That's right, VL-61, not VL-63.
Every now and then we run across something of interest in the thousands of pages of factory records the Club has and like to share it with the group.
In November of 1959 Sako shipped one (presumably prototype) lever action .308 to Firearms International, which the shipping records record as a "VL 61". Why wasn't it called a "VL 59", which would be in keeping with the year it was first produced like other models (L57, L579, L61R, L461, etc.). Who knows? Sako was almost as hit-and-miss with its model designations as with its schizophrenic serial numbering.
Anyway, the prototype was numbered (N) 2, so what happened to (N) 1? And whatever became of (N) 2? It is probably squirreled away with the family of someone with FI at the time; or maybe some guy is shooting deer with it today, not knowing anything about its uniqueness.
Click on the link to see the page from the shipping records.
Every now and then we run across something of interest in the thousands of pages of factory records the Club has and like to share it with the group.
In November of 1959 Sako shipped one (presumably prototype) lever action .308 to Firearms International, which the shipping records record as a "VL 61". Why wasn't it called a "VL 59", which would be in keeping with the year it was first produced like other models (L57, L579, L61R, L461, etc.). Who knows? Sako was almost as hit-and-miss with its model designations as with its schizophrenic serial numbering.
Anyway, the prototype was numbered (N) 2, so what happened to (N) 1? And whatever became of (N) 2? It is probably squirreled away with the family of someone with FI at the time; or maybe some guy is shooting deer with it today, not knowing anything about its uniqueness.
Click on the link to see the page from the shipping records.