• 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

Looking for Safari info.

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

retpo

Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2009
Messages
9
Location
New York, U.S.A.
Would anyone know if there were variations to the Safari style stock? ie. no dropped box,no checkering, pancake type cheekpiece. Any information would be appreciated. Thank you. - Retpo.
 
No there we not any variations to the Safari style stock, It has a low comb classic style, metal grip cap, oil finish, pachmyr old english recoil pad {NOT SAKO}, and Shadow cheekpiece.

If you go back through the Monthly newsletters you will see pictures and other info.

Sako Finnbear
Sean
Manager
 
Sean, Thanks. I have a Safari stock as you described that I tried to drop in a AV 9.3 B/A. It is cut for a short rear tang and does not have the dropped box profile. It accepts the AV trigger guard and the action length is perfect except for the rear tang. Its a factory inletted stock with a "J" in the bbl. channel and a "O" in the inlett of the TG front tang. It also has one thru bolt where my AV 9.3 has two, an ebony tip and the red plastic insert in the stock for the safety. It aso has no checkering and the old eng. pad is black. Any idea what I have? retpo
 
Maybe it is for the newer L691 action? Either that or maybe an AIII or AIV - the AIV was not made for very long, it was a longer version of the AIII. I will check a couple of my guns to see if I can shed any further light on your problem. I do know that the AIII and AV stocks are different - maybe the tang is the difference.
 
Icebear, thanks for the help. I'm not familar with the AIII or AIV, where would I find info on them.

Sean, I was doing some research thru some old Finnmark newsletters and came across a article which inclded mention about a Sako Safari- the non dropped magazine version. Its written up in the July 1991 Guns Magazine w/photos. I don't have the issue avaible but would love to see and copy the article. I guess there can be any amount of model variations as long as someone produces a variant of that model that was not cataloged. If you should come across the Guns mag . article kindly let me know. I'll keep you posted if new info. turns up
 
I went down to the safe and dug out an AIII and an AV and sure enough, the tang on the AIII is about a quarter inch shorter than the AV, so I would guess that is what your stock is for. The AIII is the predecessor of the AV - it was introduced when Sako changed their designations from L461, L61, etc. to AI, AII, etc. which I think was the early 80's. If you wanted to drop an AV action into the stock, I would think it would be pretty easy to open up the tang area for the longer tang.

The stock sounds extremely unusual - are you sure it is a factory Sako item? I have NEVER seen or heard of a stock escaping the Sako factory without checkering. You see an occasional Pachmayr pad on a factory gun, but that is kind of scarce too. I haven't seen the red plastic insert either. Of course, that's not to say it didn't come from the factory - Sako did all kinds of unusual stuff. One learns to never say never
 
Icebear that sounds about right with the tang. It seems that you could knock out that 1/4" with a half round chisel and it would drop right in.
As far as a factory stock, it has the same machine inletting as my AV 9.3. It looks like English walnut(light color w/nice straight grain), the steel grip cap is a perfect fit, so it dosen't look like the checkering was removed. In the old Sako catalogs about the Safari they all state a rosewood tip, mine looks more like ebony ,blabk with some dk. brn. streaks. The rear swivel base is post w/base, attached w/two screws(like the ones in brownells). I have the red plastic safety(off/on dot) inletted in my AV, so there at least two floating around with this.
The only thing I know about this stock is it came off a Sako .338. I bet if we could find the Guns magazine July '91 it might shed some light on this stock.Thanks for diving into the safe and checking the tangs but it sounds like a labor of love. Regards
 
The tangs on the L61 and AIII actions appear to be the same length. I also seem to recall someone at Fajen telling me that the AIII would take the same stock as an L61, but I can't be 100% sure of that and of course Fajen is no longer around to check it with. Either Stoeger or Jim Lutes could probably tell you for sure.

The AIII was available in the usual long-action calibers, .30-06, .270, 7 mag, and (I think) .25-06 and .300 WinMag. Maybe .375 H&H;, too. I have never seen an AIII in the rarer long-action calibers like 7x57, 7x64, 9.3x62, etc. but that doesn't mean there might not have been a few. The AIII was sold with both conventional and Mannlicher-style stocks.

The AIII wasn't around very long. I do not know why Sako found it necessary to replace it with the AV, nor why they made the tang longer
 
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