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Finnwolf VL63 I need help on the valuation of a Finnwolf...

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

I'm helping a friends family sell off some of their collection and one of the rifles is a Finnwolf. The rifle is in fantastic condition eccept I believe the stock has been shortened and a butt plate added. Any help on the year it was made and a fair valuation would be appreciated.

Pics...















 
They came with a thin butt plate, this one has a ventilated pad, but that doesn't mean it was cut down. Measuring the length of pull will let you know for certain. It's worth much more if the stock hasn't been cut.
 
It appears that the stock has been cut by about the thickness of the recoil pad, leaving the LOP about factory length. This hurts it a little, but the pad installation looks professional and the rifle's condition otherwise appears very, very good. Pricing a gun just by looking at a few photos, and without the caliber or concise description is pretty dicey. Also, how you intend to market it (local classifieds, internet auction site, sell to a dealer, etc.) make a great deal of difference as does the time of year. But the Finnwolf is hot property right now and most in nice condition are trading in the $1,500 range, perhaps a bit more for really nice ones that are all-original.

By the way, your rifle is late production and was labeled at the factory as a "Model 72", however this will not appear anywhere on the rifle. The only difference that I'm aware of between this model and the "regular" VL-63 is checkering pattern which had two-point panels on the M72 and three-point panels on the "regular" rifle.
 
The caliber is .308. I tried to edit that into my original post but I got a spam message every time I tried. The length of pull from the center of the trigger to the end of the wood is 12-3/4". I really like this rifle but I spent all my gun funds on the Colts that they had!
 
12-3/4" sounds a little short on the wood. I'll measure mine when I get a minute. I'm guessing that measurement would be 13-1/8" from the factory.

For all the world the pad actually helps the .308, both for recoil and slippage.

Colts are nice, too!
 
12 3/4" to the end of the wood sounds about right. My factory Finnwolf measures 13 7/8" over the factory buttplate, so with a 1" or 1 .125" thick pad added to 12.75" it would be right at the factory LOP.

It's hard to say, but in a bolt action Forester the .308 is a little more in demand (possibly because more of them were made in .243); the .308 likely moves a little quicker in a Finnwolf, also, but sales are infrequent enough to make that difficult to gauge.
 
The stock unfortunately has been cut - the measurement from trigger to the end of the stock should be right around 13 1/2" - I measured 2 different wolfs - see attached pictures
 

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The stock unfortunately has been cut
Yes, that's what I was saying. It has been cut so that with the pad added back the LOP is essentially the same as factory length. It cannot be restored to original by simply replacing the pad with a factory buttplate. Cutting the stock when the owner wishes to have a recoil pad instead of a hard buttplate is standard practice in order to keep the LOP constant. And yes, as with any modification to a "collectible" gun, it diminishes its collector value to some degree.

However, I suspect that most buyers of the Finnwolf are interested in owning a "shooter" which has some collector interest. For such buyers a professionally installed recoil pad is a minor detraction, if a detraction at all.
 
Come on guys!! A member puts up some pics of a beautiful, pristine "Wolf" that looks like it never got out of a safe & all we do is "dis" it because of a recoil pad (which it needs, IMHO). Only one post said "nice rifle". Sometimes this "collector" thing makes it hard to see the forest for the trees. That's one very nice Finnwolf & that pad wouldn't make me hesitate a bit if I was looking for one. Whatever the "devaluation" is I would consider a savings, as I hate getting punched with a hard buttplate.
 

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