Things that keeps me awake at night... Which models of Sakos came with the Bofors barrels? And during what time period? Where they made in all calibers or just some?
Sako stamped all their barrels with the Bofors stamp for nearly a decade. It stopped around 1968, but there is evidence of some as late as 1969/70, as with Sako nothing started or stopped abruptly on a certain date. It is believed that the threat of legal action from Bofors, a Swedish steel maker, is what ended the practice. However, the steel used after the Bofors mark ended did not change. The Bofors stamp has an importance to some collector's & to others it means very little.
Sako was not the only gunmaker to use Bofors steel for their barrels. The Danish gunmaker Schultz & Larsen did so for their centerfire hunting rifles built between about 1954 and 1970, and I imagine several other European companies did as well. I'd guess Husqvarna would be one of these.
I believe the Tikka -- which had no connection with Sako at the time other than being located in the same country -- put "Bofors" on some of its barrels during the 1960's.
I've got LSA deluxe models in 6mm, 25-06 and a .30-06 NIB with "Bofors" barrels. I've shot the .25-06 quite a bit and it shoots VERY well. Really tight and accurate groups. DeerGoose
That question is impossible to answer. The club has factory records within certain serial number ranges, so if your rifle falls within that range you can request data by clicking on Factory Records Service in the upper left of this page in the black bar. Otherwise, it's nearly impossible to precisely date a Sako as they did not make rifles in sequential order with the serial number. If your rifle is a L579 we know that it was introduced in 1959 & the Bofors stamping ended around 1969, so it was made sometime in that decade. Lot's of threads here about dating a Sako you can peruse to learn details. Good place to start is the "similar threads" box just below my post.
Wow DG !! A Deluxe LSA 25-06 with a bofors marked barrel. You're going to have me looking for that mythical 25-06 bofors marked Sako after many years of believing they don't exist just because Remington introduced the 25-06 about 2 years after Sako quit applying the bofors mark to their barrels. Yet LSA apparently continued stamping bofors on their barrel until at least 1971 when the 25-06 was introduced. I guess the rift between Sako and the Bofors steel maker was not extended to LSA. We should remember that Sako didn't stop using Bofors steel when they stopped stamping it on the barrel, Sako merely stopped stamping the barrels with "Bofors Steel". They continued using bofors steel barrels until 1974 or so, they just didn't stamp the barrel. So there are a lot of Sako 25-06's that have bofors steel barrels.....just not stamped. I think you and I should keep looking for that bofors marked 25-06 Sako, miracles have happen before.
Does anybody really know what happened that Bofors went after Sako for stamping "Bofors" on barrels that were made from Bofors steel? You would think they would be happy for the free advertising. Maybe it was one of those corporate lawyer things where the lawyers overcome common sense (and sometimes human decency). Like the time Sony sued a Filipino-American woman named Sonia for naming her restaurant "Sony's." (Sony is a common Filipino diminutive for Sonia.) I used to buy all Sony electronics; I haven't bought anything Sony since I saw that.
One of the reasons why I never bought into the lawsuit claim. Does anybody have documentation on it? I just believe Sako got lazy and quit the stamping because they were cranking out the rifles to meet market and distributor demand, but that's just me. Tikka stamped their barrels Bofors well into the 1970s. My collection proves this. good discussion topic here, gents! DeerGoose
I have never seen any documentation or evidence that a lawsuit ever was filed or that any formal legal action was taken related to the Bofors stamp on Sako barrels. To those that claim there was a lawsuit, I would be elated to see any evidence that would resolve the mystery. Otherwise, those claims are merely unsubstantiated, misleading conjecture. The speculation that some kind of rift between Bofors & Sako has been persistent for almost 50 years, so it's likely some type of disagreement, demand or threat of legal action lead to Sako discontinuing the stamping. What exactly happened may be lost to history & remain a source of speculation. It may be as simple as Bofors trying to get some type of royalty for their name being used & Sako saying "go stick it, we will just stop the stamp". Regardless, it couldn't have been too big of a fight, as Sako continued to use Bofors steel for several years after that. I doubt Sako would continue using a product from a company that had caused them any great hardship. Just my two cents!
Another possibility just occurred to me. It could be that Sako and Bofors never had any dispute, and Sako made a marketing decision to discontinue the Bofors marking. Sweden and Finland have generally had friendly relations, but there have been tensions from time to time, and there is still some lingering resentment within Finland over the former political, economic, and cultural dominance of the Swedish-speaking Finns, which lasted well into the 20th century. It could be that Sako decided it was not good PR with their domestic clientele to advertise a Swedish product on their rifles. This is pure speculation on my part, but it is based on having lived in Finland and getting the news in Finnish every day for a couple of years. I'd still love to hear from anybody who has any actual, documented knowledge of what happened that caused Sako to stop stamping their barrels Bofors when they were still using Bofors steel.
