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.270 question

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

Fubarredz

Active Member
im thinking of buying a sako l61 r sn#502911 what would yall date it? and would yall consider the barrel quality as good as the earlier like like 1968 barrels?
 
Dating a Sako is a guess at best without factory documentation or a hang tag. Sako made a numbering change in 1974 that started with serial number 500001. The stamping change from L61R to AIII occurred in 1978 with serial number 530538. Yours could have been made any time between that period. Why would the barrel quality have changed? Do you know something the rest of us don't?
 
Dating a Sako is a guess at best without factory documentation or a hang tag. Sako made a numbering change in 1974 that started with serial number 500001. The stamping change from L61R to AIII occurred in 1978 with serial number 530538. Yours could have been made any time between that period. Why would the barrel quality have changed? Do you know something the rest of us don't?
 
I have been collecting Sakos for 46 years, and I've owned over 100. I don't own that many now, but I have kept some notes on those which have passed through my hands. Serial numbers are indeed tricky. Here are three examples:
Heavy Barrel .25-06, marked AIII, serial #524066
Sporter .338 Win. Mag., marked AIII, serial #527492, dated 31 March 1978
Sporter .270, marked AIII, serial #530110, dated 10 August 1978.
I regret that I can't say how I arrived at those dates, but I am not in the habit of plucking them out of the air.
 
I know a lot of the pre Garcia barrels are borders steel, and I not sure exactly when they stopped using it is the question I'm asking?
 
Sako stopped using the "Bofors Steel" stamp on their barrels circa 1968 at the insistence of Bofors of Sweden which had never authorized the use of its name. However, there was no change in their barrel steel nor in their method -- hammer forging -- of making their barrels.
 
I have been collecting Sakos for 46 years, and I've owned over 100. I don't own that many now, but I have kept some notes on those which have passed through my hands. Serial numbers are indeed tricky. Here are three examples:
Heavy Barrel .25-06, marked AIII, serial #524066
Sporter .338 Win. Mag., marked AIII, serial #527492, dated 31 March 1978
Sporter .270, marked AIII, serial #530110, dated 10 August 1978.
I regret that I can't say how I arrived at those dates, but I am not in the habit of plucking them out of the air.
Thanks for posting the SN's that show numbers lower than what supposedly was when Sako made the stamping change to AIII. Just another example of Sako's erratic use of numbered actions during the manufacturing process. Makes one wonder how the SN of 530538 was chosen as the stamping change number on the Sako data that gets referenced so often. It is stated that "Please note that these old manufacturing dates are only indicative." NOTHING is certain with Sako, that's for sure. Did your born on dates come from hang tags or some other data source? Please let us know.
 
I have been collecting Sakos for 46 years, and I've owned over 100. I don't own that many now, but I have kept some notes on those which have passed through my hands. Serial numbers are indeed tricky. Here are three examples:
Heavy Barrel .25-06, marked AIII, serial #524066
Sporter .338 Win. Mag., marked AIII, serial #527492, dated 31 March 1978
Sporter .270, marked AIII, serial #530110, dated 10 August 1978.
I regret that I can't say how I arrived at those dates, but I am not in the habit of plucking them out of the air.
Thanks for posting the SN's that show numbers lower than what supposedly was when Sako made the stamping change to AIII. Just another example of Sako's erratic use of numbered actions during the manufacturing process. Makes one wonder how the SN of 530538 was chosen as the stamping change number on the Sako data that gets referenced so often. It is stated that "Please note that these old manufacturing dates are only indicative." NOTHING is certain with Sako, that's for sure. Did your born on dates come from hang tags or some other data source? Please let us know.
I went to my records to answer your question. The dates listed below are those handwritten at the factory on the Stoeger manuals for the AIII. I have changed the European sequence of year/month/day to our system of notation. Out of the eleven AIII rifles I own or have owned, I have factory dates for six of them. With apologies for repeating some of my earlier post, here are six verified factory dates.
AIII Sporter .338 Win. Mag. #527492 31 March 1978
AIII Sporter .270 Win. #530110 10 August 1978
AIII Sporter 7mm Rem. Mag. #537896 29 November 1979
AIII Sporter .30-06 #538690 15 November 1979
AIII Classic 7mm Rem. Mag. #543339 5 May 1980
AIII Deluxe .30-06 #549985 11 June 1980
If one didn't know how erratic Sako serial numbers can be, one would almost surely think that #538690 was made after #537896, but the higher number was manufactured 2 weeks earlier than the lower number.
 
Chaucer: Thanks for the hang tags dates on your A-series rifles. The inconsistencies are at least consistent with the inconsistencies of the earlier L-series that the Club has in its copy of factory records from the late 1940's to the early 1970's.

No one is quite sure why Sako's serial numbers are so far from chronological order although I've seen (and hypothesized myself) a number of theories behind the somewhat random numbering.
 
The SN for the AIII stamp change of 530538 was dated March 6, 1978. So far, all the AIIIs, that I have seen dates on with lower serial numbers than 530538 have been dated as after March 6th. So, would it be safe to assume that any rifle stamped AIII was made after March 6th, regardless what it's serial number is? Is it also true that rifles stamped L61R also left the factory well after March 6, 1978, possibly as late as 1980?
 
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