magnum/.458 Winchester Magnum size.
The barrel has a quick-change design which lets the user switch barrels using two screws and a hex key. Different bolt heads for different groups of calibers and magazine inserts are also user changeable, making the Blaser R93 a modular firearm capable of using a multitude of calibers in its chassis.
The rifle has a shorter overall length compared to more traditional designs due to the trigger being placed under the magazine. The rifle also has a reputation for being easy to disassemble and reassemble which can be an advantage when doing maintenance or during travelling, and has a reputation for having a repeatable zero upon reassembly. The Blaser R93 Tactical is a German bolt action sniper rifle, based on the Blaser R93 design. It has as variants the Blaser LRS 2 and Tactical 2. It is used by German and Dutch police forces as well as the Australian military and special police units. The rifles were manufactured by the German firearms manufacturer Blaser.

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

Blaser had to redesign that piece of shit after turning a dude into a unicorn after a high pressure event. There is a reason they were never adopted widespread despite the amazing accuracy and quality of guns like the k31. Hipster shit.

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

Con:

If the Beretta has any issues, and you have to return it for a warranty repair, you will potentially experience the world champs at terrible customer service. A literal F rating with the BBB. They stole a rifle from me years ago, and refuse to return it. It blew up in my hands, they told me to send it in, I did, then they refused to speak to me. To this day I have never received any emails or calls from Beretta USA, despite sending them dozens of emails and making hundreds of calls. There is nothing that can be done about it either. If you read the BBB ratings, you'll find that I'm not the only one.

So, put that on your scale.

 

[W54/XM-388]

Blaser had to redesign that piece of shit after turning a dude into a unicorn after a high pressure event. There is a reason they were never adopted widespread despite the amazing accuracy and quality of guns like the k31. Hipster shit.

The R93 was a great design on paper and it worked well with standard cartridges.
But when they started pushing up to the Super Magnum class such as the .338LM (which I think actually are the only ones that had the accidents, but I could be wrong), the tolerance stacking and safety margins just weren't quite up to edge cases.

Hence they came out with the R8 which while similar has a very different locking ring design that has a lot more safety redundancy built into it.
They also started putting blowout holes on the barrels.

They are an excellent hunting rifle, for the very rich (the top end stocks alone can be over $10,000) especially if you are in an area where having multiple rifles isn't easy, but you could have plenty of barrels and bolt heads.
(The barrels cost as much as a whole nice Tikka rifle).

Their primary purpose in life is driven hunts for boar where you have to get several shots off really quick at a running group of animal(s).

That being said, for most stuff like target shooting or the various gamer shooting sports popular in the USA, you'd actually probably be at a slight disadvantage using them as opposed to a more traditional setup.

The Blaser R8 system is pretty nifty in that you essentially have a complete modular building blocks type rifle you can customize endlessly.
But it's expensive, it's basically a rich man's hunting rifle.

It has some nice safety features like being able to simply pop the entire fire control system out and stick it in your pocket, or a very nice cock/decock option and such.

I have the "working guide" class of the R8 rifle and it's a nice rifle for hunting, but I probably won't use it outside hunting or bush carry.

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

Poser rifles for wanna be rich. If you can afford a 10k plus hunting gun, it should be a nice double rifle, not some strait pull overpriced abortion. The value is not there in blaser rifles.

 

[ToddM]

Con:

If the Beretta has any issues, and you have to return it for a warranty repair, you will potentially experience the world champs at terrible customer service. A literal F rating with the BBB. They stole a rifle from me years ago, and refuse to return it. It blew up in my hands, they told me to send it in, I did, then they refused to speak to me. To this day I have never received any emails or calls from Beretta USA, despite sending them dozens of emails and making hundreds of calls. There is nothing that can be done about it either. If you read the BBB ratings, you'll find that I'm not the only one.

So, put that on your scale.

Yep, it's sad but after one experience with Beretta trying to warranty a s20 it would be hard to get me to touch another product that they are the service vendor for.

It took me months to get them to respond to phone calls or their online service ticket system. When they did, they tried to have me send the gun to the wrong service center (Beretta uses various sites/gunsmiths for different issues, but all accuracy/feeding problems are supposed to go to them. They tried to get me to send it to a shotgun service center. When I corrected them on that, it took another couple weeks for them to get me the right send in info. When I sent it in (for accuracy and feeding issues, the feeding issues are well documented with the s20 due to bad mags), they simply returned it saying it met their accuracy standards and said they could not replicate the feeding issue. There have been lots of folks posting that the brittle plastic they use for the stock skins is starting to crack now that they've been out for a few years, sounds like Beretta isn't helping them either, basically just blaming them for over tightening screws etc.

So later I called them about the feeding problem again, the CS rep admitted they knew there was a problem with defective mags, but they had no directive to replace them, but they had the new version mags in their online store and gave me a coupon for free shipping to buy them at full retail from their store. I thanked them for their time and information I would forward to our state attorney general at which point they magically found a directive to replace 2 mags.

To summarize.....shame on any company for using them as a service option.

 

[honzo]

So straight-pulls are gaining momentum in the U.S... Blaser, Strasser, Beretta and now Savage!
Here's where I need help with the pros/cons if you have experience with them.
Blaser and Strasser are starting out around $4500, but have the backbone of German engineering that you just can't beat.

Strasser is from Austria so Austrian engineering! Are you planning to use it only for hunting? Do you need a takedown for easy traveling? Then maybe RS14. If you want to do more and have compatibility with most Rem700 stocks, magazines and triggers then I think the RS700. RS14 has a safety that locks the firing pin and the bolt, the RS700 just has a trigger safety and doesn't have a bolt lock. The US sales office is a bit weird to deal with and if you look at there past posts you can tell they don't have a clue but the rifle itself is great.

 

[mkollman74]

I went Strasser RS700.

 

[st1650]

How hard is it to rechamber a RS700 ? Do they use barrel nuts or some kind of proprietary attachment ?

 

[Tralle]

I dont know if steel action rifles are available in the us.

They are not as "proprietary" as many of the other European straight pull rifles. Not as much BS.

Picatinny mount in the action, barrel threaded in the action as common bolt actions, so a rebarrel shouldnt be too expensive.
10 rd double stack magazines available.

Chassis available

https://akila.ltd/product/acshs/

Disclaimer, I havent shot one.


A thing to note on the Blasers, they use a proprietary mount that is (fucking!) expensive.

They are quite common here, as much as i dislike them, i have yet to see, or even hear about, one that doesn't shoot. And they do make for a handy hunting rifle. You gain a good 2" barrel compared to a similar normal action.

From what i know they can be a bit iffy to reload for, as the run thight chambers, many shooters here use small base dies for them.

 

[TorF]

Steel Action is by far the best straight pull rifle on the market for "our" use.
The SA, as Tralle explained, use traditional threaded barrels an have picrail milled directly in the receiver.
In the Acila chassis the SA use AI AW mags.

 

[DeadNutz]

How hard is it to rechamber a RS700 ? Do they use barrel nuts or some kind of proprietary attachment ?

looks like barrel nuts are used

 

[shoots100]

Blaser R8 Ultimate X

I have Blaser's and two custom Savage Impulse Predator rifles that are my primary and backup predator rig's.
Never heard of any bolt issues with the Impulse rifles.
Both of my Impulse rifles have never skipped a beat and while not as smooth cycling as my Blaser's, both are plenty smooth and I've had no issues with them after thousands of rounds fired in several calibers in harsh field conditions.
The only drawback with the Impulse is that only one stock maker has stocks for them.
That might change in the future.
SJC

Here's that Predator in action.

 

[shoots100]

A thing to note on the Blasers, they use a proprietary mount that is (fucking!) expensive.

You spend thousands on a rifle, scope + ammo and cheap out on the mount ?
Precision and repeatability costs money.
SJC

 

[Tralle]

You spend thousands on a rifle, scope + ammo and cheap out on the mount ?
Precision and repeatability costs money.
SJC

This much money?

Blaser Scope Mounts - EuroOptic

Blaser Saddle Scope Mounts in stock! Blaser Montage! We specialize in European firearms & optics. Call (570) 368-3920 for Blaser, Zeiss, Swarovski & more.

www.eurooptic.com

I have no problem paying for good mounts, believe me. But that is just ridiculous.

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

Those mounts look cheap as fuck as well. Like some Walmart type shit.

 

[W54/XM-388]

This much money?

Blaser Scope Mounts - EuroOptic

Blaser Saddle Scope Mounts in stock! Blaser Montage! We specialize in European firearms & optics. Call (570) 368-3920 for Blaser, Zeiss, Swarovski & more.

www.eurooptic.com

I have no problem paying for good mounts, believe me. But that is just ridiculous.

Well if you consider what Sphur wants for their mounts these days...

 

[st1650]

550$ for something that looks like a tasco assfucking a weaver mount held together with the shittiest chinesium made T10 fasteners

Oh wait it gets better ... 530$ for the pic rail

 

[Rodney65]

Con:

If the Beretta has any issues, and you have to return it for a warranty repair, you will potentially experience the world champs at terrible customer service. A literal F rating with the BBB. They stole a rifle from me years ago, and refuse to return it. It blew up in my hands, they told me to send it in, I did, then they refused to speak to me. To this day I have never received any emails or calls from Beretta USA, despite sending them dozens of emails and making hundreds of calls. There is nothing that can be done about it either. If you read the BBB ratings, you'll find that I'm not the only one.

So, put that on your scale.

Wow. That's something else.

 

[shoots100]

550$ for something that looks like a tasco assfucking a weaver mount held together with the shittiest chinesium made T10 fasteners

Oh wait it gets better ... 530$ for the pic rail

Most crap on what they can't afford.
It's understandable since most of you are content using slow cycling turn bolt rifles.
To each his/her own.
SJC

 

[Edsel]

There used to be this recurrent joke about “Americans drooling over the quality of custom rifles…”

…and “American Custom Rifle makers drooling over the quality of a production Blaser rifle.”

Not sure if it’s the Blaser Tactical or all Blasers wherein somekinda nitrided carbon supersteel is used for the barrels.

They’re notoriously difficult to thread.

 

[Hennig]

Most crap on what they can't afford.
It's understandable since most of you are content using slow cycling turn bolt rifles.
To each his/her own.
SJC

To be fair those mounts look like something off aliexpress.

 

[Longshot231]

My only criticism for my Savage Impulse, in 6.5CM, was the OEM stock. So I replaced it with a Boyd's stock. An aluminum chassis would have been preferred but not available. So I settled for the Boyd's with a few upgrades.

It doesn't like bipods but that is more of a stock issue rather than for the barreled action itself. It's very accurate when shooting off bags.

I hate the accu-trigger. It would be nice if Timney or Triggertech made one. Regardless of that, I have got use to it.

The one thing that aids in the speed of manipulating the bolt is the extended bolt handle as shown in the photo below.

 

[shoots100]

There used to be this recurrent joke about “Americans drooling over the quality of custom rifles…”

…and “American Custom Rifle makers drooling over the quality of a production Blaser rifle.”

Not sure if it’s the Blaser Tactical or all Blasers wherein somekinda nitrided carbon supersteel is used for the barrels.

They’re notoriously difficult to thread.

That was years ago when machine tooling and techniques couldn't handle the hardness.
No issues now.
That nitrided barrel hardness adds life to barrels and most Blaser barrels would last way past 4,000 rounds with acceptable accuracy.
Blaser gave up testing at 50,000 rounds on their .308 TacII test rifle.
Not everyone's cup of tea.
SJC

 

[gearguywb]

I have a R8 with a couple of different barrels. Used it in Alaska on a moose hunt last fall.

While it is truly different, and some hat anything "different", it has some great features. Scopes that stay zeroed when being removed/re-installed, easy of caliber change, etc.

Mine are well more than "acceptably accurate". Do they have the feel of a nice custom, of course not.

For the guy that said "take your 10K and buy a nice double rifle"....uh not happening. You won't find a double rifle that falls anywhere near the "nice category for 10K

 

[shoots100]

To be fair those mounts look like something off aliexpress.

You can get anything off of aliexpress but a turn bolt rifle.
Even China knows better.
SJC

 

[W54/XM-388]

To be fair those mounts look like something off aliexpress.

To paraphrase Dolly Parton

It costs a whole lot of money to make a girl look this cheap.

They are lightweight, high strength mounts with very close tolerances that will come off and attach back at the same exact spot, so you don't need to worry about things shifting.

They are also meant for hunters and collectors who want the sleek traditional look, not folks who want all the modern military cosplay tactical looking blocky big stuff.

It's a different market they are selling to.

 

[mkollman74]

How hard is it to rechamber a RS700 ? Do they use barrel nuts or some kind of proprietary attachment ?

I just purchased the action. No re-chambering required. They have a Remage barrel nut or you can go shouldered.

 

[StephenShivers]

I went Strasser RS700.

I did the same. Having a custom .308 built for my son's college graduation. He's a left eye dominant shooter so we went with a Strasser 700 lefty action. 20" barrel, he picked out the manners stock. Cannot wait to get it this summer. I may have to get myself one after we break his in

 

[RUN8]

Poser rifles for wanna be rich. If you can afford a 10k plus hunting gun, it should be a nice double rifle, not some strait pull overpriced abortion. The value is not there in blaser rifles.

Have you ever taken the time to shoot an R8 or use one for its intended purpose as a hunting rifle?

I never hear bad things from anyone who owns one, so curious what your first hand negative experiences have been aside from one time an R93 failed for some reason and a shooter got hurt. While unfortunate action failures aren’t unique to strait pull rifles either.

As far as value for the $$$ is concerned I agree they’re a terrible value proposition. So are 99.999999% custom precision rifles, and high end factory precision rifles. At least if we consider precision potential per unit of currency spent to achieve that level of precision compared to readily available entry level and mid tier offerings that give over 90% of the performance for less than 1/2 the cost.

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

Have you ever taken the time to shoot an R8 or use one for its intended purpose as a hunting rifle?

I never hear bad things from anyone who owns one, so curious what your first hand negative experiences have been aside from one time an R93 failed for some reason and a shooter got hurt. While unfortunate action failures aren’t unique to strait pull rifles either.

As far as value for the $$$ is concerned I agree they’re a terrible value proposition. So are 99.999999% custom precision rifles, and high end factory precision rifles. At least if we consider precision potential per unit of currency spent to achieve that level of precision compared to readily available entry level and mid tier offerings that give over 90% of the performance for less than 1/2 the cost.

I don't really have a horse in this race, but you did hit on something that we all want to pretend isn't true, while we all know that it is.

If the measure of a rifle is it's ability to stack bullets (precision), and in a close second, reliability, then "compared to readily available entry level and mid tier offerings that give over 90% of the performance for less than 1/2 the cost." Is actually seriously understated.

You can go buy whatever custom bolt rifle you want to, and you can get some big name Smith to chamber it for you (I always laugh at that part), and they can throw together $3,500 in parts that anyone can buy and assemble on their own with $100 in tools, and folks will line up to pay $6k+ for it. I'm not attacking anyone, we all know that's the truth. Meanwhile, you'll likely get somewhere around .5moa out of that custom rifle with someone's laser engraved shop name on the barrel. You can walk into a big box store and buy a base model in each case: ruger American, savage, howa, Tikka, bergara, christensen, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some, and you'll likely achieve identical precision results. It's harder to find a factory rifle in 2025 that won't shoot .5moa than that will. So, lets be honest, half the cost isn't even close. We are actually talking 15% or less. Now, they don't have the electric butt warmers or the built in sunglass cleaning apparatus, or whatever you're paying $6k+ for, but if the purpose of the rifle is to stack bullets, (and it is), then the point of diminishing return hits a steep cliff before you spend the first thousand dollars. Scopes are just as bad, or worse.

 

[tfvars]

Blaser R8 Ultimate X

I have Blaser's and two custom Savage Impulse Predator rifles that are my primary and backup predator rig's.
Never heard of any bolt issues with the Impulse rifles.
Both of my Impulse rifles have never skipped a beat and while not as smooth cycling as my Blaser's, both are plenty smooth and I've had no issues with them after thousands of rounds fired in several calibers in harsh field conditions.
The only drawback with the Impulse is that only one stock maker has stocks for them.
That might change in the future.
SJC

Here's that Predator in action.

Do you have an Ultimate X? I've been wondering how many actually got sold in the US.

 

[RUN8]

I am just as guilty of overspending as anyone else here. But I’m honest about it. I spent a lot of extra money to gain very small incremental improvements in performance that I probably don’t have the skills to consistently exploit from a field shooting position compared to a much less costly rifle and optic all things being equal.

At least if we’re strictly talking about mechanical accuracy, and reliability.

That said the higher end custom and factory stuff like an AI (etc) can for sure make it easier for the user to consistently utilize the performance potential. Nice triggers, well designed stocks, smooth running actions, etc. Frankly that extra attention to detail in making all the parts work together is where a lot of the extra $$$ is going and does make for a nicer to use product.

One edge I will give to the high end custom or factory rifles that use a cut rifled barrel is that they’re probably going to be less sensitive to ammo than a rack grade factory barrel. Sure an entry level Ruger American can shoot .5 MOA groups with ammo it likes, I have friends that own them I know they can do it. What I don’t see is those same barrels stacking seemingly any quality ammo you can chamber into small groups. Meanwhile the Bartlein on my AT-X seems to give zero fucks and happily stacks anything I have found in 6.5CM into .685 MOA worst case scenario down to .3-.4 MOA for 5 shots. Granted I’m not feeding it Remington Core-Lokt, but my buddies aren’t feeding their Rugers that crap either.

 

[shoots100]

Do you have an Ultimate X? I've been wondering how many actually got sold in the US.

Nope, but if I didn't have a Tac II in 308 and 6 CM I would.
R8 in 300 Wsm for big game, Tac II for comp and two enhanced Savage Impulse Predators in 20-250, 243 and 260 for varmints.
I have all the straight pull bases covered and haven't used a turn bolt rifle in years.
SJC

 

[tfvars]

Nope, but if I didn't have a Tac II in 308 and 6 CM I would.
R8 in 300 Wsm for big game, Tac II for comp and two enhanced Savage Impulse Predators in 20-250, 243 and 260 for varmints.
I have all the straight pull bases covered and haven't used a turn bolt rifle in years.
SJC

Got it. Finally got mine in last week but haven't had the chance to shoot it. Lots of things I'd do different already but since it's my first one I'll chalk it up to being a learning experience.

I'm working with an Akila dealer to get an ACSR8 stock and fore-end in, once I have that I'll consider phase one of the build complete.