- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,350
First the Blaser S2,
It is accurate it's reliable and it's safe with it's decoking system. That's the good news. The bad news is that it is very nontraditional so most die hard double rifle guys hate them. The decocking safety system takes some practice as it's a bit stiff and awkward to use which kills the S2 for me. The main advantage of a double is quick and smooth operation to the shoulder the safety should slide off with a subconscious flick of the thumb. The S2 takes some work to get the decoker set and cocked to much IMHO. The other big minus in my book is that the gun is only available with extractors as the decocker disallows the installation of ejectors.
Overall the S2 is a very good rifle that should not be discounted. I like a more traditional rifle just like I only shoot 98 style Mauser bolt guns I am picky about the configuration of my doubles as well. I have trained extensively with a non automatic safety and ejectors and that is what I'll stick with because I am very good with that configuration. That doesn't mean that you need the same, a guy could get very fast and very good with an S2 or Krieghoff style rifle with a bit of training time. In fact when I shot the world championship stopping rifle competition several years ago I came in third and both the guys who beat me were shooting Krieghoff's with decokers on them.If you looked at the stats however my times were 20 to 30% faster than theirs but they had better overall scores once you added in group size. They shot slower and more accurately I shot faster and scored all kill zone shots but not as tight of groups as the team shooting kreighoff did. In real life on DG game in a charge I'll take a speedy 4 shot 6" group in the goods over a slow 2" group any day but that's not how the competition was scored.
Now on to the regulation issue. I have spoken to Butch Searcy and other double gun builders about the laser issue and regulation. Here is the short answer he does use a laser to get the barrels parallel and offset initially. But here's the rub you can line up the barrels on a 10 rifles exactly the same. And no two of them will put the bullets into the same place. Due to harmonics, barrel pressure points, rib weld ETC every single double rifle must be hand regulated and every single double rifle has it's barrels pointed at slightly different angles to allow them to regulate to the proper point of impact barrel to barrel at 50 yards. And then most will only do that with a particular load and bullet combo. Doubles can be finicky little things. Blaser seems to have found a solution to that issue.
My current .470 will place 4 rounds two rights and two lefts into under 1.75" dead center and 1" high at 50 yards it will put them all into under 3" at 100 yards and is still not crossing at 200 yards. That is what I consider perfect regulation. There are very few doubles that will do that. Butch seems to have it perfectly figured out.
And my rifle will ONLY do that with 106 grs of IMR 4831 behind 500 gr Woodleigh bullets. It shoots Barnes, HC lead and other well but about twice as wide as the w
Woodleighs.
So if somebody is telling you that they simply laser up the barrels and call it good they are not regulating the barrels they are simply lining up the barrels. To regulate properly takes multiple trips to the range to pull the ribs and reset your wedges then reweld your ribs and shoot then repeat until you get it perfect. It takes time it takes money and it takes knowledge to properly regulate a double.
It is accurate it's reliable and it's safe with it's decoking system. That's the good news. The bad news is that it is very nontraditional so most die hard double rifle guys hate them. The decocking safety system takes some practice as it's a bit stiff and awkward to use which kills the S2 for me. The main advantage of a double is quick and smooth operation to the shoulder the safety should slide off with a subconscious flick of the thumb. The S2 takes some work to get the decoker set and cocked to much IMHO. The other big minus in my book is that the gun is only available with extractors as the decocker disallows the installation of ejectors.
Overall the S2 is a very good rifle that should not be discounted. I like a more traditional rifle just like I only shoot 98 style Mauser bolt guns I am picky about the configuration of my doubles as well. I have trained extensively with a non automatic safety and ejectors and that is what I'll stick with because I am very good with that configuration. That doesn't mean that you need the same, a guy could get very fast and very good with an S2 or Krieghoff style rifle with a bit of training time. In fact when I shot the world championship stopping rifle competition several years ago I came in third and both the guys who beat me were shooting Krieghoff's with decokers on them.If you looked at the stats however my times were 20 to 30% faster than theirs but they had better overall scores once you added in group size. They shot slower and more accurately I shot faster and scored all kill zone shots but not as tight of groups as the team shooting kreighoff did. In real life on DG game in a charge I'll take a speedy 4 shot 6" group in the goods over a slow 2" group any day but that's not how the competition was scored.
Now on to the regulation issue. I have spoken to Butch Searcy and other double gun builders about the laser issue and regulation. Here is the short answer he does use a laser to get the barrels parallel and offset initially. But here's the rub you can line up the barrels on a 10 rifles exactly the same. And no two of them will put the bullets into the same place. Due to harmonics, barrel pressure points, rib weld ETC every single double rifle must be hand regulated and every single double rifle has it's barrels pointed at slightly different angles to allow them to regulate to the proper point of impact barrel to barrel at 50 yards. And then most will only do that with a particular load and bullet combo. Doubles can be finicky little things. Blaser seems to have found a solution to that issue.
My current .470 will place 4 rounds two rights and two lefts into under 1.75" dead center and 1" high at 50 yards it will put them all into under 3" at 100 yards and is still not crossing at 200 yards. That is what I consider perfect regulation. There are very few doubles that will do that. Butch seems to have it perfectly figured out.
And my rifle will ONLY do that with 106 grs of IMR 4831 behind 500 gr Woodleigh bullets. It shoots Barnes, HC lead and other well but about twice as wide as the w
Woodleighs.
So if somebody is telling you that they simply laser up the barrels and call it good they are not regulating the barrels they are simply lining up the barrels. To regulate properly takes multiple trips to the range to pull the ribs and reset your wedges then reweld your ribs and shoot then repeat until you get it perfect. It takes time it takes money and it takes knowledge to properly regulate a double.
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