• 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

Short Actions An Interesting Oddity on GB

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

icebear

Sako-addicted
Gunbroker currently has an auction for an L46 heavy barrel that was originally a .218 Bee but has been rechambered for .218 Mashburn Bee. It looks pretty good overall, but some idiot drilled the bridges for flat-base Weaver mounts and mounted some kind of junk Tasco scope in the old-style Weaver rings with the strap that hooks in one side and has two screws on the other.

The .218 Mashburn Bee is a blown-out .218 Bee, sort of like a .22 Kilbourn Hornet is to a .22 Hornet. Like the K-Hornet, you can fire regular .218 Bee ammo in a Mashburn and it will fireform to the chamber, thereby making your brass for reloading. Unlike the K-Hornet, however, the Mashburn Bee is very blown-out, yielding performance in the .222 range (according to Cartridges of the World, which is not always an accurate guide). The Mashburn is said to be as accurate as the original.

Current bid is pretty cheap, in the $6-700 range, reflecting the rechambering plus the obvious defects. I thought about bidding on it but I've got too many projects going as it is; all I need is another wildcat cartridge to load for! But is is kind of intriguing in its own odd way. There are ways of covering up the drilled bridges, which is the biggest negative apart from the wildcat cartridge.

Anyhow, if you want to see for yourself, here's a link.
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/829128814
 
Dovetails have also been drilled and tapped further reducing the value. I love wildcats especially when they are built on a Sako L46 or L461. That said when the modifications violate common sense issues like drilling the dovetails I usually back far away from the deal because you never know that other things have been mucked up.

rick
 
Redfield/Burris bases and rings are the best cure for drilled dovetails as they cover the holes completely. The holes are a bit like the framing mistake the framers made in a room addition I once did where the wallboard lacked an inch lapping on one stud. I told the finisher to just scab another stud onto the one that was there: "No one will know it's under there but you and me and in a week I'll have forgotten."
 
Just looked at the photos. The stock is non-original and is for a late model heavy barrel Sako, not an early L46 sporter. It also has extra holes in the rear bridge for a receiver sight -- which would have required the original stock to be altered, which may be why the (wrong) replacement stock is on it. Together with the extra holes and rechambering job (which may or may not be properly done), this one is a real shame and waste of a scarce L46 .218 Bee.
 
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Gunbroker currently has an auction for an L46 heavy barrel that was originally a .218 Bee but has been rechambered for .218 Mashburn Bee. It looks pretty good overall, but some idiot drilled the bridges for flat-base Weaver mounts and mounted some kind of junk Tasco scope in the old-style Weaver rings with the strap that hooks in one side and has two screws on the other.

The .218 Mashburn Bee is a blown-out .218 Bee, sort of like a .22 Kilbourn Hornet is to a .22 Hornet. Like the K-Hornet, you can fire regular .218 Bee ammo in a Mashburn and it will fireform to the chamber, thereby making your brass for reloading. Unlike the K-Hornet, however, the Mashburn Bee is very blown-out, yielding performance in the .222 range (according to Cartridges of the World, which is not always an accurate guide). The Mashburn is said to be as accurate as the original.

Current bid is pretty cheap, in the $6-700 range, reflecting the rechambering plus the obvious defects. I thought about bidding on it but I've got too many projects going as it is; all I need is another wildcat cartridge to load for! But is is kind of intriguing in its own odd way. There are ways of covering up the drilled bridges, which is the biggest negative apart from the wildcat cartridge.

Anyhow, if you want to see for yourself, here's a link.
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/829128814
It's a sporter barrel glassed into a varmint barrel channel. The barreled action & the stock are at least 8 years apart & the part of the stock that would cover where the two side holes are drilled has been cut off. It's current bid is probably close to what you could part it out for. The magazine, bolt & bottom metal are where the value lies, although the bolt face will only fit the Bee or a 25-20. Stock may be of interest to someone in need of a "usable" piece of wood, but you would have to rout out the bedding compound in the channel to fit a Varmint model. Barrel has little value. Mutilated action body not worth much more. Trigger & bolt stop/release are good parts to have on hand. Scope, bases & rings should be discarded. If it goes very much higher then the bidder is in dire need of the parts or doesn't know what he is bidding on. It has many more negatives than just the extra drilled holes. Will be interesting to watch!
 
It's a sporter barrel glassed into a varmint barrel channel.
Good eye. I didn't look at it that closely, just saw the beavertail forend on the stock and figured it for an HB. If somebody had an L46 stock lying around, or an old Fajen semi-finished blank for an L46, it would make an interesting project for a custom shooter. Leave the barrel on, cover up the dovetails with any of half a dozen mounting systems, and you'd have a shooter in an oddball wildcat caliber. That is, of course, if there aren't more hidden defects. A lot of the work screams "amateur" or even "Bubba," so that adds a risk factor. As I mentioned earlier, I will not be a bidder on this thing.
 
I see where the bid has jumped to $750 with 3 days left. That's about what I figure it's max parts value is. That 218 magazine could be what they are fightin' over.
 
I see where the bid has jumped to $750 with 3 days left. That's about what I figure it's max parts value is. That 218 magazine could be what they are fightin' over.
You maybe correct Paulson, looks like the high bidder last four purchases on GB have been spares parts or spare parts guns, a stock and polishing compound from the our friend in Montana.
 
Saw another Sako wildcat on GB last night, an L61R Finnbear in .30-06 Ackley Improved. Looked pretty grungy. I'm not having any, thank you very much.
 

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