• 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

Sako-Mauser 8x60

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

stonecreek

SCC Secretary
SCC Board Member
I came by this Sako-Mauser in 8x60 over a year ago and am just now finding all of the components I need to shoot it. It was shipped to a European outlet in 1953 and has the old military-style swing-over bolt safety which sticks straight left on "fire", straight up on safe, and straight to the right on safe with bolt locked. The trigger is on the heavy side, but breaks cleanly. The barrel measures the typical 24.4" for Sako barrels for long calibers. The receiver is NOT tapped for scope bases.

For those who are unfamiliar, the 8x60 was invented as a stretched version of the 8x57 when the 8x57 production was banned in Germany by post WW-I treaties. Building an 8x57 sporter was unlawful, but not so the 8x60. For many years France also prohibited "military" cartridges like the 8x57 and .30-06 for sporting uses, so the 8x60 and 8x60S were somewhat popular there as alternatives.

I was unsure for a while if it was really an 8x60 with a .318" groove, or an 8x60S with the much more common .323" groove. My luck had it that it is the smaller and much less common "I" (or "J") groove of .318, so I had to look a while for bullets. I had picked up a box of brand new Norma 8x60S brass a number of years ago at a gun show, so I had twenty rounds to work with when I finally found some Woodleigh .318" diameter 200 grain RN's. I won't go into the patchwork of dies of various calibers that I cobbled together to get the necks the right diameter and the bullets properly seated, but it finally worked. After consulting several loading data sources and doing some interpolation according to the slightly increased case capacity over its parent, the 8x57, I loaded 50 grains of CFE223 under the Woodleighs. I didn't bother to chronograph them since they would be used at short ranges, but expect the velocity to be in the 2400-2500 fps range.

Here is the rifle and some (poorly focused) photos of its minimal markings:
IMG_0340.JPG IMG_0341 (800x600).jpg IMG_0342 (800x599).jpg
I was pleased with the results of firing three shots at 100 yards, particularly with iron sights viewed foggily through 71 year-old eyes. They grouped within 2 inches and I'll adjust to center them on the target. The rear sight is adjustable for windage, so I moved it just a tad to the left, and while it is not adjustable for elevation, using a 6-o'clock hold rather than the bead dead on the target will put the formidable slugs right where they should go.
IMG_0339.JPG
It's an interesting old Sako that I feel lucky to own. I need to take a few does off of my place, so may go out before the Texas season ends and give this fine old classic rifle a run in the field.
 
Wow, I'm very impressed....2" with iron sights. And, its a nice looking Sako. It's supposed to be a better temperature for deer hunting Sunday (I don't like the 80's for hunting), so give those does heck!
 
A very nice rifle indeed. It shows the simple elegance of the early FN-Sako rifles. And congratulations on excellent shooting with iron sights.

I feel your pain on finding 8mm/.318 dies and components. I have a German side-hammer O/U combination gun in an even odder caliber, 8x57R/360, and finding dies and bullets for it was not simple. Fortunately, Huntington was still making semi-custom dies for obsolete calibers so I was able to get (expensive) dies. By a stroke of luck they also had Austrian-made headstamped brass, and I found some hard cast .318 bullets at a gun show. Shoots just fine. I'd like to hunt with it some time, but probably it will just remain as a wall decoration.
 
Update: I figured that I might reform some .30-06 brass, which turned out to be relatively simple, to add to my stock of ammunition for this rifle. Not wanting to commit all of my small stock of bullets to a particular load before testing it more thoroughly, I pulled out the chronograph and fired another group through it to check both the velocity and zero after adjusting the rear sight. The velocity surprised me, running just under 2600 fps -- which with a 200 grain bullet carries moose and bear stopping power. The three shot group again just spanned two inches, and with the 6-o'clock hold clustered near the center of the bull. The load is 50 grains of CFE223 under the 200 grain .318" Woodleigh RN, LOA about 3.1".

Yessir, this fine old example of a Sako-Mauser may just go hunting soon. Wouldn't it be just cherry to run across a 200-pound boar about 50 yards away?
 
According to Cartridges of the World, performance of your load is a near-exact duplicate of the RWS factory load. The Germans later loaded the 8x60 up to Magnum levels; the hottest version was called the Magnum-Bombe. The book also says Quality Cartridge makes brass; you might want to check them out. I've found a couple of other hard-to-find calibers there.
 
Quality Cartridge makes brass; you might want to check them out.
Good to know. But with the '06 brass I've successfully reformed I now have 40 rounds, which will be more than a lifetime supply for this rifle considering how little I anticipated shooting it. By the way, the '06 brass I reformed was some virgin Sako brass, and I could think of no more fitting way to use it than in a classic Sako from 1953.

I have several editions of Cartridges of the World, but didn't think to consult it for loading data and more or less used the "Braille" method of choosing a load. Glad you pointed CotW out as a source of info.
 
Beautiful wood on that one, and a great price. And, it's an S, so ammo, bullets, and dies will be easier to come by. I wish it was on this side of the border.
Me too! What a great bargain. I'd swap the one I have in a heartbeat for a .323" barrel.
 
Thought about buying it, but I think I'll leave it for someone else...too many other deals on the go.
 
Last edited:
Hi
Very tempting 8x60.
Epps says it is an S but hard to see an S stamped on rifle?
Is it certain this is an S?
Thank you.
 
I would swear that the first time I looked at that ad, it said 8x60S. Now it says .30-06. And the barrel photo does appear to show "x60" but without the S. It will be interesting to see what Epps has to say.
 
But the barrel photo seems to say "60" ... note sent to Epps
Wish I had taken a screen shot of the original posting because I was certain it was represented to be an 8x60S. I agree that the last two characters of the barrel stamp are "60". Will be interesting to see what Epps has to say. Could be a mix up in photos of two similar rifles.
 
Now that you fellows remind me, I too think I saw it as 8x60S first time.

The retailer’s stock number for the Sako FN98 is 147090.

Here is the retailer’s response to my first query:

“I am not certain how the BRNO rifle in which you are interested (SKU #147090) was marked as being chambered for 8x60S. The barrel on this rifle is clearly marked for .30-06 Springfield.
The listing on our website has been adjusted to reflect the proper calibre for this firearm.”

Needless to say that confused me. (The retailer’s stock number for the Brno is actually #147079 … maybe that somewhat similar # contributed to the mixup.)

Anyway, I emailed back and got this response:
“The rifle is a Sako FN98 Hi-Power chambered in .30-06 Springfield, not a BRNO. That mistake was mine. I had a question about a .30-06 BRNO rifle right before your inquiry about the Sako.”

So I reiterated with email 3 that I think the Sako FN98 is an 8x60 and asking whether it is an S or not. No reply yet, and I guess they are closed for the day now.

I am virtually sure the Sako FN98 is an 8x60 of some stripe and I am guessing Epps will reply that they do not know if it is an S or not. And from my very limited knowledge, maybe the Ss were not so stamped anyway?

So nice as it is, because I do like FN98s too, I don’t have the skills to deal with a non-S, so to speak. Or even an S for the matter of that.

(Another outfit in Canada had a couple of Sako FN98s for sale as 8x60 recently and maybe still.)

By the way, Epps is a good company and no doubt it is easy to get mixed up in the volume of used and peculiar rifles they carry.
 
It isn't hard to measure groove diameter with the blades of a decent caliper inserted into the muzzle. I got a consistent reading of .318" on my non-S bore 8x60 (however, you must make sure your blades are sitting in the grooves and not on top of the lands since the land diameter of an "S" bore would approximate the groove diameter of the non-S-bore). This leads me to believe that if a Sako is marked "8x60" without the following "S" then it is a .318 bore.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top