Over priced Sako rifles ?

[bigfellascott]

Car for sale: Engine missing, paint in VERY GOOD condition?

Good deal? lol

If it's something fancy like a Ferrari I guess you could part it out front if you want your neighbours to think you're a big shot

Is 'snobbery' part of the Sako allure ?

( I find the Beretta / Krieghoff / Perazzi mob, look down their noses when I front up with a Winchester. )

And rightly so! D

Note to self ....

Do not talk to Bigfella ...

( he has a f***ed up jaundiced view, regarding Winchester shotguns )

I don't have a view about winchesters at all mate, just another brand in a sea of brands as far as I'm concerned, ya won't find a brand snob here, for me I use whatever works and as you know I own Boito shotguns and Berettas and I enjoy using my cheap arse Boito as much as I like using my Beretta, brands mean absolutely nothing to me, what matters most to me is that they work, that simple.

[Gamerancher]

Bigfella, I'm curious, have you owned the Sako from new or was it "pre-loved"?

[bigfellascott]

Bigfella, I'm curious, have you owned the Sako from new or was it "pre-loved"?

Pre loved, I know the bloke who bought it new (from a chemist in Katoomba back in the day) to him it shot fine but to me it was ordinary compared to what I have, I would have thought it could produce a better result for the brand and $$ they go for but was sadly mistaken to believe the "Buy Once Cry Once BS" anyway I'm slowly getting it sorted out (I hope)

[Gamerancher]

Fair enough. All of my silhouette rifles are Sako's. Two are 75's,(7-08 & 6.5 x 55) They are out of the box standard as required in our "hunter" class. A P94S in .22 , a Quad in .22, both standard out of the box, and an old L61R that has multiple barrels and stocks so can be turned into about 8 different combinations on one action. More than happy with all of them. All excellent triggers and 1/2 inch shooters. I also have a couple that I use for hunting, 461 & 579, and have no problems with them either. Was just wondering.

[bigfellascott]

Fair enough. All of my silhouette rifles are Sako's. Two are 75's,(7-08 & 6.5 x 55) They are out of the box standard as required in our "hunter" class. A P94S in .22 , a Quad in .22, both standard out of the box, and an old L61R that has multiple barrels and stocks so can be turned into about 8 different combinations on one action. More than happy with all of them. All excellent triggers and 1/2 inch shooters. I also have a couple that I use for hunting, 461 & 579, and have no problems with them either. Was just wondering.

I'd say the problem with this one other than the trigger which really was way too heavy and creapy, is the pencil barrel, I've heard they weren't the best accuracy wise but hopefully the few mods I've made will make it a better shooter, time will tell and if none of that works I can either flog it off or put a better barrel on it.

By the way you sound like you have a lovely collection of Sakos there mate, glad to hear yours are great shooters, hopefully this one will be when I've finished the mods.

This is the rifle - lovely little handling rifle, shame about the issues I've encountered with it (I will get it sorted out I'm sure)

[Gwion]

Will be interesting to see what further load development does to the performance after your tweaks, Bigfella.

[bigfellascott]

Will be interesting to see what further load development does to the performance after your tweaks, Bigfella.

Hopefully better than it was anyway G - I'm not after 5 in the one hole (would be happy if it did don't get me wrong) but would like to be down around the 1/2in with 3 shots would do me fine, I did find one load a while back which showed promise but buggered if I can find the data for it now so will have to start again I guess.

I hope it shoots well cos I do like the little Sako just don't like the way it shoots, the trigger is beautiful now, nice and crisp and not to far off the Howsos now which is great, I've got a truckload of diff pills and powder combos to try and I'm sure I will find something it will shoot out of that lot.

[Gwion]

I reckon that thin barrel will take some fine tuning and consistent loading practices to get it where you want.

Fingers crossed you don't have to go back to the drawing board and re-pressure bed point it! Against popular wisdom, not every barrel/rifle likes to be free floated...

That said, getting it to shoot a few rounds into sub MOA should be well and truly doable.

[bigfellascott]

I reckon that thin barrel will take some fine tuning and consistent loading practices to get it where you want.

Fingers crossed you don't have to go back to the drawing board and re-pressure bed point it! Against popular wisdom, not every barrel/rifle likes to be free floated...

That said, getting it to shoot a few rounds into sub MOA should be well and truly doable.

It wouldn't worry me if I had to go back and pressure bed it G, easy enough to do but hopefully won't have to worry about that (I think I'd rather throw another barrel on that do that to be honest, not much point going back to where I started from especially if it wasn't satisfactory to begin with hey.

[brett1868]

Got me a new Sako 85 Varmint S/S Laminated in .243 a couple weeks back. Toped it with a Leupold VX2 4-12x50 on Optilok bases and rings to match the other 2 Sakos so all 3 have identical setups. Fired the first shots tonight using Federal 85gr HP's and the first 3 shot group was a clover leaf, 2nd 3 shot group was also a cloverleaf. I set the zero as .3" low at 50m using 4 rounds. Fired 10 shots, got 3 clover leafs, put the rifle back in the bag and this is why I love Sako rifles.

[bigfellascott]

Got me a new Sako 85 Varmint S/S Laminated in .243 a couple weeks back. Toped it with a Leupold VX3 4-12x50 on Optilok bases and rings to match the other 2 Sakos so all 3 have identical setups. Fired the first shots tonight using Federal 85gr HP's and the first 3 shot group was a clover leaf, 2nd 3 shot group was also a cloverleaf. I set the zero as .3" low at 50m using 4 rounds. Fired 10 shots, got 3 clover leafs, put the rifle back in the bag and this is why I love Sako rifles.

Nothing wrong with that one Brett, was that at 50m or 100m?

[brett1868]

Got me a new Sako 85 Varmint S/S Laminated in .243 a couple weeks back. Toped it with a Leupold VX3 4-12x50 on Optilok bases and rings to match the other 2 Sakos so all 3 have identical setups. Fired the first shots tonight using Federal 85gr HP's and the first 3 shot group was a clover leaf, 2nd 3 shot group was also a cloverleaf. I set the zero as .3" low at 50m using 4 rounds. Fired 10 shots, got 3 clover leafs, put the rifle back in the bag and this is why I love Sako rifles.

Nothing wrong with that one Brett, was that at 50m or 100m?

50m Bigfella cause the only way I can get >50 at St Marys is to shoot the half inch but that'll upset the Chinese restaurant next door I'm extremely impressed with the performance straight out of the box using cheap factory ammo. To be fair it's not a specific trait of Sako as I've had a few much cheaper rifles perform just as well or better on factory ammo. My MkV Accumark 300WbyMag took a lot of development to get a sub moa load yet his brother in .257 WbyMag took 4 loads to find a .5 moa load. Proof that you don't need to spend a pile of cash on a name to achieve accuracy. The most accurate rifle I ever owned cost me $99 brand new in 1991, A Vostok single shot 22LR with a cheap Tasco 4x32 scope which shot .5 moa day in & day out no matter what I fed it.

This is the first .243 I've owned having first shot one in the 80's and I'm banging my head about not buying one of my own years ago. Hopefully it dries up around my place so I can get up there this weekend and blood it.

[bigfellascott]

Cheers Brett, I get same/similar results with the Howso's at 50m when I used factory ammo (204 and 22.250) the 222 hated factory ammo (tried Sako and a few other brands back in the day - about 30yrs or so ago) so ammo has come a long way since those days for consistency and the resultant accuracy from it.

These are the first shots out of the 204 shooting 50m in a paddock, I think I used the rifle bag for the front rest if memory serves me correctly or it may have been my Homemade sand bags? either way it sure surprised me just how well it went - I used Remington and Federal ammo from memory.

204

4 shot group (can't remember if that was the Rem or the Fed)


4 shot group


The rest of the 204 Ammo I used on bunnies from 220m to 257m I think the longest shot was


I was shooting off the hillside down into a valley which has a rabbit warren in it, great fun.