Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Sako Vixen Thoughts??

I’ve owned and sold a lot of Sakos over the years but the L461 heavy barrel Vixen in .222 Mag will never get sold. My father in law bought it new before he went to Vietnam and used it in Alaska taking everything from seals for crab bait to brown bear that caused trouble. In fact iirc this rifle has taken several brown bear back in the day. My father in law’s “old man” (a term of endearment and respect for his stepdad) used a .222 Mag for almost everything so it was natural for my FIL & his younger half brother to buy the same caliber as the old man. They made good money fishing and crabbing back in the days when it was still a territory. It still wears the Weaver K6-C3 scope that he bought at the same time. It wasn’t many years later that he was recruited out of his bush flying and fishing in Alaska. He flew solo at 15 flying mail out to Kodiak and at 15 he flew his first passengers to Kodiak….circa 1953. He spent about 10 years in SE Asia starting in Laos for 5+ and finishing up in Saigon. Apparently Civil Air Transport/Air America recruited heavily from the bush pilots of Alaska and my FIL decided to give it a shot since he loved the adventure. That determined the entire trajectory of his life. He loved fishing and he loved flying so he had no reason to leave Alaska and no desire to leave since he made crazy good money as a “kid”. He used to brag to me how he was making as much or more at 15/16 years old than his dad who was an experienced Boeing engineer.

Anyway this is one of my rifles that will always remain in our family. Thankfully our son and daughter both like firearms and shooting so it’ll be appreciated too. <please excuse my poor camera skills>