My first visit to Miall's Gun Shop had not turned out the way I thought it would. I'd gone in expecting that the qualities of the Mauser M03 relative to the Blaser R8 would cause me to dismiss the straight pull, straight away. However, while the Mauser was as good as I believed it would be, the Blaser was very impressive as well. I took a comfortably long time to uncover and then explore the differences that mattered to me, given how I would use the rifles over the next few decades. For much of the second half of 2013 I felt that the best approach would be to get one of each and use them to their strengths; the Mauser M03 as a heavier rifle for long range accurate shooting with match barrels and the Blaser R8 for lighter weight stalking and fast action. Not a bad idea.
Things changed in December 2013 when I asked my teenage son, now taller than me and a budding hunting partner for the years to come, which one he'd rather carry. Buying two similar rifles for us to use together was an option. "The Blaser of course, with a synthetic stock", is what I thought he'd say. Wrong again. With clarity that took me by surprise, what he actually said was, "It's easy. I think you should buy Mausers. That's what I want to use."
Thunk.
"Why?"
Over the years I've relied on my son to see things from an angle that is different enough from mine to be really valuable. I learned then that he'd been paying attention to the disconnected snippets I'd been dropping here and there. For him it was simple. It was about being confident that he was using the rifle properly and that nothing would go wrong. With the Mauser he would know that he had loaded it properly from the way the bolt closed, that it would fire when he meant it to and that it would be as safe as he wanted it to be. Nothing would go wrong.
My son had distilled the question down to the bare essentials. I had been focussing on the finer details of system design and operation. His reasons, that got to the core of the matter, were entirely applicable to me too. Thanks for the reminder son.
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Regards, Rick.