Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Please talk me out of the Sako 85

They are not going to concern themselves with those who wish to push the scope lower than factory designs (BS by the way.They don't even have a "factory design"), for personal reasons to execute variations of stock crawl. For those, they give a refund, which is well beyond what other manufacturers will readily offer.

Customer By Web Form
09/03/2014 06:14 PM
Found out about the chronic ejection problems of the long action 85 after I had purchased one. Sure enough mine is affected. Sized and trimmed brass ejects straight up into the scope and bounces back down onto the follower. Some manage to rattle around and fall out. Sako Finnlight 30-06, LC69 full length sized & trimmed brass. Rifle is unfired. From what I've been able to read on the subject this issue seems to be related to extractor spring pressure, or the lack of. This isn't a new problem. I have researched enough to know there are a substantial number of rifles and owners affected going back pretty much to the 85 inception. None are happy and some are VERY unhappy. FYI I have read multiple reports of service center repairs that did not resolve the problem. The only successful repairs I am aware of were by owners replacing the coil spriing with a stronger version allowing the extractor to override ejector pressure and pull the cartridge case to the side for normal function. Please do not tell me you have never heard of this. So my question is have you yet come up with a fix? If it is a simple parts swap I'll be more than happy to do it myself or have my local gunsmith do it. I would prefer to keep it local if possible. I appreciate your forthcoming response.

Question Reference #140903-000009
Product Level 1: Rifles and Carbines
Product Level 2: Sako 85
Category Level 1: Consumer
Date Created: 09/03/2014 06:14 PM
Last Updated: 09/05/2014 03:41 PM
Status: Solved

Thank you for contacting Beretta Customer Support.

Beretta's Service Position on this issue is shown below:

"Occasionally, we receive customer complaints regarding Sako 85 rifles ejecting spent cases that either strike the scope or strike the scope turret and fall back inside the action of the rifle. This situation is predominately caused by both the scope mounts and type of scope (particularly scopes with extended turrets) installed on the rifle. A secondary consideration is how rigorously the bolt is operated by the user.

Beretta will not consider rifles that exhibit the condition above to be a warranty issue. Provided that the rifle fully extracts and ejects the spent casing, the rifle will be considered functional and serviceable. Sako cannot anticipate every possible scope mounting configuration when designing their rifles. Since the selection and installation of the scope and mounts are determined by the owner, it is the owner’s responsibility to ensure that the system will not interfere with the operation of the rifle."

Regarding your specific inquiry, there is no "fix" for this condition as the ejector is not adjustable in this rifle. The comments that you have read regarding "extractor spring pressure" are not valid. The spring pressure does not affect the ejection trajectory of the casing. The bottom line is if the rifle extracts and ejects the casing, it is considered functional.
Finally, in spite of the Internet chatter, a review of the service history for the Sako 85 rifle over the past 24 months indicates that a fraction of a percent of the rifles sold are returned for service for this issue.
Our suggestion would be to experiment with different scope mounts and/or type of scope to determine what will work best on your rifle.

Best regards,

Beretta Customer Support