• 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

Found: my "holy grail"!

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misako50

misako50

Sako-addicted
Joined
Feb 7, 2009
Messages
3,645
Location
Middle USA
I recently found and purchased a first year production model L579 The serial number is 10172. According to the production info on the Sako/Fi website, it is one of the first 90 L579s made. The reason it is my holy grail is that it posseses the wide bottom metal that is found on some deluxe models but I haven't seen it on the standards until this. The rifle also has a one piece mag box and trigger guard and a flat bottom bolt handle that is checkered. The wood is very pretty, reminiscent of the L57s. The serial number is smootly stamped and the rifle is in very good condition for it's age of 48 yrs. I will add a picture to the bottom metal album. Enjoy.- Mike
 
Her is a shot of the serial number. I might also add that the barrel is "Bofors" marked and the cal. is .243 Win.
 
Misako50

Very nice indeed. Is this a .243 Forester? I'll be mailing you some pics later of my .308 Forester and will welcome all and any comments about anything that these pics reveal to you. Keep safe!
 
Misako, what you have is a L57/579 hibred. Go to page 7 of the pictures and look at Rick's old 308.....my 308 is your rifle's brother. The trigger guard, catch, floorplate and bolt handle are all left over L57 parts. The 9 in the L579 should also be hand stamped after the L57 and has a slightly different font. The front sight cover on mine is also L57 vintage. Interesting piece of Sako history. Regards, Rick.
 
Rick- I'm not trying to split hairs here, but the bottom metal is flatter than the fishbellied L57. The serial number stamping is smoothly done and identicle to the deluxes and standards in my collection. The stock is streamlined and identicle in build to a 1964 vintage forester that I have with the exception of the width of the bottom metal inletting and the quality of the wood. I can't argue the influence of the L57 but this rifle is not a hybrid. The thing that sets it apart is the width of the bottom metal. I have only seen this on deluxes from 1961 to 1967 vintage. There has to be more like this one out there.-Regards, Mike
 
Deergoose- I can't tell you for a few days. I shipped it to my brother in New Mexico so he could play with it for a while. I'll ask him to look and I'll post it when I catch him. What is the significance? If I had to guess with some degree of recall, I think it said Forester Made in Finland and Bofors steel on the other side. The trigger hasn't been adjusted on it which seems strange to me. The rifling looks about 70% and the action is smooth with a tight lockup. The bolt handle differs from my 10xxx deluxe in that it is checkered on the bottom and the deluxe is smooth. The one thing that I could tell if I went blind is that it feels like an L579 when I put it to my shoulder or just pick it up. Regards, Mike
 
Roger that, Mike. One more thing to check is the checkering, or lack thereof, on the rear of the bolt assembly/cocking piece. You may have just linear grooves cut in, and not fine checkering. I saw a .308 very similiar to yours and Rick's at a northern Virginia gun show a couple of years ago. Not sure about the bottom metal. I'm kicking myself now for not buying the dang thing, and it would have cost me about 12 Benji's. As I recall, the rifle also lacked the stock recoil crossbolt.

One of my latest kicks is the markings on these "transition" medium action Sakos. I've got an L57 and L579 with just "Forester" marked on the left side of the barrel, and "Made in Finland" on the right side receiver. Very similar to the "Made in Finland" markings on the Riihimaki's. Looking to see if your early L579 is marked this way. Just curious at this point.

DeerGoose
 
Hello Goose. No, I bought it from a dealer in New Mexico who was clueless....paid 700 dollars for it unfired! My action is a left over L57 action because the number 9 is out of align and a different font. It does not have a recoil lug. The flat bolt handle, floorplate and trigger guard is a mixture of parts. The butt pad is a Riihimake era pad as it has the initials on it.

Mike, you have a hybred...that flat bolt handle is a L57. Does the butt pad have small initials on it in the 10 and 2 o'clock position? You rifle was checkered by the same guy that did mine and has a wrap around the grip design I have never seen on a Sako. You also need to check the top of the bolt shroud....if it has diagonal lines then the entire bolt is an L57. If it has hatch marks, then the bolt is hybred as well. Looking at the pictures your guard and floorplate look like an L57 version. In just 2 years, Sako changed the floorplate, guard and catch release at least 3 times. In 1962 they must have found a box of them in the plant as I have seen a 308 with the same configuration which I passed on because the scope pads were ruined by a Redfield mount. As stated many times on this forum....with Sako, anything is possible. I visited the factory in 1978 and the place was disorganized as could be. They were converting to the Stoeger era rifles and the manager told me they would use up all the parts on hand before the new style appeared. Sure enough, I own a Stoeger era rifle in '06 that is marked and looks exactly like a Garcia import shroud and all. The only thing different is that it has deluxe wood. I wished I could find some more of them as they are the prettiest Sakos ever made. By the way, does anyone know the difference between a L57 and a L579? I was told by Jim that the safety and trigger parts were changed....apparently, there were a lot of part failures on safetys in the L57....anything else? Regards, Rick
 
Rick- The bolt handles on my L57s and the L57 coltsman have round handles that are large and have holes in them. They are nothing like the bolt handles on the standard and deluxe foresters, old, that I have spoken about in this thread. L57s have a different thread patern than the L579s in regard to barrels; 17 TPI and 16TPI respectively. The buttplates on the L57s are not a fit to the L579 stock, they are close but a bit larger. I have the stock here so I know at this point. The small sako initials are at 10 and 2 as you said. You may call my rifle whatever you choose, but I will call it an early L579 standard forester. Best, Mike
 

Misako50 You are right in the first addition of Bolt action rifles you could see that the L57 was the only one of Sako rifles with a different thread the rest of them are all the same.Regards Fred
 
Fred- I always seem to find these things out the hard way. I wish I would have had that book when I bought a replacement barrel for a L57 and found it wouldn't work. Deergoose- The barrel has "Forester Made in Finland" stamped on the left side and "Bofors Steel" on the right. Best to all, Mike
 
Deergoose- The cocking piece on the forester is finely checkered like the bolt handle bottom. The deluxe "old" that my grandson now has has lines cut in it.Goes back to Sakos were the closest thing to having a custom grade gun from a factory line. Later- Mike
 
Hello Misako. My 308 has the parallel groves on the top of the bolt shroud and yours is checkered. Your rifle is much closer to a L579 than mine, however, it still has many L57 and Riihimaki features. Whatever it is, you found a beauty that's for sure. Regards, Rick.
 
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