Hello everyone. I am new to the forum but a 50 year veteran of Sako rifles. Found this post after I had a potential catastrophic failure of my .270 L61R Finnbear Deluxe over the weekend. I am now looking for a potential replacement and definitely a second hunting rifle. I will most likely look at getting an 85 Grey Wolf in .300WSM. Some day, and I hope not anytime soon, I will inherit about 8 to 10 Sako rifles from my father's collection. But I am in no rush to actually have that happen.
You might want to describe what potentially happened. In the meantime I might suggest that if you are accustomed to the L-series or other older Sakos (which presumably your father's collection consists of) you may not find either the Model 85's or the WSM chambering a comfortable fit. Not saying there is anything defective about the rifle or the caliber, but I know that I wouldn't find either to my liking after a lifetime shooting vintage Sakos.
In my other post, I did explain the failure. It was a failure of the brass casing. A hole blew through the brass next to the primer. That backward pressure blew the extractor out of the bolt. I am not sure if there was any damage to the chamber.
Think I'd lean more toward an L61R/AIII/AV (or the shorter versions of those, 579/AI/etc.) instead of the newer 85. That's mostly just from reading, though, comparing the AV I had to what I've read about the 85s. -Chris
