• 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

Calling all customs!

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

The same is true in photography. Outside the studio, fixed-focal-length lenses are an endangered species, except for special-purpose lenses. They have pretty much gone the way of Kodachrome. (I still have my Nikon F and lenses to go with it, but I'm a dinosaur.) The move to zooms is partially because the quality of zoom lenses has increased so much in the past 30 years or so. This is also the case with scopes; back in the day people had real worries that variable scopes would break or lose their seal and ruin a hunt. These days, that's not an issue if you have a high-quality variable. But for most shooting, most of the time, most shooters hardly ever touch the power ring. Personally, I can go either way. I'm happy to put a fixed power scope on a rifle if it's appropriate, but I'm not going to turn down a Meopta 3-12x for $500 either.
 
Here is today's installment. It's an L579, rebarreled in .358 Winchester by Atkinson & Marquart of Prescott, Arizona. A&M were highly regarded builders in the early 1970's; they provided the barrels for the Sako-based O'Brien .17-caliber varmint rifles. The firm dissolved in acrimony in the mid-70's when Marquart accused Atkinson of using the firm's name and equipment for a personal side venture. The resulting lawsuit went all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court, which found in favor of Marquart.

The .358 Winchester cartridge never caught on, nor did its rimmed sibling the .356. The .358 is a .308 necked up to .35 caliber, as the .35 Whelen is a necked-up .30-06. It's an excellent round for bears, moose, mule deer, etc. at moderate ranges.

The rifle is a recent acquisition. I've seen a number of Sako rifles converted to .358, but never went for one until I saw this one with its well-figured walnut stock. I'm a sucker for nice wood. The gun has obviously seen quite a bit of use. The oil finish is worn and yellowed, with numerous dings and scratches. The stock is basically sound, though, and features finely executed flat-top borderless checkering. A good refinishing job should bring it back nicely.

This gun has been full of surprises, good and bad. In the bad category, when I removed the scope I discovered that somebody had drilled the dovetail bases and scope rings for completely unnecessary alignment pins to keep the rings in place. It's highly unlikely that this happened at A&M - the work is sloppy, and anyone who knew as much about Sakos as those two guys would have told the customer that it was a bad idea. This Bubba job ruined the appearance of the checkered scope mount bases. but it can be hidden under the mounts. I currently have a scope mounted in Sako rings on the gun, but I'm thinking of installing a Conetrol setup, which will completely cover the butchered parts. The other bad news is that the gun won't feed roundnose soft points. It will, however, feed pointed soft points just fine, so I'll just use the roundnose ammo at the range, one round at a time. The feed ramp has been modified, and it looks like somebody went at it after it left A&M as the surface is kind of lumpy. I'll try to smooth it out when I get time.

I took it out a couple of days ago and fired a few rounds to zero the scope at 25 yards. Recoil wasn't bad and I'm optimistic that it will perform well at 100 (hopefully next Friday). I replaced the 4x Lyman All American that came attached to the rifle with a 2-7x Leupold compact that had been lurking at the bottom of my box of scopes. That strikes me as a good match to the .358, which is basically a short to medium range round for large animals. I considered a 3x Weaver, but the only one I have is a bit cloudy and needs an internal cleaning.

If I like the way the rifle performs, I'll most likely strip and refinish it, and add a bit of stain to darken the color. I'll use tung oil, which doesn't turn yellow like linseed. A new recoil pad is also part of the plan. I'll need to buff out the scratches and reblue the floorplate and trigger guard. The banded front sight will most likely come off; the builder probably intended it to be used with a Sako peep but with the mess on the action bridges, I'd say iron sights are out of the question. I don't think that damage is repairable. Here are some photos of the gun with the original 4x Lyman scope. The actual color of the wood is somewhat lighter and yellower than it appears in the photos.

358-1.JPG 358-2.JPG 358-3.JPG 358-4.JPG 358-9.JPG
358-6.JPG 358-8.JPG

Here is the mess that a previous owner made by drilling the bridges for aligning pins. The holes aren't even centered. Also you can see where some half-baked attempt was made to secure the front ring with pins on the sides. The next picture shows the rings as received. The last two photos show the rings after I repaired them by grinding off the pins and replacing the damaged clamping pieces on the front ring. Fortunately, I had some ring parts stashed away in case of need. While I was at it, I cleaned up and cold-blued the clamping nuts. I also discovered that the ring screw holes had been re-tapped for inch-pattern screws in place of the original M3.5.
Scope Base.JPG scope rings.JPG
Rings fixed 1.JPG Rings fixed 2.JPG
 
Like the layout of the forearm checkering. Might try to dup that on a stock that needs checkered. The 358 Win is a sweet hunting round. I used to have a browning BLR chambered for it. Too bad it won't feed the round nose bullets as they really put the smack on stuff.
 
Since Paulson opened the door to customs other than Sakos, here's a comission that just got completed for me a couple of months ago. Not Finnish in origin, it hails from a bit farther south...from what was then Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). Brno has been a stalwart name in the rifle world for donkey's years and many a young professional hunter in Africa began his career carrying one.

This began as an in-the-box '80s vintage rifle and I picked it up as an opportunity to create a true, Mauser-actioned "walking varminter" albeit one that looked more like a bespoke magazine rifle for dangerous game. The .223 chambering would allow me to shoot it comfortably (and cheaply) all year long, without worrying about detached retinas and loosened dental work.

Aaron Little (of AM Little Bespoke Gunmakers LLC) really worked his magic here. He straightened and filled the bolt handle, tuned the action where it would both feed AND eject (it did neither reliably), fitted a three position safety, polished and blued the barrel and action, fitted a beautiful piece of walnut (adding a skeleton grip cap and Niedner butt plate). Checkering is 26 LPI.

What began as a clunky, rough, unwieldy piece now looks like a super-model and handles like a five weight fly rod.

Nmv5sEFl.jpg


Vfabqf9l.jpg


tb1tnpsl.jpg


fa8qmFul.jpg
 
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Since Paulson opened the door to customs other than Sakos, here's a comission that just got completed for me a couple of months ago. Not Finnish in origin, it hails from a bit farther south...from what was then Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). Brno has been a stalwart name in the rifle world for donkey's years and many a young professional hunter in Africa began his career carrying one.

This began as an in-the-box '80s vintage rifle and I picked it up as an opportunity to create a true, Mauser-actioned "walking varminter" albeit one that looked more like a bespoke magazine rifle for dangerous game. The .223 chambering would allow me to shoot it comfortably (and cheaply) all year long, without worrying about detached retinas and loosened dental work.

Aaron Little (of AM Little Bespoke Gunmakers LLC) really worked his magic here. He straightened and filled the bolt handle, tuned the action where it would both feed AND eject (it did neither reliably), fitted a three position safety, polished and blued the barrel and action, fitted a beautiful piece of walnut (adding a skeleton grip cap and Niedner butt plate. Checkering is 26 LPI.

What began as a clunky, rough, unwieldy piece now looks like a super-model handles like a five weight fly rod.

Nmv5sEFl.jpg


Vfabqf9l.jpg


tb1tnpsl.jpg


fa8qmFul.jpg
Only one word comes to mind....Wow !!
 
Absolutely stunning Cowboy!! Is that a custom trigger as well? Possibly a single set trigger? Love that grip cap!!

Thanks! That is a factory Brno single set trigger. Very distinctive. Some would say ugly, others say utilitarian...definitely distinctive. If you see that trigger, you know it's a Brno.
 
Since Paulson opened the door to customs other than Sakos, here's a comission that just got completed for me a couple of months ago. Not Finnish in origin, it hails from a bit farther south...from what was then Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). Brno has been a stalwart name in the rifle world for donkey's years and many a young professional hunter in Africa began his career carrying one.

This began as an in-the-box '80s vintage rifle and I picked it up as an opportunity to create a true, Mauser-actioned "walking varminter" albeit one that looked more like a bespoke magazine rifle for dangerous game. The .223 chambering would allow me to shoot it comfortably (and cheaply) all year long, without worrying about detached retinas and loosened dental work.

Aaron Little (of AM Little Bespoke Gunmakers LLC) really worked his magic here. He straightened and filled the bolt handle, tuned the action where it would both feed AND eject (it did neither reliably), fitted a three position safety, polished and blued the barrel and action, fitted a beautiful piece of walnut (adding a skeleton grip cap and Niedner butt plate). Checkering is 26 LPI.

What began as a clunky, rough, unwieldy piece now looks like a super-model and handles like a five weight fly rod.

Nmv5sEFl.jpg


Vfabqf9l.jpg


tb1tnpsl.jpg


fa8qmFul.jpg
That is spectacular. One of the best-looking pieces of walnut I've ever seen, and the workmanship is worthy of the material. Those skeleton grip caps are hard to fit - I've never had the nerve to try it, and I'm pretty adventurous about that sort of thing. The checkering is the work of a master. I love the little details like the rounded borders on the pistol grip. I may try to emulate that on a gun I'm building now. Your smith is a true craftsman.

I see you're using the same Warne QD mounts that I have on my CZ .22 Hornet. They are great; the CZ has nice sights and I sometimes like to take the scope off for some open-sight target practice. My CZ has also had issues with feeding and ejection, but I always assumed it was because of the tiny rimmed cartridge in an action designed for much bigger, rimless cartridges. I wonder what your smith did to fix the problem. By trial and error, I finally discovered that I could get reliable feeding and ejection by slamming the bolt rather than stroking it in a more normal way.
 
No flies on that Pete - shoots extremely well! Looks like you use a mirage shield when shooting at the range?

Marcus
A mirage shield is a lovely way to describe a piece of old ventian blind :) but it does make a difference. That rifle now also sports a Jard 12oz trigger which I find to be better than the original Sako trigger.

I am currently putting together a custom Sako L461 Varmint 222 and looking at all these really great custom rifles has given me some good ideas.

Pete
 
For those interested......

The 20VT, 20 VarTarg burst onto the small caliber world in the late 80's or early 90's.......also known as the 20 Varmint-Target. The 222 based variant is the 20VTT aka the 20 VarTarg Turbo.

These two cartridges are the creation of Todd Kindler....The Woodchuck Den, Baltic, Ohio.

Hope this helps.
 
Paulson
Here you are, closeups of all four checkered panels. The color on these photos is much closer to the actual color of the wood than the original photos. You can see an ugly scrape on the right forend; I should be able to fix or at least minimize that when I refinish the rifle. The rest of the checkering is in pretty good shape.

The stockmaker appears to have chosen straight angles at the front of the forend panel to match the slant of the forend tip, rather than echo the S-curve at the rear. If I were checkering this pattern, I might just decide to do the S-curve at the front as well, especially if the rifle in question didn't have a contrasting forend tip.

358-chk-fe-l.JPG 358-chk-fe-r.JPG 358-chk-pg-l.JPG 358-chk-pg-r.JPG
 
Icebear: I agree on doing the front of the forearm layout with the curve. I think doing the bottom of the grip panel to match might be attractive as well. I'll be posting the rifle in question on this thread, as it is a custom & as it is not intended to be all that fancy, I am considering just a simple single line border. After I post pics your input is welcome.
 
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This custom is not a Sako, but I thought it's unique caliber & having a suppressor might be of interest to members. It started as a CZ 527 "Lux", but I never took to the the Bavarian style buttstock & bulbous front sight, so I put it in a CZ factory "American" stock & rebarreled it with a 22 K-Hornet chamber. Smith I used botched the job, so I stopped by James Calhoon's place outside of Havre, MT on a trip to the Missouri Breaks country. James makes 22 cal bullets that I use & also offers rifles, built in three 19 caliber (.198") wildcats he developed. He will also customize your CZ to one of his wildcats. I chose the Hornet based 19 Calhoon. He installed a Benchmark SS medium sporter barrel I would guess is about a #3 contour, pillar bedded the action, & tune the trigger to 2# unset & 8oz when "set". I cut the barrel from 23" to 20" when Iowa allowed suppressors a few years ago & threaded it to 1/2"x28. We are having a stretch of nice weather (mid 50's) for December so I went to my range @ Hawkeye Bottoms yesterday to confirm zero. With suppressor it makes less noise than a 22 LR rifle unsuppressed. Little cartridge is just too much fun & all I can say is "Say your prayers, varmints". Threw in a pic of the range. The reason everything looks new is it all got wiped out in the Great Missouri River flood in 2019. Somebody down stream got a nice shooting bench! Tilled areas either side of grass strip are where I plant sunflowers for doves & other animal goodies. If anybody has any questions about the Calhoon wildcats or the suppressor, PM me & I'll share what I know.

CZ 19 Calhoon.jpg CZ 19 calhoon suppressed.jpg CZ 19 Calhoon at range.jpg
 

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This custom appears to have started life as an L57 Montgomery Wards EIN760 .243 Winchester -- at least that's what the barrel is. I can't say for sure since I bought it from a dealer who had no knowledge of its provenance.

The stock is well-done with some beautiful grain and very fine-line checkering. However, the most unique thing about it is that it has genuine Sako bottom metal engraved in France which Firearms International sold as aftermarket upgrades during the era of the L57.

My photos of the bottom metal are a bit out-of-focus (pardon the decade-old camera technology), but as you can see, it is deep relief and very tastefully (if such engraving is to your taste) done. There are some better photos of the floorplate in this very old thread: https://sakocollectors.com/forum/threads/l57-factory-deep-relief-engraving.6493/#post-28012

Since I shoot LH and it has a roll-over RH cheekpiece I've never shot it. But I have two grandsons who are right-handers, so maybe some day I'll have it rebarreled to something classic like .250 Savage.

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If you ever rebarrel it & want to "dress up" that beautiful wood, give me a shout. Floorplate adds a nice touch without overpowering the rest of the rifle. In my next life I want to be your grandson!!
 
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