Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only sako 85 or kimber talkeetna

heard anything good or bad about these rifles in 375 h&h?

I own a Sako 85 and a Kimber 84. I love...LOVE my Kimber, but it's no Sako. Of course, there's the whole CRF thing (which I think is a bit overblown), but I'd probably look at a Sako depending on what you're going to do with it.

What's the rifle going to be used for?

I should say what I want is manageable weight, 23-25" stainless barrel, great accuracy.
It will be my all around north american game getter and a good amount of range shooting. not really any dangerous game in the near future and I'm not worried about the sako extractor that much

It'll be a 0-400 yard gun mainly shooting 250-270gr bullets most the time

Sako.

SAKO - OR - a Whitworth.

Terry

I haven't owned a Sako since I had one fail on a brown bear hunt decades ago but not saying they aren't a good rifle.

The four Kimbers I own have all been reliable and accurate. The Talkeetna shot well out of the box. A bore scope exam of the Kreiger barrel indicated high quality work.

I much prefer having NO floor plate or box magazines.

I don't like barrel sling swivel attachments for my use as the butt is dragging in the blueberries.

And....I find that a light syntheric stock with that much barrel is very muzzle heavy.

Nothing wrong with the Sako Extractor. Some use it as an upgrade install for the 700, although I have never had and issue with either.

I've got a sako 85 ss .375. It shoots great and loves barnes 250ttsx and 270tsx. My problem with it is the magazines- I usually hunt with empty chamber/full mag. Quite often after hunting all day- especially when things are a bit damp the bolt won't pick up a shell when cycled.

I thought maybe my mag had issues so I ponied up the $200 for another one- same issue with it so that leads me to believe it is a systemic problem. I'm sure if I take the mag apart and tweak the spring and maybe grind a bit on the aluminum follower I could probably get them fixed up-but the mags don't really seem to have an easy way to disassemble so I have just ruminated on the problem since last fall,
I have pretty well decided that the sako will head on down the road. Which incidentally is the same place that the pretty little 85 bavarian I bought went too, after I couldn't get it to shoot better than 2" groups- with any handload or factory load including gold medal match. It took a trip back to stoeger and they sent it back with a 2" test target and said that it was "within parameters" despite the "5 shot 1" guarantee"

My kimbers (I don't have a talkeetna) 300wsm SA, 7mm sa, 30-06 MA have all outperformed any sako 85 I have owned. I won't be buying anymore 85's....

I'm astounded that you had that kind of trouble with a Sako. The action on my 85 is a work of art.

Both my Dad and I own the Talkeetna, we both love it. It's well made and fairly light. It kicks lighter than my 8400 in 338. I was able to shoot MOA with the first box of ammo with mine. I've only shot it out to 200yds so I can't speak to using it out at 400yds.

I prefer the Mauser-type action on the Kimber's but that's just my personal preference.

Hope this helps.

I have a Sako 85 and a Kimber 8400. IMO, the Sako has it all over the Kimber for function and accuracy. If I were looking for an all-purpose, go-to rifle I would go with a Sako and never look back.

Guess I'm the only one thats had problems with a 85 (but thats typically my luck...)

Just to be clear it was 2 separate 85's in a row that had issues. The first was a brand new bavarian 30-06 that just would not group any better than 2" at 100 yards. I tried every sort of ammo and a bunch of handloads before I gave up (I was shooting .375's and .338's side by side with it and 1" groups with them no issues so I don't think it was entirely my crappy marksmanship) I boxed it up and sent it back to stoeger (beretta's Canadian distributor) along with a call to their in house gunsmith explaining the issue. I got the gun back with a new test target he had fired that was about a 1.5" group. All of sako's literature shows a 5 shot 1 inch guarantee so I phoned back to the warranty department and they transfered me to the gunsmith again and when I said "hey what happened to the 1" guarantee you guys are so proud of?" he told me the group was "good enough" and probably with some load changes it would meet the 1" guarantee. I had already been down that road so I just sold the gun...

My .375 is a stainless model that I bought used- It shoots very very good with 250grn ttsx handloads. It likes them faster the better and has turned in some 200 yard groups that are basically just one big ragged hole.

I had no issues with feeding whatsoever during the few hundred rounds I put through that gun this summer in preparation for a mountain grizzly hunt I had booked last fall. While on that hunt I noticed that shells were starting to stick down in the magazine- I had a spare so switched to it, same thing. It was a horseback pack trip and everything was wet and gritty and semi cold. If I fiddled with the shells, took them out dried them off cleaned them up, cleaned the mag walls they would start to slide again. Check them the next day and same thing with both mags- Much fiddling- no confidence that it was going to pick up the next shell... both poor things on a grizzly hunt imho.

So although I am also quite a sako fan and have never had a bad experience with my av's AIII's or any of my 75's, both of my 85's have been dogs for quite different reasons.

I wonder how many of the people who have commented have ss.375's?
I'm the only one who says so... I wonder if the length of the .375 case is causing enough drag that the spring is so-so for feeding strength and maybe a shorter cartridge has no issues?

For things that bite or stomp that I'm going to chase with a .375 I won't be using a sako 85 anymore.
It's too bad because I like everything else about the gun, it's nice and light, shoots great, stock fits me very well, handles recoil great etc.... But the all weather reliability certainly isn't there with mine...

Lets see... CRF, 3-posi safety, no magazine to loose, better synthetic stock, Kreiger SS barrel.... yup, Talkeetna gets my vote.

I chopped my Talkeetna's barrel back for better balance.

FOS,

I think that's probably a good move as I find my Talkeetna to be a bit unwieldy as it's so muzzle heavy....that light buttstock just doesn't counterbalance the original barrel length.

well, I decided and bought a new win m70 alaskan for $1070

I figured if I don't like how it shoots I can spend $600 more and have a match barrel installed with action blueprinted.

Ha, That's sorta funny.
I have come to exactly the same conclusion. I just bought a Win.70 with a pacnor barrel in 358Norma from another guy on here. The action has been blueprinted and it's in a legend stock already so if I can't like the .358 as much as I do the grand old H&H all I have to do is spin off the barrel and throw on a .375 tube and I should be good to go.

Another way to skin the cat but I think we will both end up with a much better gun for the same $$ outlay. The only thing I haven't quite figured out is how to get the weight down to 7lbs like the sako...

fluting, shorter barrel, and the right stock. I think the Sako is 8 lbs

I'm pretty sure my ss85 is right around 7lbs, I think its under 9lbs with swaro 1.7x10 and conetrol rings... I'll weigh it tonight when I get home. (actually I'll pull the scope tonight too to start getting the sako ready to head on the road.)

If you are interested in the weights at all I can weigh the M70 barreled action (with a 22" .358 barrel #2 profile roughly) and echols legend stock as well....

Id be interested in your final weight of your rifle. I'm going to stay stock and shoot it a bit and then see which way I want to go

So when is Winchester going to wake up and market a 24" 375 H&H in SS and a quality synthetic stock? For me, I'd take one in the EW with a little heavier barrel contour. Be about right in my mind.
Right now I would vote for the Talkeetna, if a little heavy and pricey.