• Hey All! Lately there has been more and more scammers on the forum board. They register and replies to members requests for guns and/or parts or other things. The reply contains a gmail or hotmail address or similar ”anonymous” email addresses which they want you to reply to. DO NOT ANSWER ANY STRANGE MESSAGES! They often state something like this: ”Hello! Saw your post about purchasing a stock for a Safari. KnuckleheadBob has one. Email him at: [email protected]” If you receive any strange messages: Check the status of whoever message you. If they have no posts and signed up the same day or very recently, stay away. Same goes for other members they might refer to. Check them too and if they are long standing members, PM them and ask if the message is legit. Most likely it’s not. Then use the report function in each message or post so I can kick them out! Beware of anything that might seem fishy! And again, for all of you who registered your personal name as username, please contact me so I can change it to a more anonymous username. You’d be surprised of how much one can find out about a person from just a username on a forum such ad our! All the best! And be safe! Jim

New Sako Owner, new forum member

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

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Michael Carpenter

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Howdy from Texas!

I have been working on my older brother's AIII, the stock of which he broke while Elk hunting 30 years ago. I have a Tikka T3 in 6.5 Swede, no classic Sako rifles when I started working on his, so in the process of learning about the rifle to fix it properly, Google pointed me to this page. Getting the scope of the history and what Sako owners love about the rifles, I couldn't help but start building one. Mine is a relatively rare 280 Remington AV Deluxe, and it'll be a while before I shoot it. For one thing, I'll be pillaring and bedding the action to the stock... I also need to find brass, dies, bullets, and some box ammo for break-in. It's going to be a gorgeous rifle and a great hunter. What a fine resource this is, thanks!
 
Welcome Michael,

Site requirements are that you post pix of your Sako! No, really! ;)

Being this is your first Sako, I'd recommend a serious cleaning of said gem, then tightening up the action screws, then trying it out before going all in on the accurizing. You might be surprised, in fact most of us here would take the bet that you will be pleased and may not need to modify that rare piece. The rest sounds great! Avoid mounts with set screws, and if the notion arises to D&T the receiver, well, let's not go there, mmkay?

Best,
Gary
 
I agree with Gowyo: Don't mess with the bedding unless you find something totally wrong, which you won't. Your AV .280 Deluxe is a prized example of a Sako and any modification will diminish its value. Besides, it will likely shoot just as well if left alone.

When restocking your brother's AIII do as you like with the bedding since that won't impact the value of a non-original stock.
 
Michael Carpenter said:
Howdy from Texas!

I have been working on my older brother's AIII, the stock of which he broke while Elk hunting 30 years ago. I have a Tikka T3 in 6.5 Swede, no classic Sako rifles when I started working on his, so in the process of learning about the rifle to fix it properly, Google pointed me to this page. Getting the scope of the history and what Sako owners love about the rifles, I couldn't help but start building one. Mine is a relatively rare 280 Remington AV Deluxe, and it'll be a while before I shoot it. For one thing, I'll be pillaring and bedding the action to the stock... I also need to find brass, dies, bullets, and some box ammo for break-in. It's going to be a gorgeous rifle and a great hunter. What a fine resource this is, thanks!
Click to expand...

Pictures mandatory... so here are pictures of the work I'm doing on my brother's AIII with the busted stock. We're going off-topic...

I found one deal on a very nice AV stock (not the AIII I needed) on Ebay, it was cheap because someone already bedded, but not not pillared it. I bought it, but that stock is 's going be for the .280 Rem barreled action that I bought for myself (it's being shipped now).

Since we couldn't find a reasonable price on an AIII stock, I wanted to give fixing my brother's stock a chance. He had taken it to someone years ago that did a half... hearted attempt at gluing it back together:
cracks 1.jpg

One of the reasons for at least one pillar at the rear action screw is that the rifle broke at the wrist, and a pillar will add strength to the pins I've added further forward. I've also stripped the finish and the ugly, almost purple stain. pins.jpg

On the bedding side, I haven't decided yet how to pillar and bed the recoil lug, due to the screw / mount being at the base of the lug (yeah, I know, classic Mauser, but I've never pillar-bedded one with the mount ON the lug) and the cross-bolt, which interferes with the pillar.

I'd rather pillar and bed in one step, assembling the pillars with the action and loading it into the Devcon-filled stock from the top. If the crossbolt is already in the stock, this isn't possible, so one way would be to remove the crossbolt, putty up the holes, bed it, and then drill out a hole (through the epoxy and the edge of the pillar) for the crossbolt afterwards. The advantage of this would be ensuring the spacing on the pillars is perfect, whereas gluing in the notched front pillar with the crossbolt already in seems to compromise that "perfect" alignment and spacing.

Another question related to the screw being on the lug, I've read some Mauser guys that advise taping the bottom of the lug, as you should do with something like a W70. This would leave a slight gap between the lug and the pillar, which seems silly. I'm thinking taping the front and side surfaces, and the back of the tang, but not the bottom surfaces.

Since pillars are so rare on Sako, the posts I see that involve pillars are usually advice to not add pillars... I did look, expecting one of those sticky posts with illustrated step by step, but came away with "pillars are stupid." I get it, but in this case the stock was ruined, compromised, hard to find a replacement, and subject to a magnum caliber. Any constructive advice from someone that has done something like this before a time or two would be appreciated.

More heretical questions later, I think... re-chamber the .280 Rem to AI??
 
Michael Carpenter said:
More heretical questions later, I think... re-chamber the .280 Rem to AI??
Click to expand...
I can't provide anything constructive on your stock rebuilding, but can at least offer an opinion on the .280 AI (opinion guaranteed to be at least worth its price): Nothing wrong with the AI, but there's also nothing wrong with the standard version of the .280 Rem. The shoulder is already moved forward from its parent .30-06, so you don't gain much with the AI version. My 24.4" Sako AV .280 does 3050 fps with a 150 grain bullet without any pressure complaints, which is about all that most AI versions claim. If you want more case capacity there are jillions of Sakos floating around in 7mm Rem Mag, so just latch onto one of those.
 
stonecreek said:
I can't provide anything constructive on your stock rebuilding, but can at least offer an opinion on the .280 AI (opinion guaranteed to be at least worth its price): Nothing wrong with the AI, but there's also nothing wrong with the standard version of the .280 Rem. The shoulder is already moved forward from its parent .30-06, so you don't gain much with the AI version. My 24.4" Sako AV .280 does 3050 fps with a 150 grain bullet without any pressure complaints, which is about all that most AI versions claim. If you want more case capacity there are jillions of Sakos floating around in 7mm Rem Mag, so just latch onto one of those.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I was just kidding, as long as I can buy .280 Rem I'll leave that pristine, brand-new barreled action from ~1990 (literally a blast from the past) alone :)
 
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