Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Win M-88 vs Sako Finnwolf

I never owned either one of these rifles, but they seem to be mighty slick. When I was young, the owner of a neighboring place where I hunted quail did a little deer hunting when he know his cattle were in another pasture, so he used a Model 88. He had 2, a .308 and a .243 for his wife. I was impressed with them.

For those who have owned the Winchester and the Sako, or shot both of them enough, I wondered how they compared, for you.

I owned a post '64 Wincester Model 88 (308) in the 1970s. I've never owned a Sako Finnwolf, but I've shot a friend's at the range. My opinion - the Sako is smoother, but then my 88 was post-64 when quality was a little less. Accuracy was about the same, with the nod going to the Sako.

I can't comment on the comparison but I do read or have read in several places that it seems there may be an acception to the pre 64 goodness when it comes to the M88

it seems many believe in the case of the 88 that the post 64's were "better" rifles.

Norther dave is right about that.
My 88 a pre 64 .308. Very acurate, and it has a better trigger pull than most 88s.
Never shot a Finwolf, but I have herd great stuff about them.
But if you loose the magazine your screwerd...tj3006

I had both a pre and post 64 88 in 308's, the pre 64 had nicer wood and checkering, the post 64 had the improvements that made it a better rifle. Both had triggers that were far from ideal.
I kept the post 64, ditched the cheap stock with it's pressed basket weave/oak leaf checkereing and ordered a new stock from Fajen. I then had the 308 rebored to a 338 Federal and now have a great gun. A little work on the trigger will help some.
I've seen the Finwolf and worked it's action, can't say I found it anybetter than the Winchester, but the trigger was better.

I have owned a couple of both and I couldn't tell you which one I preferred, I liked them both real well..The only thing that bothered me was the Sako operated on plastic cogs and the Win operated on metal cogs. I have always felt that a rifle should be metal and wood, but I never experienced a failure with the Sako and it was smoother..Accuracy was about the same with both as I recall and around 1.5 inches with all loads..

Also, I didn't keep any of them very long, I guess because I have always been a Savage 99 kind of guy..I also really liked the Browning BLRs of early make..The ones I had always shot really good..

Nice rifle, jbmi. Who did the rechambering for you?

I have owned several M88's, but never a Finnwolf. I currently own two M88 Winchesters and have found that the magazine makes a difference in how smooth the rifle functions. My .284 was very smooth from the get go, my .308 was kind of rough but I couldn't find anything amiss in the action. I also had a new, boxed .308 mag, so I tried it out and that was the entire smoothness issue - both rifles are quite slick feeders now. In fact I am going to use the .284 for our rifle opener tomorrow morning.

Best of luck odessa.

be really good to see you post another deer kill with you & your 88.

Thanks Dave. You can bet I will post a picture of whatever gets knocked down by the M88 (first time out hunting with the .284).

I have had four 88s in all the calibers it came in. Only have 2 left, a .284 and .358 and really like them. The .358 started out as a .308 but has a douglas barrel now. It shoots an inch to 1.5" all day. I used it twice in MN to take 2 bucks. One at 10 yards and one at 180. The 284 really likes NBT and will shoot around an inch with 140g TSXs. Shooting the 120g NBT recently gave groups .5 in to .75 for 5 shots at max velocity. One group had 4 in the same hole before I threw one out. It will be a long time or never before these go down the road.

I did the Fajen stock deal on my .284 too. Much better feel and better looking too.

Between my dad and I, we have two M88's (1 pre and 1 post 64) and two Finnwolfs. All 308's. As others have said, the Finnwolf is smoother in function. The Finnwolfs we have are more accurate than the 88's. The triggers are also better.

The Finnwolf handles (and actually feels and shoots) like a Sako bolt action. They're heavy with a Monte Carlo stock. The M88's were a bit lighter and I'm guessing much of that came from the barrel profile.

Someone mentioned being screwed if you lose a Sako Magazine. Add to that busting the stock. Don't ask me how I know this.

Sako Finnwolf are good rifles. Pity they are no longer made.

I had a Finnwolf, and they are OK. They are slick and smooth operating.
The downside if there is one, is the action underside does not have a good area for bedding, they are not like a Sako Bolt for example. I was going to bed it for some fine tuning and discovered mine had some little shim washers the action screws went through, it was too weird for me, so I just left it alone and later sold it for a profit.

For hunting I would prefer a M88, one of my bud's has one that he really likes.

The Finnwolf's pistol grip geometry has a tighter radius and that makes it more shootable for me. In most applications, don't care for straight or shallow radius pistol grip stocks, but for some reason the stock that I don't care for on a Winchester 88 works OK for me on a Winchester 100. I guess it works better on the 100 because I don't have to manually cycle the action.

I no longer own a Finnwolf, but have 4 88s in 284, 2 rifles and 2 carbines.

Jeff

I have had two Win 88's, both in 308. One was a pre 64 the other a post 64. I kept the post 64. I gave the pre 64 to my son. While I could have been happy with either, I believe that the post 64 is a little smoother. I kept the post 64 because it has a ring in the barrel and I wanted to rebore it to 338/08. I haven't done it yet and now I guess I will have to have it rebored to 338 Fed.

I tried a Sako once and the grip didn't feel right. It seemed that the lever was too far out from the curve of the grip and I could not get used to the feel. I thought that it was about as smooth as my 88 and wasn't in a place that I could try out the trigger.

Both are fine rifles. I have had at one time or another 6 of the Sako Finnwolf's. I have handled and shot several 88's. The fact that I have never felt compelled to own an 88 but have owned 6 Sako's says it all. The major factor for me is that I do not care for the 88 having the safety in front of the trigger. The Sako safety is behind the trigger. In addition the Sako is positively much more refined, much smoother.

In reference to Mr Atkinson's post about the plastic gears, cogs or whatever he is referring to, I must take exception. I respect his opinion but I have never seen a Finnwolf with such hardware. As a matter of fact all of the parts in the action of the Sako are machined, many in the 88 are stamped, thus the reason that the Sako has the much smoother action.

88 was a piece of crap,Sako was very refined and accurate.