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"Put Together" Sako seems to work

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

stonecreek

SCC Secretary
SCC Board Member
I've always shot from the left shoulder, so I was thrilled when a good friend in Europe found a brand new factory stock for an L61R with a RH bolt and LH cheekpiece for me. I bought a three-lug .25-06 barreled action from Rodger at www.sakosource.com, which I placed in the stock where it seemed to fit perfectly. I mounted a Leupold VX-II with LR Duplex (the one with the 300 and 400 yard dots on the lower stadia) on it. A few weeks ago I zeroed it at 100 yards and it seemed to shoot pretty tight, but we've had three solid weeks of wind until yesterday, so I had not had a chance until then to check it out closely for accuracy. Yesterday was a windless day here, so I went out yesterday afternoon to give it a try at extended yardages. I fired four shots, one for a "fouler" using the center crosshair at 200 yards, and one three-shot group at 300 yards. The load is a 115 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip using IMR7828SSC at just over 3100 fps. The photo shows the result. I guess it will just have to do.
 

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RH bolt and LH cheekpiece???? Do you have to stand on your head to shoot???? Seriously good shooting no matter how you do it.
 
I'm right-handed, but ever since I was a small child it seemed more natural for me to shoot from the left shoulder. I like the bolt on the right, and having it there doesn't seem handicap me in how quickly I can work the action. For bench shooting, it is much handier to have the ejection/loading port on the same side of the gun as the shooter, which is why a lot of dedicated bench guns are being made with the bolt on the right and the port on the left. And since I shoot about 50 shots from the bench for every shot I shoot at game in the field, I really like the port on the same side of the gun I'm sitting on.

Interestingly, my son is left-handed, and shoots from the left shoulder, but he also prefers the bolt on the right. Perhaps that's because he grew up with bolts that way, but it certainly doesn't handicap him. He once downed two running coyotes at 200+ yards on an open wheatfield with his Finnbear .30-06 with two successive shots.
 
stonecreek...Very good shooting!!
I think it nothing really unusual to be right handed but shoot from the left
I have an old friend in Manitoba who does exactly that.But with an addition;He does not use
the safety...he keeps the bolt open until he fires the gun - hunting or targets-he always does it.
When I asked him about it....."this way I`ve being shooting all my life"was his reply....
What ever works why change it....
 
There's really nothing all that skilled about my shooting, just put the crosshair on the target and squeeze gently. What is special is that a barreled action just screwed into a stock which wasn't specially fitted to it can do a .3 MOA group at 300 yards; and, by the way, the ammunition was handloaded and previously fired in another Sako .25-06, with the cases neck-sized only. It fit this chamber perfectly, which is very unusual.

As to keeping the bolt open until you're ready to shoot, that's the way I urge all of my friends to do it when we're prairie dog hunting. One of them has a CZ 527 with its backward safety, which in my opinion should NEVER be relied on since it is too easy for a shooter to get confused by its operation. Also, I own a customized Mini Mark X .221 Fireball on which I mounted a Sako trigger; since the Sako safety won't fit without significant modification to the stock, and since I only use the rifle from the bench or from a fixed position when hunting, I left it off. Therefore, I adopted the policy of always keeping the bolt up when not actually aiming to shoot. This is a much better practice, especially when there are several people with guns nearby, than relying on the safety. I do use the safety on a rifle (or shotgun) regularly in the field when the possibility of a "jump" shot or a bird flush is imminent.

On a related note, I've always been puzzled by the position of the thumb safety on Sakos and other similar rifles. When I shoot a right-handed Sako from the left shoulder, my left thumb (on the trigger hand) is immediately beside the safety (on the RH side of the receiver), which is very quick to access. But a right-handed shooter has to move his thumb from the left side of the receiver to the safety button on the RH side, push the safety forward, then switch his thumb back to shooting position on the LH side of the receiver in order to shoot. It seems to me that a RH shooter would be better off with the safety lever on the LH side. No? I guess not since no one builds safeties that way, but it surely seems odd to me.
 
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Also, interesting question about the safety position. The right sided safety position is not an issue for me as I position my thumb in the center, just behind the tang. I do this to take advantage of the pinch reflex. Basically, as you apply progressive pressure to the stock with your thumb pad, your index (trigger) finger will reflexly move towards your thumb and depress the trigger almost unconsciously. This helps me with a consistent trigger squeeze and virtually eliminates any jerking of the trigger on my part.
 
Stonecreek,

Are you cross eye dominant, i.e. right handed but left eye dominant?
No, not an eye dominance issue, just the way my instinct has always told me to do it.

The center, or tang safety, position of many shotguns and a few rifles seems a good one. But that would get in the way of your "pinch reflex", I guess.

At the risk of hijacking my own thread:faint3:: I've never liked thumbhole stocks. Talk about an unhandy place for your thumb to be when you want to quickly access the safety! They seemed to be all the rage in the 1960's-70's, but not so much these days, thank goodness. I don't mean to diss anyone who likes them, but I've never seen the advantage to them.
 
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