• 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 member from the old country

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

Audax

Member
Good evening to all you avid Sako fans. I am only on my second Sako rifle but I have had it for over 30 years .As time progressed, my taste in rifles got heavier and accuracy, as opposed to weight became my major goal. My current Sako, an L579 in 22/250 is a single shot with a heavy barrel.I bought this new in England in the mid 1980's. This rifle was used for target competitions, varmint hunting and deer shooting. The latter use is unusual, but when I bought the rifle, the only rifle calibers allowed to shoot deer in my country(Ireland) were the 22/250 and the 5.6x57 . This rifle has won many competitions and taken many deer. It still groups as well as the day it was first shot.
 
Welcome, Audax!

When you speak of "deer" are you talking about roe, fallow, or reds?
 
The deer in Wicklow are on a spectrum because of interbreeding over the last 150 years. On one end are pure Reds. On the other end are pure Sika, introduced here in the mid nineteenth century. Most are in between as they cross breed very well. I have taken deer from a big herd at over 2000 ft elevation close to forestry plantations. At the sound of the shot, many of the deer run into the wood and the rest run up the mountain. I take this to be the expression of the dominant instinct to run for cover or distance, i.e. Sika versus Red.
 
Welcome Audax. Sounds like a nice rifle - looking forward to some pics.

I would also love to hear more and see some pics of life and hunting on the Emerald Isle.

Marcus
 
I will dig out some pics of rifle and and countryside and compose some words on hunting this weekend.
 
Here are the pics of the rifle in it's current form. Chambered for 22/250 with a shortish heavy barrel with a 1 in 9 twist. It was designed to fire 74 grain RWS soft point bullets originally designed for hunting Chamois deer in the mountains of Europe. It is now mainly used for 3P competitions hence the original stock was swapped for a GRS adjustable stock. The trigger is a german made single set trigger. Unset the weight is 2lb, set, the weight is 4 ozs.


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Pics of the original stock are shown below. The barrelled action was bedded in this stock. This original stock is surplus to requirements and available if anyone wants an L579 heavy barrel stock.


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Nice setup. The GRS stocks intrigue me, but i haven't seen where they offer stocks for older sakos. Did you modify a different model to fit?

I have an AII .308 varmint that might need this..

Gary
 
When I first heard about GRS stocks, I checked if there was an agent in Ireland. There was no agent so I emailed GRS in Norway to see if I could buy direct. They said yes and referred me to an online stock list which showed a brown laminated stock inletted for an L579 which I bought. I have not seen this inlet for sale since.
 
A little more about hunting in Ireland.
As said above, the most frequent deer in the areas I hunt are Red/Sika crossbreeds. The Reds are native and the Sika was introduced from Japan in the mid nineteenth century. Fallow can be found in other parts of the country. We also have a small number of Muntjac deer. We do not have "public" land in the sense you have in the USA. Most of the forestry is owned by a State Owned forestry company who auction the hunting rights to each wood or forest every three years. These are usually bought by groups of hunters or local hunting clubs. these woods can be at elevations from 100 ft up to 2,500 feet . At the low level, the woods are surrounded by farm land, usually for grazing sheep or cattle. At the higher elevations the wood are surrounded by open moors which are owned by local farmers or large estates.The seasons are as follows:
Deer Dublin & Wicklow Kerry All Other Counties
Red Male 1st Sept. to Dec.31st No Season 1st Sept. to Dec.31st
Red Female & Anterless Deer 1st. Nov.to Feb. 28th No Season 1st. Nov.to Feb. 28th
Sika Male 1st Sept. to Dec.31st 1st Sept. to Dec.31st 1st Sept. to Dec.31st
Sika Female & Anterless Deer 1st Nov. to Feb. 28th 1st Nov. to Feb. 28th 1st Nov. to Feb. 28th
Fallow Male 1st Sept. to Dec.31st 1st Sept. to Dec.31st 1st Sept. to Dec.31st
Fallow Female & Anterless Deer 1st Nov to Feb. 28th 1st Nov to Feb. 28th 1st Nov to Feb. 28th
Muntjac Male 1st Sept to Aug. 31st 1st Sept to Aug. 31st 1st Sept to Aug. 31st
Muntjac female 1st Sept to Aug. 31st 1st Sept to Aug. 31st 1st Sept to Aug. 31

*Antlerless deer will be construed as including any male deer without antlers, of less than one year, i.e. a calf

Most deer are shot on the edge of woods so getting permission from farmers who have land near woods is one of the best ways to get access to hunting ground. Most stalking is "walked up" although some hide or high seats are used.

Getting a Firearms license is not easy. If your reason for acquiring a rifle is for hunting then you need to get a deer hunting license from a Government department. To do this you have to show written permission from a farmer who has deer on his land. The local wildlife wardens then check this out before the license is issued. You then go to the police with the license to apply for a gun license. The process takes weeks to months depending on where you live. The most common calibers used are .243,.270 and 6.6x55.

Here are some photos of typical ground for hunting. All of these pics were taken by me within 20 miles of where I live. The first pic is at sea level, on the coast looking west. The hills in the background are where most of my deer hunting was done. Deer can also be found on some of the lower level green fields shown in the foreground. IMG_0492.JPG

The second pic shows high open moor. Stalking here is very like stalking on the highlands of Scotland. The deer can be seen from far off and then time is taken to work out the best approach followed by the stalk. The biggest problem is getting the carcass back to a road!

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This is a pic of a half grown Sika hind. You can see the resemblance to a USA Whitetail. This pic was taken when I was out walking along a path through a nearby "National Monument " , the Glendalough Monastery which dates from the 6th Century. There are many visitors here and the deer are comfortable to come near people. The following pic shows part of the Monastery.

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A typical day hunting in December is to get up at 5:00, get the gear together, drive for 30 to 60 minutes and then walk for a while to get into position as the light is increasing. If nothing shows from the first position, usually chosen because of conditions and previous success, then more walking follows. We would usually stay on the ground until about 11:00am. It is often wet and windy which is good for hunting. The deer will move to the more sheltered positions in the lee of the wind and sounds are disguised by the wind. Crisp, clear sunny days are nice for photos but not so good for hunting. Sika are nocturnal so usually feed at night. Reds are the opposite. As most of our deer are various degrees of hybridisation, then we can expect to see a wide variety of behaviour.
 
Thanks for posting the pics Audax. It's great to get insight into life and hunting in other countries.

Do you have any further details on the German made single set trigger?

Marcus
 
Unfortunately, I do not. It was advertised for sale, to fit Sakos, by a specialist Rifle maker in the UK( T.T. Proctor) in the mid 80's. I was visiting the UK and visited the shop to buy the trigger. I ended up specifying a rifle to attach it to as well. He had a single shot L579 in stock in a 1 in 14 twist. I had him rebarrel to a 1 in 9 , tune the action and bed the new barrel in the stock. I waited a few weeks and when it was ready, I obtained an import license and had it shipped to a gun dealer in Ireland so that I could get it licensed here. All I knew of the trigger was that it was made in Germany. There is no name or number on the trigger housing.
 
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OK. It is inletted as an L579 repeater stock although the action was a single shot. It was also glass bedded by T.T.Proctor of Wilmslow Cheshire. Google him for more info. I can send you more pics if you want.
 
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