Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Sako a7 barrel is NOT free floated?

I am surprised that people don't seem to care about being lied to. If they say it's free floated but it isn't, that's ok as long as the gun shoots anyways? They obviously say the have a hammer forged free floated barrel since this sounds more prestigious than saying we put pressure points on the barrel. If I bought a gun that said it was made in USA and found out it was made in china I wouldn't care if it shoot anyways.

I need to get one of those..

Also as a matter of fact the Tikka T3 does have the two contact points forward of the receiver (and they also shoot one hole groups frequently).

Even if they do claim "free floated" I still would not call it lie. Many people who "free float" their barrel have bedded the barrel shank in front of the receiver.

Bedding the shank means you have full contact 2" or so forward of the receiver with something like devcon 10110 etc. That is very different than having two 1/8 wide pieces of plastic touching the barrel on the sides 3" forward of the receiver.

The t3s they had in the store did not have this. You could slide paper all the way to the receiver.

You�re making much to do about nothing. I�d not get so worked up over a reinforcing rib in the Sako stock. From my experience, they shoot well, are light, and are very handy straight out the box. The two A7s I own were not very expensive, and both turned out to be great guns for the money spent.

Good to hear you were able to swap for a rifle that you wanted and are happier at owning. I�m sure the new rifle will serve you well. I�d just say to maybe take a step back and not fret so much over the little stuff which makes no matter in the end.

Good Luck

I'm just tired of big companies misleading customers. I've been misinformed my Ford, Sony, Nike, Bausch and Lomb and buck knives just to name a few that come to mind. It's not ok to misslead me intentionally. Sorry but that's just how I feel.

Otoh I ordered some talley lightweights for my m70 ew, got some 140 accubonds and retumbo. Waiting to mount the scope is gonna kill me and I can't wait to go to the range. I will post a report when I have the scope mounted. If all goes well I will get a crack at a nice whitetail this fall and get to test the 140 nabs.

Does the Sako use the same rib reinforcements as the tikka? On the left is one of the new BC stock and the right is an OEM Tikka T3. In the middle you can see the two tiny bumps I marked, those were the only contact points inside the stock.

Either way good luck with your M70. I think you might have kicked it out of bed without taking a test drive but I can understand that if a rifle does not seem right it will nag you.

I still don't see where they are lying or misleading. I don't see a claim of a free floating barrel on the Berreta website, the owners manual, or the marketing sticker on the stock.

I do see an accuracy guarantee.

The Sako A7 stock looked different. The two contact points didn't have the round area below the barrel iirc.

The manual tells you (under Maintenance before fire or something like that) "To check fit between the stock and and the free floating barrel, a slip of paper roughly 0.5 mm thick should fit between the barrel and the stock over the whole length of the barrel."

The Sako press release which you can see here, has a picture illustrating the features and clearly states a match free floated barrel.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2008/01/31/sako-a7/

The pdf file here says it is.
http://www.berettausa.com/file.aspx?DocumentId=41

Here is another one.
http://www.berettaaustralia.com.au/media/CATALOGUE%20PDF/BA%20Rifles.pdf

As well as the usual online gun shops (eg. Cabelas)

And lets not forget the 3" long white piece of plastic that is under the barrel as it is on the t3's and 85s. I don't see how one could not be meant to think the a7 is free floated.

1. Don't be so dramatic, 5 minutes with some sandpaper and you could have removed the pressure pads anyway. More than half my guns aren't floated or bedded for that matter, and all shoot great. I am sure the engineers at Sako might have a clue.

2. If it was such a piece of junk, why did you buy it? Didn't you actually handle it first?

The point isn't that I could have sanded off the pressure points and bedded the rattling recoil lug but rather that I shouldn't have to on a gun that costs as much and one they say is free floated. Also there are several reports of mangled recoil lugs in people shooting magnum calibers. Sako engineers know best though right? Or is it the people that save money for berreta that know best?

Of course I handled the gun first and I had no way of seeing the recoil lug at the store nor did I notice the pressure points. The dealer told me it was floated, websites do and it had a white plastic tab under the barrel. Sure fooled me. I expressed my concern about the plastic, especially the trigger guard which deforms even with just finger pressure and cold weather hunting. MAgs weren't all that bad honestly. At least they had metal feed lips, similar to my flock mags.

Thing is when I got home and found out it wasn't free floated and saw the aluminum recoil lug I figured the gun maybe wasn't such a good idea after all and if they lied about the barrel maybe they lied about the plastic and cold weather as well? The receiver would also side forwards and backwards 2mm or so in the stock when not screwed down. This coupled with reports of beat up lugs in magnums also left a sour taste in my mouth. Again I could bed it but why should I have to?

To date, each and every A7 I've been around has been a shooter like this right from the factory. IME they're incredibly accurate and plain hunting machines.

Dober

What would be a screamin' deal on one of these POS( ) non-floated A7s? NIB from a dealer.

$700 for SS is the best I've seen, but I haven't looked in a while.

I have bought my 30-06 stainless steel last May for $564. It was some kind of a close out.

What model is replacing them? I'm seeing the A7 on closeout too.

OK [bleep]........post some of these groups that are Less than dime sized groups @ 100 yards with factory ammo!!!


You know you can't cause you are a liar!!!

Pretty sure mine was free floated when I bought it.

Either way it is now beings I bedded it right off the bat.

Shoots great, miniumus POI shiftage going from bipod to bags(like a couple inches at 400 yards). Nothing to worry about for a hunting rifle.

Just a guess, but the A7's on closeout are probably the "original" plastic stock - if anyone knows where the new A7 soft touch stock is going for $700 or less - let us know here. That's to good a deal to pass up.

7mm08fan,

There's still some SS versions on sale for $700 shipped on the auction sites, but they may not be the soft touch.