Value and Rarity of a Sako P72

[gunner620]

Since we're talking about CZ rim fires I have a 452 and a 453 22 long rifle and they both shoot tiny little groups. Some don't like the safety as it is the reverse of most . I can handle that and as you say the price is much better. Great little rifles !

 

[South Pender]

This is my sole remaining 22WMR; I sold my two Anschutz 1720s. It is a custom Kimber of Oregon 82A, built by Ed LaPour (with stock work by Bruce Farman), with aftermarket barrel and some custom features--scope mounts, bottom metal, tuned trigger, pillar-bedding, etc. It shoots the Remington 22WMR ammunition with the 33-grain AccuTip-V bullet best. That bullet is made by Hornady and is the same polymer-tipped bullet as the Hornady SST (Super Shock Tip). I've tried almost all 22WMR ammunition in this rifle, and the Remington load is the best. However, the average 5-shot 100-yard group size with this rifle and load, over many groups shot, is about 1.25". I'll get a few groups under an inch, but that doesn't make this a sub-MOA rifle. It's the average, or aggregate, that properly indexes accuracy.

On the other hand, my Fortner-actioned Anschutz 1727F in 17HMR (pic below) produces an average, over many 5-shot groups shot, of about .80" at 100 yards with the Hornady 17-grain V-Max load (with Hornady's polymer-tipped V-Max varmint bullet). It is a sub-MOA rifle. It has the generally-excellent Anschutz match-grade barrel which features a very-slight choke effect at the muzzle. along with the super Anschutz 5020 two-stage trigger. The big scope (Leupold fixed 45) probably helps a little in this regard, but my experience--similar to that of others--has been that the 17HMR is a more accurate cartridge than the 22WMR, at least in terms of currently-available ammunition for both.

 

[stonecreek]

I've owned a Kimber and a couple of Anschutz rifles in 22WMR and,, even with a lot of experimenting with differing brands of ammunition, have been unable to come close to the accuracy of a good 22LR. It's the ammo.

I largely agree. However, I have had good luck with a couple of combinations of rifles/ammunition in the WMR.

An Oregon Kimber I've owned a long time shooting (scarce and pricey) RWS ammunition does quite well. So well, in fact, that I've been hoarding my small supply of the stuff and as a result virtually never shoot the gun. It doesn't do nearly as well with Winchester ammo.

A CZ semi-auto I recently came by came with a good supply of 30-grain Hornady. It shoots surprisingly well for a semi-auto, so I plan to take it on my next prairie dog foray.

The most surprising is perhaps a plain Jane Krico bolt action (model designation unknown). I think I posted here on the forum the first two groups I shot with it, again using the 30-grain Hornady stuff. At 100 yards both groups were under .75 moa.

But I'll stipulate that good accuracy is much harder to achieve with the WMR than the LR.

 

[South Pender]

I largely agree. However, I have had good luck with a couple of combinations of rifles/ammunition in the WMR.

An Oregon Kimber I've owned a long time shooting (scarce and pricey) RWS ammunition does quite well. So well, in fact, that I've been hoarding my small supply of the stuff and as a result virtually never shoot the gun. It doesn't do nearly as well with Winchester ammo.

Yeah, I had high hopes for the RWS 40-grain soft-point 22WMR ammunition that I bought from "Dangerous Dave" Cumberland at the Old Western Scrounger when he was in California. Unfortunately, that ammunition didn't do as well as I'd hoped and not as well as the Remington 33-gr.. AccuTip-V load in either my Annies or my custom Kimber.

I've shot quite a bit of RWS centerfire ammunition over the years--mainly to get the really-excellent brass for my 8x68S and 9,3x64 rifles--and have found it to be topnotch. And the RWS R50 shoots as well as, or better than, any other top line ammunition (Eley, Lapua) in my 22LRs.

 

[kevinlg]

I largely agree. However, I have had good luck with a couple of combinations of rifles/ammunition in the WMR.

An Oregon Kimber I've owned a long time shooting (scarce and pricey) RWS ammunition does quite well. So well, in fact, that I've been hoarding my small supply of the stuff and as a result virtually never shoot the gun. It doesn't do nearly as well with Winchester ammo.

A CZ semi-auto I recently came by came with a good supply of 30-grain Hornady. It shoots surprisingly well for a semi-auto, so I plan to take it on my next prairie dog foray.

The most surprising is perhaps a plain Jane Krico bolt action (model designation unknown). I think I posted here on the forum the first two groups I shot with it, again using the 30-grain Hornady stuff. At 100 yards both groups were under .75 moa.

But I'll stipulate that good accuracy is much harder to achieve with the WMR than the LR.

Back in the mid-1970's I bought a Savage-Anschutz 54M (22Mag)......and still have it.
Like others, I thought the factory ammo should shoot a little better.
Soooooo.......being the burgeoning reloader that I was.........I decided to unload, and then reload some factory Winchester 40gr ammo. A gunsmith friend and I essentially built a "wilson-type" straight line bullet seater for the 22WMR cartridge. The tricky part was to SAFELY pull the 40gr factory bullet.......which involved a counter-bored 30-30 case head, shell holder, RCBS bullet puller, Rockchucker press.....and TWO strategically placed sandbags.
I ended up with a 40gr Speer Spire-point bullet barely touching the lands, with 7.7gr of the remeasured factory powder. Yes.......I previously slugged the barrel.
If memory serves........the rifle went from about 1.5-2 inches, to 0.75-1 inch at 100 yards.
Good times...........then life etc got in the way......not to mention, more guns.

 

[stonecreek]

Years ago I recall reading an article or two on "handloading" the .22 WMR. From your description it is a real pain for marginal gain. But I understand as I've engaged in similarly time-and-money consuming activities, mostly out of curiosity and an urge just to do something different.

 

[Spaher]

Time, an invaluable commodity that is usually only realized while pausing to look back. There is no rerun or redo.
If only I had known then what I appreciate now…

 

[stonecreek]

Yesterday was warm, overcast, and virtually windless here, so I took advantage of good conditions to do some shooting.

One rifle was my P94 .22LR. What a sweety! Fifty yard groups with a couple of different loads were hovering below a half-inch. Part of that may be the advantage of the Leupold Ultralight 3-9 VX-II AO I have on it which allows you to tune the parallax to the exact yardage. But mostly it's due to the quality that Sako builds into its rimfires. By the way, the factory trigger on this one is about as good as triggers get.

 

[Bushpig]

Yesterday was warm, overcast, and virtually windless here, so I took advantage of good conditions to do some shooting.

One rifle was my P94 .22LR. What a sweety! Fifty yard groups with a couple of different loads were hovering below a half-inch. Part of that may be the advantage of the Leupold Ultralight 3-9 VX-II AO I have on it which allows you to tune the parallax to the exact yardage. But mostly it's due to the quality that Sako builds into its rimfires. By the way, the factory trigger on this one is about as good as triggers get.

I prefer a scope with parallax adjustment on my rimfire rifles. One gets such satisfaction from those tiny groups lol.
And it helps a lot when hunting those little critters as well !

 

[bloorooster]

I recently mounted my P94s to a Leupold VX 3 6.5-20 AO. I cannot disagree about the trigger on these rifles. Bug holes are common. Such fun guns!