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Sako Importer History

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

Nothing wrong with the marketing, it's just that bench calibers go in fads. The PPC's were a huge fad in the 80's, but newer fads have supplanted them. Bench shooters are always seeking an even Holier Grail, so new (or retreaded) cartridges with a slight change in shoulder angle, change in the size of the primer, fatter, skinnier, longer neck, shorter neck, or whatever are constantly displacing cartridges like the .222, the PPC's, the Remington BR series, and others.
 
I know what you're saying Stonecreek, but the PPC has broken that mold. At least in the traditional 'group' competition - short range BR, it still rules the roost. 'Score' comp does favor something like 30BR nowadays though. Mid or long range are as you say. Dick
 
Time for a fully devoted 6PPC user to chime in. (Were you waiting for me, Hayseed?)

The current evolution of the 6PPC requires neck turning to even up the wall thickness even with the super Lapua brass. There is no 6PPC brass from Norma or SAKO available so we all start with .220 Russian. Once the necks are turned they are too small for the standard 6PPC USA (ie. SAKO) chamber. You will find virtually all Benchrest chambers are reamed with a .262 dia. tight neck. You obviously can't make the factory neck smaller to realize the potential accuracy of the cartridge. (Shoot 1/4 moa 5 shot ags and you might make the top twenty at a registered match.)

The point I am trying to make here is the 6PPC is still the champ in 100 & 200 yd/meter light and heavy varmint BR group shooting but Hunter & Hunter/Varmint and L & H varmint score shooting is now ruled by the .30's (30BR, etc) because of their advantage in best-edge scoring. Factory class is dominated by the Savage LRPV and Coopers in 6 mm BR as no-one manufactures 6PPC or .30BR chambered rifles today.

Some nationally ranked shooters (Bob White for example) are using SAKO's but they are hard to come by for shooting because no one wants to part with their safe queens. Weren't rifles designed and manufactured to be shot!? Oops, didn't mean to get on a soapbox here. This topic will end here to be resurected in a future thread if there is an interest.

AL W
 
Stonecreek:

6PPC a fad? Check the results of IBS and NBRSA matches and find anything but 6PPC's winning. (Except for Mike Radison's .100 shortened 22PPC)

Having dominated bench rest since the mid 70's I don't think nearly 40 years can be considered a fad any more than the .30-06, .223, .308 or .45ACP, etc.

AL W (only slightly offended)
 
Alcap: Good explanation of why a factory PPC is of little appeal to bench shooters. Factory rifles do appeal to varmint shooters, but so do economy, avaliablity, and velocity -- reasons why cartridges like the .223 and .22-250 dominate varminting and the PPCs are relatively scarce.

Thanks for letting me know how popular the PPC still is in bench circles. Since I'm not a competitive bench shooter I just assumed that by the volume of written material one sees on the newest, most "innovative" cartridges for bench shooting that the PPC "fad" had run its course. Obviously, those articles can be misleading. I guess someone is always trying to start a new fad.
 
Was Valmet not picked up by Sako when the Government started breaking up Valation Metallitehtaat? Sako wanted Valmet for the Military Contracts I've been told. The over under shotgun carried on under the Tikka brand for a while

Stoeger Canada has been the importer up here for over 25 years,and is now owned by Beretta
 
Sako didnxB4t pick up anything - they were forced when the big boys of Nokia and Valmet agreed that they wanted to get rid
of product lines which neither fitted their main products, nor brought them any money. Just f.y.i before the merger every Valmet shotgun produced and sold gave an average USD 100 loss/per gun.
Sako was in better shape. - The new company was called Sako-Valmet and the result of the new company was out of the balance sheets of Nokia and Valmet. As to the military production,
due to some deals between Finland and China, Finland had to buy big amounts of AK 47 from China which seriously hurt Sako-Valmet. Already at the time of the merger the Nokia and Valmet board had agreed that it will be the task of the Sako-Valmet management to close the Valmet weapons factory,together with the Tikkakoski factory. The Tikka production was successfully moved to the Sako factory and the Valmet shotgun/combination gun production continued in Italy by an Italian company. Sako-Valmet was renamed Sako. Nokia and Valmet were more than pleased when Beretta eventually took over.
Sako after Colonel Hyden unfortunately never had a real rifleman at the helm and most
GMxB4s after Hyden came from Nokia with experience of car tyre,-cable -and toilet paper production which were NokiaxB4s main lines up to the end of the 80xB4s.

SS
 
Interesting stuff here. Am I to gather that my Garcia Sako Forester 22-250 was assembled in the USA? The barrel on this rifle isn't tapered like the Firearms International Forester and it has Microgroove rifling made famous by Marlin. I know that some of the FI Sakos also had Microgrooving because I've seen them. I've heard that Sako had a deal with Marlin at one time but until now I'd only seen the Microgroove rifling in Sako's Bofors barrels.
And what of the Browning Sako's I've seen? Basically a Sako rifle with a Browning logo set in the stock. A local gun shop had one of these in 243 for sale the last time I was in there.
 
No, your Garcia-imported Sako was completely manufactured and assembled in Finland. Garcia was only the importer.

Sako very successfully used its own 12-groove rifling in some .22 centerfire barrels, but I've never seen it used as late as one of the Garcia imports (post-1971). However, Sako is famous for picking up old parts out of the "bin" and assembling them into finished rifles, so it is entirely possible that your Garcia gun has one of these barrels.

The Sako multi-groove rifling was similar to the Marlin Micro Groove product, but otherwise unrelated. There may be further confusion between the two generated by the fact that Marlin produced its Model 322 and 422 with their Microgroove rifling on Sako actions. These rifles were built entirely by Marlin, with the execption of starting with the Finnish Sako action.

Quite a few manufacturers/marketers used Sako actions for some their proprietary rifles. Among them were Marlin, Colt, Montgomery Wards, H&R, O'brien, Winslow, Magnum Research, Lazzaroni, and perhaps most famously, Browning.

The Browning "short" and "medium" action calibers were not only built on Sako actions (L461 and L579 respectively), but it appears that Sako also furnished the delicately stepped barrels to Browning's specifications. Browning stocked the Sako barreled actions, just as they stocked the "long" caliber guns made on the FN Mauser barreled actions. Unfortunately, many of these fine guns were stocked with salt-cured walnut which hopelessly corroded the metal it came in contact with.
 
alcap said:
The current evolution of the 6PPC requires neck turning to even up the wall thickness even with the super Lapua brass. There is no 6PPC brass from Norma or SAKO available so we all start with .220 Russian. Once the necks are turned they are too small for the standard 6PPC USA (ie. SAKO) chamber. You will find virtually all Benchrest chambers are reamed with a .262 dia. tight neck.

This topic will end here to be resurected in a future thread if there is an interest.
AL W

Whenever you are ready to start the thread
 
Good Afternoon Sako Friends,

Talking about Sako Importers, I remember recentley someone asked about Importers in Gt. Britain United Kingdom, so here goes.

In the late 1950'5 & 1960's a Company called L. Lepersonne & Co Ltd {Established 1888} No's 7 & 8 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7JA Imported Browning, Tikka & Sako firearms. This continued untill 1971 when a company called" Gunmark" owned by the Waktare family took the business on. "Gunmark" continued trading untill January 1998. Next to continue are G.M.K. Bear House, Concorde Way, Fareham, Hampshire. PO15 5RL. In 2006 Beretta bought 20% of the Company. Beretta as you know, now own Sako lock stock & barrel. G.M.K. continue to trade at the above address.

I hope this piece of history is of some interest.

Sincerely

Blackjack AKA Mike The Limey
 
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