Sako 579 7mm-08

[Ronin]

The rifle came to me last year for repair, the owner advising that it had been recently purchased with "new barrel" but was difficult to extract fired rounds - could I help.

The 579 action was manufactured in 1985 from serial number and fitted in the original stock, however, it had a vermint profile replacement barrel and a bottom metal for AICS fitted.

On examining the chamber and barrel with borescope, it appeared the chamber had been cut with a plastic spoon - it was really bad.

So, I pulled the barrel and set it back, - the new tenon and barrel thread cut well, but the chamber cut poorly, the steel was really inferior quality, so it was sent to the scrap bin after consultation with the owner.

The bolt slide was another issue and the circular retention clip had broken - none were available from the manufacturer and though there are other sources of parts, this particular bolt was of different diameter to other L series Sakos of that era which use the Bolt Slide.

Thankfully, William Wadstein of Finn Enterprises (Finland) came to our aid with new factory part available off the shelf

A new Sassen 8.5 twist fluted stainless barrel was ordered in Tikka Varmint profile, along with a new KKC Laminate stock

The new bolt parts arrived and were duly fitted

Once the barrel was delivered, it was fitted, chambered (which it finished beautifully) in 7mm-08 and sent to proof 

The stock arrived a couple of months later as it was special order from the factory via Jacksons (thank you Peter)

The task of opening the barrel channel inlet and bottom metal inlet was undertaken to accomodate the large diameter profile and oversized BM for the AICS mag system - sometimes I wish I had a CNC Mill....

Once completed, the stock was pillar bedded using slim stainless pillars due to lack of available space for larger alloy ones and bedded in Devcon

All parts were then stripped and sent to be ceracoated Matt Black at Liquid Steel Design

The standard Sako Trigger had a damaged retention screw, so I sourced some 10-32 Stainless Set screws of an appropraite length and a slim nylon nut to replace the damaged original

Images of the build and various parts - deliberately left the bolt uncoated as the slide will wear the coating very quickly

A labour of love for this build, but worth it I think

 

Bedding before clean up

New trigger retention screw

 

The finished rifle feeds perfectly from the supplied polymer aics mag and trigger breaks at a crisp 2 lb 

 

Hopefully have some images from the owner of its accuracy soon