Sako M78 project

[Dee Wallace]

I have a M78 .22 mag that was underwater in Hurricane Harvey and the action survived with little damage but the barrel was very damaged, rusty inside and out. Does anyone know of a gunsmith to rebarrel? I am wondering about while doing this, maybe go with .22 Hornet. Any thoughts or advice would be helpful.

 

[cl_leg]

17hmr, thinking the 22hornet wont work.

 

[stonecreek]

While Sako built the Hornet on the Model 78 action, it would probably take extensive reworking to make the Hornet work in the rimfire version. Just getting the firing pin from the edge to the center of the bolt face would be problem enough, but finding or making a magazine, etc., would seem to make such a conversion totally impractical. However, there's no reason that the .17 HMR wouldn't work fine -- and you'd have about the only one on a Sako 78 action.