I am not expert on straight pull, tried few of them. Not used them extensively.
On the other hand
@Red Leg and
@One Day... and
@Philip Glass may provide better answer as they use R8 frequently, and in Africa as well.
Now, on SR 830/88 I know very little, and only from my library, can say only a bit of history.
It is the last Blaser rifle designed by mr Blaser. Later blaser straight pull rifles were designed by other people in the design team. Came out in 1983, so I am not sure what 88 stands for
Horst Blaser is founder of this company in 1957. From the begging, he choosed machine supported production, not manufacturing by hand fitting rifles by gunsmith for fine guns. Strange for time, and for small workshop of the time, and even more strange for double barreled guns: He started with combination rifles, and drillings etc. (those rifles even today are handfitted in best models in famous workshops)
First machinery produced combination gun in Germany was Blaser r60. All guns were produced with best materials, and for high class market.
Horst Blaser sold the company in 1986 to Gerhard Blenk. Blenk invested more in most modern machinery of the time, and increased productions, with increse of employed higlhy skilled personnel. Vision is the same, machinery produced, high end rifles for high class, and most modern in design solutions. They started with CAD program and CNC machines, about that time.
As a base design for developping new rifle to come (r93) they used
model SR 830/88, in order to develop new and better model.
Development took few years, and blaser r93 was marketed in 1993. (designed in 92)
So, what I know about SR 830/88 is that it is rifle used as a base model for next r93.
SR 830/30 was introduced by Blaser (I mean by Horst Blaser) in 1983.
He sold the company, in 1986, but remained around in his design office, but was not involved in development of r93. A russian deisgner was involved, as I will note below
R93 later made a world wide acceptance and significant global approval of straight pulls in hunting world.
History on modern Blasers:
There have been reports of serious bolt failures on earlier model r93, but r8 has improved bolt locking system, for which one of constructor team designers was Sergey V. Popikov, a russian immigrant and one of best firearm designers in the world (now retired), and had helped in design of the bolt of r93 and designed the bolt for r8. (he also designed for blaser: Blaser F3 - and excellent over under shotgun, blaser drilling D99, and designed now phased out modular turn bolt action mauser m03 as Blaser company also bought mauser company around the time.)
Buying the rifle, is rational decision, but it is also very individual. Nobody will buy "the best rifle in the world", if they dont like its appearance. If you are inclined to modern design, and you are in love in this rifle, having known a bit of its histroy then you will enjoy this rifle very much. Buy it! Dont think twice!
There are two typical ways of locking straight pull. 1) Rotational bolt head, or 2) with radial pin lockig. For blaser, radial system is typical. (again, personally I woud prefer rotational bolt head, as it is more traddional and proven in many semi auto rifles. But thats just me, and part of my irrational bias against straight pulls)
Another thing that makes new blaser different, is compact size with standard barrel lenghts, as mag is positioned above trigger.
Third, it is the mount system on the barrel. So if you change the barrels having separate scopes, you dont need to re- zero.
Down side, of course is the price. (2 x scopes swarovski, if you want), plus each barrel with the price of budget rifle.
So, with noumeorus features, modern blaser is arguably the rifle with best ergonomic solutions made for hunter, and with great pedigree of innovavtion as a brend policy.
There is a system of safety, forspanung, when safe firing pin is relaxed from tension and cannot fire accidntaly, even with round in chamber, which is arguably the best safety system today, and copied in other rifle designes.