My only Sako....not a collector or showpiece like a lot shown here, but with a good story nevertheless. Several years ago, I was asked to liquidate the firearms portion of a passed acquaintance�s estate. The items had been piled in the basement of an unoccupied (and unheated or cooled) house for close to 20 years. Included in the three (3) pickup loads of gun stuff of every type and description was an L-46 Sako barreled action. The barrel and stripped action were the only two parts still attached together, everything else was scattered around mixed in boxes with other parts.

Luckily, all metal parts except the bracket that screwed to the bottom of the action that held the magazine in place was found. The barrel and action had fingernail sized rust blisters is several places. The bbl was stamped 222 Rem but had been reamed to 223 Rem. A 222 mag as well as a 222 Rem Magnum mag were found in the boxes. No factory stock was found, but there was an unfinished after market stock roughly inletted for this action there.

I can only assumed the old gent planned to restock the bbled action and use the 222 RM magazine for 223 rounds. As I had zero luck finding the missing bracket or locating a new one, I just cleaned everything up, converted the stock to a single shot setup, and put the little jewel together. It would have taken much more time, dollars, and effort than I was interested in spending on it to bring it back to original condition, so I now have a very neat, attractive (from a distance), tack driver.

It shoots itty bitty groups with just about any 223 load with 55 grainers or smaller. Unfortunately, the really slow twist on the old L 46 bbls would not stabilize heavy or long bullets. I tried 53 gr TSXs but they would barely hit a 10" bulleye at 25 yds. So now I just stick with 55 gr Hornady SPs that routinely go under 0.5�. All in all, I am very tickled with my little reclamation project.



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