How about firing over 25,000 12-gauge shotgun shells as the testing grounds for two new shotguns? I have heard about gun companies that fire huge piles of shells as the introductory testing of new shotgun models, but I’m pretty sure such testing takes place in a figurative laboratory, i.e. the company’s testing facilities. But I was part of a five-shooter party that fired all those thousands of shells in a genuine hunting situation.

Long before Blaser started importing their groundbreaking F3 shotgun into the U.S. in 2004, the German manufacturer founded in 1957 by Horst Blaser was renown for its dangerous-game rifles. The Blaser S-2 Express Double Rifle in either .470 or .500 Nitro Express was a go-to gun for traditionalists looking to bring down a Cape Buffalo or Elephant in Africa. Likewise, a big-bore Blaser R-93 was engineered with a silky smooth bolt action if you needed to squeeze off that critical second shot at a charging rhino. Then in 2010, when Blaser introduced its next-generation bolt-action rifle, the R8, its revolutionary design immediately made it the darling of the big-game set.