Another Sako Project

[17 Rem]

Thought I'd share my latest Sako project's results.

I bought a rather battered standard weight Sako A2 .243 last year, unseen. The bore turned out to be pitted and though it still shot passably well, it proved impossible to clean and was sent to Border for a 25" Archer barrel in the Sako sporter profile. I thought I'd ordered a 1 in 14 twist, but I must be mistaken as I checked tonight and it's 1 in 10- my mistake, I'm sure, not Border's.

That took a few weeks longer than promised, but JR got it back to me very soon after I posted here about the delay. Whilst I was waiting, I steamed the worst marks from the stock, stripped its awful 1980's polyeurathane and oiled it, replacing its factory recoil pad (which was rotten) with a sorbathane one. The floorplate and trigger guard were re-blacked and I devcon bedded the action and bottom metal back into the tarted up stock.

I mounted a second hand 6-18x50 Swarovski in period Sako ringmounts and started the break-in procedure.

I'd not shot it for a couple of months but loaded a few experimental cartridges last night and managed an hour on the range with it this morning.

My pet load of 42.5 grains of N140 and 70 grain Nosler ballistic tip in Federal brass produced a 3 shot .65" group, including a pulled shot, at a surprisingly pedestrian 3450 fps- 100 fps lower than my Tikka 595 produces with the same load.

43 grains of N140 with 60 grain Sierra HP's in Norma brass gave .52" at 3550 fps.

43 grains of N140 with 65 grain Hornady V Max in Norma brass produced a .46" group at 3480 fps.

My last few 68 grain G&C 68 grain flat base HP's with 42.5 grains of N140 in RWS cases ran at 3550 fps and produced a .26" group!

All loads used CCI 200 primers.

Usefully, all the groups were between 1/2 and 3/4 of an inch lower than the 70 grain Noslers for which the rifle is zeroed. So I can confidently use up all the above bullets I have left without worrying about which I'm using.

The rifle and mounts stand me at about £250 less than I could have bought a new Sako, without mounts, for. I'm fairly pleased!

[Cornishman]

Awesome. If you know what you want I think you are so much better off rebarreling and refinishing a second-hand gun than buying a new one. The older Sakos were beautifully built and seem to have so much more personality than the new ones.

 

Any chance of a few pictures?

 

Cornishman.