Who says there is nothing new under the sun?
While researching the records on another subject I happened across the usual set of rimfires, P54's I assumed, in the factory shipping records. But something funny caught my eye. The handwriting is often difficult to interpret in these old records, but these weren't P54's, but rather P57's. P57R, to be precise. "R" usually denotes "raskas", or "heavy barrel".
There were 569 of these made (568 were marked as shipped) -- and all but one were shipped to the same person or company. They were all made/shipped between May and December of 1957.
The ship-to person or company appears to be simply the name of an individual. I'll let those that are better at interpreting handwriting than me make a stab at the name listed in the scan of the records in the link below.
Since no Sako rimfires prior to the P72 were commercially imported to the U.S., our European members will have to help us out with this puzzle. Has anyone ever come across a heavy barreled Sako rimfire labelled "P57"? I have to wonder if it had some special configuration or special sights that made it different from the P54 -- and I have to assume that it was probably a variation on the P54 since that rifle continued in production until replaced by the P72. And was it made to the custom specifications of the only person/company to receive all but one of the entire lot?
Information and comments appreciated.
While researching the records on another subject I happened across the usual set of rimfires, P54's I assumed, in the factory shipping records. But something funny caught my eye. The handwriting is often difficult to interpret in these old records, but these weren't P54's, but rather P57's. P57R, to be precise. "R" usually denotes "raskas", or "heavy barrel".
There were 569 of these made (568 were marked as shipped) -- and all but one were shipped to the same person or company. They were all made/shipped between May and December of 1957.
The ship-to person or company appears to be simply the name of an individual. I'll let those that are better at interpreting handwriting than me make a stab at the name listed in the scan of the records in the link below.
Since no Sako rimfires prior to the P72 were commercially imported to the U.S., our European members will have to help us out with this puzzle. Has anyone ever come across a heavy barreled Sako rimfire labelled "P57"? I have to wonder if it had some special configuration or special sights that made it different from the P54 -- and I have to assume that it was probably a variation on the P54 since that rifle continued in production until replaced by the P72. And was it made to the custom specifications of the only person/company to receive all but one of the entire lot?
Information and comments appreciated.