Stoeger?

[Guest]

When they say it is a Stoeger Sako what does this mean?

 

[Guest]

In the United States, the Sako line has been imported by four different companies: Firearms International (until 1972), Garcia (appx 1972-1978), Stoeger (the publishers of Shooter's Bible, 1979-early 1990s), and currently Beretta, USA.

Thus, a "Stoeger" Sako is one imported by Stoeger. You will frequently run across the term "pre-Garcia", which simply means a Sako imported prior to Garcia's era.

Interestingly, the Blue Book (Fjestad) has an erroneous reference to an importer called "Rymack". How this came about is a mystery, but there was never such an importer and it appears that someone editing the Blue Book confused the term stamped on the early L-46 series, Riihimaki (for the city of origin), with the importer. Considering how notoriously inaccurate this publication is with Sako models and prices, this mistake is not surprising.

Most, but not all, Sakos were marked with the name of the importer etched on the underside of the barrel just in front of the forearm. On Mannlicher models, the importer name was sometimes stamped on the upper side of the barrel.