Like many Sako features these two overlapped. There never seemed to be a "bright red line" when one feature stopped and another started since Sako continued to use its parts until all were exhausted even if a slightly different part had been introduced. Thus, barrels marked "Bofors Steel" continued to be used even after Sako quit marking their barrels. And "s" shaped magazine releases kept being used even after the newer release with the pushbutton was introduced. I've seen plenty of Bofors-marked barrels on rifles with pushbutton magazine releases. The same goes for open-centered crossbolt nuts, fixed sling swivels, plastic pistol grip caps, etc., all of which were phased in rather than used in a stop/start manner.
oh yeah, Rick. They certainly did, and if you're lucky enough you may find one with the bear, bison or moose floorplate assembly !
2750 is my guess. I've got #110 with 26" boom stick. Can't remember the other two.....
We just don't know....I know of an anonymous collector that has an NIB L461 Bofors rifle made in 1971. My sample size of rifles that I own is big enough to show all what I've learned: 1) Bofors stamps on L61Rs that have push button FP release, heavy contour barrel (typical from the Garcia era), and without black plastic grip caps. I've got a .270 that has all of these traits, 2) Bofors serial numbers (as I recall) on L461 rifles into the #111,xxx range, L579 in the #79,xxx range, and L61R in the #39,xxx range (just like D2's L61Rs), 3) non-Bofors stamped rifles that DO have the black plastic grip cap (I've got two .222Mags like this), and 4) L46 and L57 rifles with and without the Bofors stamping.
