I have a .243 Winchester Sako Forester made in 1966 that has a "Bofors steel" barrel, I have no idea how many rounds have been through the gun as I bought it used but it shoots into an inch @100 or better with whatever I care to put through it using an old friction adjust Leupold 2x7 scope that has been "cleaned" so much it shows visible objective wear! But back on topic...how tough is this steel? Is there any way to measure barrel erosion other than with a bore scope? A acquantance is twisting my arm now to buy the little gun and I cannot decide if I want to keep it or sell it, the action is very nice for sure....

Bofors steel refers to a special heat resistant steel made in Sweden as far as I know, initially for ship borne anti aircraft cannon commonly called at that time Bofors Guns or Pom Pom guns for the high rate of fire trying to knock down enemy aircraft...and the amazing ability of the Bofors barrel steel to endure that kind of punishment under sustained firing being cooled off with seawater and fired some more until they glowed red.

IMO depending on condition, and grade ie Deluxe, Standard grade etc your gun could be worth anywhere from the $450/$600 range to well over $1K+. 243 was pretty common but if it satisfies you I would never sell it. I had a "deal" given to me to buy in 1968 or '69 on a similar to yours 579 action Standard grade by my grandfather, who traded a lot of guns in those days, and will regret to my last breath trading that gun off for a bigger boomer. Dump the old Leupy and put 'nuther one on and you've got a gun that will last another 40-50 years no sweat.
Old 243 SAKO's are prized by wildcatters too...and the prettiest one I ever saw was a 6.5x284 conversion using the old 243 barrel tha had been bored out and re chambered that would shoot bug holes all day every day..no telling how much the guy had in the gun but he could have cared less...it was his first gun that he had shot out and reminded me of my foolishness as a kid.
Ron

Not sure that's entirely correct. My understanding, and just a quick search revealed, was that Bofors referred to the iron works mine and plant in Sweden. It was the steel/iron ore produced by Bofors that was used for arms during the early-to-mid 1900's on...

I have a question as well for Sako's.

I have heard that wither or not the barrel is stamped Bofors steel.
all Sako's from 72 and before have it.

Can anyone verify this?

When I was at the SAKO plant in 1984 as a guest representing Stoeger Industries field sales staff during the Distributors Conference I asked that exact question, about when was "Bofors steel" dropped from being used. The answer I got at that time by either the World Marketing Director, or the A'sst Director of R&D was that all SAKO's to that date were still using Bofors steel ...just not marked as such any more. At least that's my recollection as a number of us were all sitting in a sauna trying to get warm from the days moose hunt and swilling adult beverages. My memory is pretty fuzzy about the rest of the evening though! LOL 'cause a great time was had by all....all week long. What a great bunch of folks those guys at the plant were.
Ron

Redneck, you may right about the origin of Bofors steel...I first heard the name as a "Bofors gun" from a close friend's dad who was a Company 1st Sergeant in the Marine Corps during WWII, and his description of the special Swedish steel used to make the AA PomPom gun barrel's that saved his ship numerous times during the kamikaze attacks off one of the island assualts he participated in. He had three Landings in the Pacific, after surviving I think it was the initial attack on Midway and later served in Occupied Japan...never would talk much about the war except to comment BS! sometimes whenever a war movie we were watching or talking about was not portraying stuff correctly. He NEVER tolerated the Hollywood glamourazation of either WWII or Korea. Tough old guy is still kicking barely...and a long way from enlisting in 1939 at 17.
Ron

I am going to put a better scope on it and give it a whirl. One thing that has me worried is the .243 = 1000 rounds before the barrel is burned up posts. My question is really a concern regards the softness/hardness of this steel in a 21 year old gun. Two thoughts are in my mind, if the steel is "softer" I might sell it to him a reduced price, or keep it and eventualy put a new barrel on it in 260Rem. If it is an abnormally hard steel and the barrel "could" be fine after 21 years (again hard to tell) I may keep it or sell it to him at "list price"!! If a 243 barrel is on its way to ruination will it shoot into an a MOA with factory loads or whatever you put thru it???

I doubt the barrel could be trashed in as few as 1000 rounds...mebbe trashed because some numnuts doan't know how to clean one correctly.
SAKO barrels of that age and for quite some time before & after the early '60's were made in an unusal way to start with quite unlike anything currently being built today that I know of. They start out as a thick piece of steel rod that was left to "cure" outside in the weather for 7 years...I have photo's of the "bleeding" of a stack of barrel steel in the snow at the plant. Then the direction of the grain of the steel was identified and a small 18-24"+/- billet was taken off the rod. The couple inch's thick billet was then chucked up in a very long hydralic press and a reamer mandrel was driven thru the middle of the barrel causing it to stretch to about 28-29"s all the while the barrel is rotating and other hammers are beating the barrel inward as the reamer is being driven thru the billet.

At this point the barrel is rifled using the same technique of the hydralic hammer, and then cut to length, crowned, chambered and threaded. Then the interior of the barrel is hand swaged with an industrial grade of diamond paste until it is slick as glass & the barrel is "straightened" the old fashioned way using a unique tool and a master craftsmans Mark I eyeball - I was challenged to twist up a barrel anyway I wanted and watch how it could be completely straightened using no othe measuring instruments but the guy's right eye . The barrel is then chucked up onto a electrically fired universal reciever and the barrel is shot 3 times for accuracy. If it fails to meet the SAKO minimum standard of 3 shots under 1" at 100 meters in the underground test range the barrel is cut in half & the scrap is sent back to the smelter. SAKO to my knowledge never fixed one and sent it on. At this point the barrel is still in the white and the exterior tool marks and "swirl" from the roto forging process are removed to whatever profile is ordered, polished and blued. At that point all the major componenets are assembled by hand and the gun is fired 3 time in a special Filing Cabinet looking safety device by a guy from the Finnish Governments' dept of Standards with a substantial overload and the headspace is checked for stretch..if a gun fails at this point the stock, trigger group & maybe the reciever are recovered and the barrel is cut in half. The guns that pass are then hand stamped with the Finnish export mark of the Roaring Lion symbol, and the gun goes to final finish out and is boxed for shipment.

I have seen this procedure first hand in 1984 at the plant in Rihimaaki..and this is only part of the reasons that particularly pre '72 SAKO's that were inported by Firearms International are so highly prized. The Garcia Corp became the US distributor in 1972 thru about 1976 or so and demanded that the production rate be increased dramatically, leading to short cuts and a severe loss of the US market when the quality fell off.
I worked for Stoeger Industries as a salaried Regional Sales Manager from 1982 thru 1988, which at that time was owned as a corporate partnership between Nokia and the family in Spain that owned Llamma handguns, under the management of George Sodini Sr & George Jr & Chuck Lozito for the early part of that time. I credit the Sodini family and the their staff for re establishing the SAKO reputation after the debacle that Garcia wrought on SAKO. IMO it was a sad day when Beretta purchased Stoeger about 5-6 years ago.
You have a fine handmade rifle that by all rights should be far from being shot out in only a thousand rounds regardless of any caliber that SAKO built at that time. I personally have shot some of the SAKO's I have owned in the past far more than that, including a 243 that I must have shot 5-6K rounds over a 5+ year period thru it after I got it USED in 1968 ...with no damage even though I overloaded it one time so badly the bolt had to hammered open with no stretch evident in the barrel or receiver because of my greenhorn stupidity & I credit that SAKO as being mabe the only gun on the market at time that could & DID save my life. It didn't even blow the dust out of the receiver well, much less damage the stock or floor plate. SAKO steel is anything but soft.
I would re barrel your gun to a 260 or any other 308 or 284 based rounds & keep the 243 barrel before I would sell it to anyone but YMMV.
In my dreams I find a junky looking 579 action SAKO somebody thinks is trashed 'cause it looks nasty, that I can buy and rebarrel to a 6.5x284...IMO thats why your "buddy" is gently squeezing you with tales of soft steel & negative criticism to create doubt in your mind ... and sell it to him. JMHO but I have "Been There & Done That".
Ron

Verhoositz, I had no idea what what I had! I picked the thing up with Sako mounts on it, blue at 98%, the stock at 95% in the standard style not deluxe just because I liked the way it felt in my hands and I wanted a .243. It was an impulse buy but has continued to be one of the most accurate rifle I have even with the poor 2 x 7 scope on it. After your very complete description of the rifle, I would find it very hard to part with it! Thank you,maybe I should start looking for one in .308!!

There have been a number of gun companies use the "Roto Forging" process. It is more expensive to be sure but IMO the concentricity and stress relief are 2nd to none. I had an Roto Forged Ithaca shotgun barrel threaded for a set of aftermarket choke tunes one time...and was amazed that there was complete threading with no wall failure...even though the 6 lb Ithaca's barrel was half as thick as all the 7 1/2 lb Remingtons going thru the shop. I think it was Steyr that used to sell a roto forged barrel that had had the swirls left on the barrel and the tool marks polished out and always thought that was a great looking barrel treatment.
Ron

http://runeberg.org/steelswe/0085.html

That was an interesting read. Especially since it was before WWII
and I didn't read the date in the beginning.

I was going to look into their "new" small diesel when I was done!

I've got a Tikka M65 made in 1975 with Bofors Streel. In its old hunted 85-90% shape its got that beautiful elegance knowing what it's made of especially, 100% Steel & Walnut! With my handloads it'll shoot 5/8" @ 100 consistently. I don't think I'd trade it for most Mod 70's!

Rifles made with Bofors steel are obviously cool from a historic viewpoint. And maybe, just maybe that steel was in some way superior to what the rest of the world used for guns in 1920.

And I got no doubt that many WWI and WWII veterans had a nostalgic view of Bofors made weapons, based on their experience. Maybe even some vets from the latter days of the 20th century.
I'm pretty sure that's who Sako was marketing to when they stamped "Bofors Steel" on their barrels.

But I think I can sleep soundly, without sweating the availability of Bofors steel, if I just ordered a new barrel for my rifle today...

I'm also confident that some of those veterans had some "Bofors Steel" in their souls...

I think a lot of classic Sako owners attributed the vault like construction of their rifles to Bofors steel barrels but it really was the design and workmanship.

There are some seriously exotic alloys used in rifle and pistol construction now that were not available 60 years ago.

Another tidbit for the Roto Forging crowd is that the vast majority of the Hammer Forging machines in use today are made in Steyr Austria. CZ also ages barrel blanks in the weather for years before they are machined.

It makes a Sako sell better

Fo sure, Hanco I know the barrel stampings but I understand Bofors is stamped on the end of the barrel shank as well.