Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Most likely tack-driver: Model 70 or Sako?

Winner!


Best,

GWB

About three months ago I was at the range and saw a guy shooting three shot groups at 100yds with a new Winchester Featherweight 270.
Had I not seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it.
He didn't measure the groups to my knowledge but there were five groups [trios] -most one hole and very small.Other only had a small sliver of paper on the target to keep them from being a "ragged hole" .
He put my custom rem 700 280ai to shame that day !
He said his brother and their friend had the same rifle in 280 and they shot just as good as his rifle.
I was impressed to say the least.

I don't think I have ever even handled a Sako -they must be nice , I always liked the look of them.
Mike

I recall Sako's "owned" accuracy in the 70's and were highly respected for their uniformity in performance. By the late 70's and into the 80's, the name Tikka was raising eyebrows for similar performance.

The first, read that new generation Featherweights in the early 80's, were adequate for hunting but not anywhere near tack driver status and seemed to have improved greatly in the years since.

When talking accuracy, there is a big hole in most commentary.

Bullets have improved in their concentricity to considerable degrees and since we have reached the point where homogenous bullets are now common place, an even higher pressure on multi- component bullet structure, (Cup and core- Partition- Plastic tips, partial bonding etc) to meet the needs of the market which really means, consumer expectations.

This is easily provable because super accurate rifles were not that common in the 60's and 70's and yet today, those same so called vintage rifles are shooting with the best of them.

There is another aspect worth covering:

When I first used Woodleigh Weldcore bullets, I found they were consistently accurate across the calibers with obviously less variation in accuracy that regular cup and core bullets. In the years since I noticed similar consistency in other brands of bonded core bullets and even the Swift range of A-Frames that are only half bonded in the front section.

It is possible we are over complimenting rifle brands with favor when the real reason is great bullets and consistent barrels. The action designs and triggers in today's rifles vary a lot, certainly more than they did 40 years ago, but the manufacturing techniques for barrels is still hammer, cut, or button, as it was back then.

Just a thought.......

Nice sako, I'm a sucker for the older ones. I have two fn model 70's that I'm very happy with, but I much prefer the sako's I have, but I have yet to own a new 85. I'd still say sako if price was no object because they make some great barrels. My tikka out shoots both my winchesters and they use the same barrels as the sako 85.

There are Sako original factory recoil pads for sale on the internet! somebody apparently found a stash of em. I seem to remember the going price is about $125 for a single pad. $$$, indeed! But they are the real deal.

Take my experience for what it's worth, I'm a dyed in the wool M70 guy, and have owned probably 17-18 of them, most of the pre-64 variety in a variety of calibers. I have owned a statistacially insignificant 1 Sako, an AII in .222. All of my winchesters have shot well enough for hunting use, though some required tweaking. Many of them were/are very accurate guns. The one Sako, box stock, outshot all of them. It was consistently a bughole gun, and if a 3 shot group was over .25" from a rest, it was my fault. I had a 6x scope on it and it served well as a walking varminter, though it was sporter weight.

Once again, GWB makes me covet his collection.

For a long time I've thought having an older Finnbear in .300 H&H would be really cool. Load some 200 AB's over 4350 and that would be quite the shooter.

Older M70's and recently built FN M70's seem to shoot. But all Sako's I've shot or have seen shot shoot better than average, sometimes a lot better.

I own a Sako Finnlght .260, 2 Model 70's. The Sako is definitely my choice between the 2 models. However, the last rifle I would ever sell is my Mark V .257 Weatherby Ultra Light. Bang = Graveyard Dead!

I use a pf Winchester as my go-to gun, but have a couple sakos that shoot lights out and will be with me for the long-haul.

I've had to tweek every Model 70 I have had and still have to get them to shoot. Sako's shoot period.

No doubt about it my Sako is a shooter. But my Mod 70's aren't dogs by any stretch.

Here is a pic of a couple of groups at 100yards with my model 70 extreme weather ss in 264 win mag.

Any one of these is capable of a "caliper" group, I find that day in and day out, the Sako is the better shooter...

I also have an older model like new sako 7 mag, yes it shoots good but not as good as my model 70.

That isn't due to a bad shooting Sako, but a good shooting model 70...

I didn't say my sako shot bad!! My model 70 just shoots better. Do some research on the extreme weathers if u dont believe me on how they shoot

I just purchased a M70 EW in 7 WSM from another forum member and that sucker is a shooting Jesse. But he also did some exceptional gun smithing on it.

For out of the box accuracy and ease of shooting, it's going to be very difficult to find anyone who can eclipse Sako

Shrapnel is right. I've got 3 M70's now and they all shoot great, but they all required some tinkering to get there.

Especially the triggers