North America Arms (Canada) Sakos

[stonecreek]

I had always assumed that the North America Arms "Grizzly" was built in Canada with a non-Sako stock and barrel -- and perhaps they were. But in reviewing the Sako Factory Records while doing a search request for a member I came across 30 L579 fully finished rifles in .308 which were shipped to "North America Arms Corp, Ltd." These were shipped on 30 April 1961. There is no way to know if these were specially marked or varied from the regular production Sakos, or if they were simply regular Sakos imported by NAAC for wholesale or retail purposes.

How about it? Would our friends from the Great North have any more information?

 

[icebear]

Very interesting. Hope our members in Canada can provide some information.

 

[wjklassen]

Ontario Out of Doors magazine published a two-page article I wrote about NAACO firearms for the January - February 2023 issue, based on my own research and my collection of a couple dozen NAACO firearms. Two of those were centerfire rifles. One of those, if I recall correctly (I've since donated my collection to the Canadian Heritage Arms Museum), was a .308 Winchester built on an L579 Sako action. The barrel was marked "Grizzly" and had the North America Arms Corp name stamped on it. NAACO had a barrel-manufacturing plant in Toronto during the company's short life, 1958-62. The company built complete .22 caliber rifles and made barrels for Sako and FN actions, as well as for ManuFrance shotgun actions. The second NAACO centerfire rifle I had was in .30-06, built on an FN action with a Sako trigger group. NAACO contracted with a stock maker in southern Ontario for fairly plain stocks - walnut and maple - for their .22 rifles and high quality walnut stocks with hand-cut checkering for their centerfire rifles.

NAACO was able to claim their firearms were "made in Canada" because of the barrels and stocks. At least some of the shotgun and rifle barrels were made at the Toronto plant. However, I believe that the single shot shotguns which they marketed were rebranded Savage single shots (Model 94s, I believe), so it may well be possible that NAACO also imported complete Sako rifles and simply put their name on them.

I was unable to find any archival records for the company. When the company went bankrupt in 1962 it appears that Globe Firearms Ltd of Ottawa, Ontario obtained at least some of the remaining .22 rifle components inventory, selling .22s identical to the NAACO models, the only difference being the Globe name on the barrels.

NAACO also built firearms, .22s and center fire rifles, for the T. Eaton's Ltd. company - a mail order catalogue and department store chain - which sold them under their TruLine brand name.

 

[stonecreek]

Thanks for that extensive report on NAACO.

Since their time in business spans the transition from the L57 to the L579 I assume that some of the "Grizzlies" were built on each action?

 

[wjklassen]

I note that member MDKNBCA bought an Eaton's TruLine with an L57 action in 2018. Member NPhillips appears also have purchased one such in 2019. As mentioned, these TruLine Model 100 rifles were built for Eaton's by NAACO.