Hello,

I am wondering what the thoughts are on Sako Vixen rifles? I have read Frank DeHaas's review and have heard they were quite accurate. Can anyone give me firwt hand knowledge of th L461 in a 222 or 223? I am wondering about best bullet weights, loads and if anyone has shot 60 grain partitions in a Vixen?

Thanks for the help and information

ddj

very cool little rifles... mine is a precision shooter so far... still burning up rem factory 50 gr and averaging .5" 5 shot groups... when i have all of my factory stuff shot up i'll load for it, but i'm in no hurry with the way that it shoots the factory stuff....

Sako Vixens are probably the best production actions available. They don't make the L461 any more and the "Vixen" is a designation that Sako had put on their shortest action made until the newer models after Stoeger started importing them.

The guns themselves are notoriously accurate and extremely well made. I have 2 custom made rifles using the older Riihimaki actions because of the excellence in their manufacture as well.



I have owned and shot several Sako L461's in both standard and deluxe models in .223. Both my sons have Sako .222 Remingtons and they shoot very well. I have another friend that I convinced to buy Sakos, he has 3...a .223 in Lightweight Hunter, a .223 in heavy barrel, and a single shot 6mm PPC. He hardly shoots the heavy barreled .223 or the 6mm as his Lightweight is so accurate.

All that said, I have shot 1000's of 55 grain soft point bullets in the .223 and even more, possibly 10's of thousands of 50 grain Remington PLHP bullets in both .222 and .223 as well as in my 220 Swift with great accuracy and overall reliability.

I have never shot the heavier 60 grain bullets at all, finding the best velocities, accuracy and explosive characteristics with these light bullets.

A Partition is a game bullet and I don't see much use for a .222 or a .223 in hunting game animals. I am sure the .222 and .223 both have been used on antelope/deer sized game with success, but I believe you owe game animals more consideration when hunting them.

Sako L-461 is among the finest actions ever made.

I had two of them and still have one. It has a Winchester take off barrel (1-14") originally in 22-250 and I carved off the chamber and rechambered it to 223.....slickest little prairie dogging rifle ever.

IMO this little action makes the finest .223 or .222 family that one can get!

No I haven't.....I've pretty much confined myself to 40-50 grain bullets.

The 60 grain bullets IMO are suited for the 22-250 and 220 Swift. That said....I wouldn't hesitate to shoot deer with a .223 and a 60 grain bullet but doubt my particular 1-14" twist will handle it.

I'd stick to weights under 53, especially in 222. No, I have fired a few and the 60 gr. Parts will not spin worth a hoot in a 1-14, even at 3,400 fps in a 222 Magnum L461.

If going to a hunting bullet, the Barnes TSX 45gr. will work.

40's and 50's of all flavors are loved, as are most powder combos. 222 powders to use are Rl-7, Rl-10x, 4198, Benchmark and a host of others.

What is the rate of twist in a Vixen 223? I was under the assumption it was 1 in 12.

Does anyone have any history if this would stabilize 60 grain partitions?

Thanks,

ddj

Those who have a Sako L461 generally just love them, and those who don't have one pester those of us who do unmercifully. I can't take mine to the range without getting at least a half dozen "You interested in selling that?" questions...plus the drool they leave all over it is nasty.

Can't help you with the twist rate question, mine is chambered in .222, 1-14 twist Hart barrel. I only shoot 40-50 grainers in it.

I have 2 an L461 in 204Ruger/Short and an A1 in 222 Rem and I'm keeping them! Thems my thoughts.

regards,
JohnT

Same as the rest of the responses here. I have a one in .222 and liked it so much I got another one for my son when he was eleven. It was his first center fire rifle and he learned to become a good shot with it. I load 40 grain V-Max and Ballistic Tips in both. 24 grains of Ramshot Exterminator will get you about 3400 fps and hopefully the sub 1" accuracy we get from ours. I like Ramshot powder because it meters so well and it is not temperature sensitive. If I had to pick the most accurate load for the two Vixens as well as my Remington .222, it would be the same 40 grain bullets over 21 grains of IMR 4198. That load has been around for a long time, with good reason. I don't load it much anymore because you have to weigh every charge with that coarse grained powder. It just takes too much time when loading a couple of hundred rounds. The Ramshot Exterminator glides right through my measure without a hitch.

The Vixens are very well built rifles and in my opinion, a bargain at the prices asked for them on the auction sites.

Nice little guns. I have a Riihimaki, heavy barreled .222 rem. Wouldn't get rid of it for anything. It spent a lot of time in Alaska shooting seals before I got it. If they started making them again they'd sell like hotcakes. I've never shot 60 gr. bullets either. Save 60 gr. and up for my 22/250.

Beautiful rifles. I had one in 222 Remington in the 1960's and loved it - it was very accurate. Unfortunately, something else caught my eye and I sold it. The L461 actions were very well made and very smooth.

I have a Sako in .222 Rem that (according to the serial number) was made in 1964. Fantastic metal fit, polish and blue!

Along with 2 rifles with family history, this Sako would be the last I'd part with in a dire emergency.

Fine rifles, and that tiny action is so matched to the .222 Rem/ .222 Rem Mag and .223 -- well, it is just so cute!

John

I have owned a bunch of them over the years, I love the old Riihimakis with the roller safety, especially those sweet little Manlicher models, they are awesome...

I have shot a ton of 60 gr. Hornadys through them on deer and all my kids used them with that bullet on their first deer..They sure worked on a big muley at 100 yards away and even at 200 yards on rare ocassions..The 60 gr. bullets never quit match the 40 and 5o gr. bullets but they usually shoot and inch or so and thats fine for big game imo...

My present L-461 Sako is a full blown Custom 6x45 (6mm/223)with a most beautiful piece of dark blood red full fiddle back walnut from a piece of 40 year old Claro that took 24 LPI checkering without a hitch and without fuzz, it is as hard as any piece of wood I have ever used..It is built on an English/African pattern, its my little African big bore. weighs 5.5 lbs...shoots 1/4 to 1/2 inch groups with regularity thats boring and shot a few 10 shot groups that went .290, .284, 301 and will always shoot 10 shots inside a 50 caliber hole if I do my part.

I love the old Sakos and wouldn't own one of the new ones....

You got my attention. Nothing like that in the current lineup?

I have enjoyed my Vixens. It just seems like the guns made years ago are higher quality with better craftmanship. People took pride in their work and their product.

Are there any guns today that are of the Vixen in terms of quality?

ddj

I've kinda gotten to wondering about the .204 in the L461...make a sweet coyote whacker, wouldn't it?

I think building a 204 on a Vixen is a great idea.

ddj

I've been looking for a Vixen action to build a lightweight truck gun on for several months now and haven't been able to find one anywhere close to a reasonable price. Everyone I know who has one loves it.

I have the later model A1 in 223, great rifle.

Weighs 8 lbs all in, will first break clays at 300 metres and then break the pieces on the next round.

I have a circa 1965 Sako heavy barrel in .222 Magnum with an old Weaver K10 scope and it will shoot into sub-MOA as long as you care to load and fire. It is consistently the most accurate rifle I have ever owned, so after 40+ years of shooting it, I can highly recommend it!

I got on this Vixen topic a little late but I have one that started life as a .222 and for the life of me I could not get that rifle to do better than an inch and mostly about 1 1/8". So... I parted the gun out and now it's a .20 Practicle with a pretty stock and wears a 4.5 X 14 Zeiss. Slickest little truck/carry gun you could imagine with legit 400 yard range from a good rest. John.

To this day, I still find myself driving by the spot where I watched my father drop a crow out of a tree in the early 60s. It was in a hedge row that is about 350 yards off the road.
The hedge row is still there, but the crow and my father are both gone.
I still have the beautiful Vixen in .222 Mag, checkered stock and Monte Carlo comb and have never fired it.
Always kept clean and fresh.
Not being a reloader, even though I still have all of his dies, I've decided to part with it and use the $$ on another project.
My father kept all of his weaponry in as good or better condition than it was in when he acquired it, and taught me to do the same.
Any tips on what the value of this example of times-gone-by might be?

I have a Sako 222 Riihimaki I found in a basement I was cleaning out. It has no fire control or stock and the bbl has some heavy rust/pitting on it. There were two floorplates and two magazines but no trigger.

Does anyone have any suggestions where I can find a trigger, bolt relaese mechanism, and stock for this little jewel?

Thought I’d revive this thread just because I picked one up here on the classifieds in a 223 varmint barrel.
Anyone wanna share some pics or stories about their Sako Vixen?

I'm on the second 222 barrel on a little Sako. in between the 222 tubes was a 6x47. it was nice, EXCEPT, the ejection port was too short to eject a loaded 85 grain Sierra hp. Now wouldn't a man think to check such things before he charged ahead?? So, now the rifle wears a 20 inch 12 twist 222. It shoots the 60 gr partition just fine.
t

I have had them in a 221 Fireball, 222, and 223 are were great. The Fireball is the only gun I can say that I truly shot the barrel completely out on. I had another one in 222 and I bought it used (as I did the 221) and it was ok but not great. I found out why when cleaning it after the first trip to the range, the barrel had a very small bulge in it (no wonder I got it for the price I did) Once you felt the patch get loose, and knew where to feel, you could feel it on the outside (once again very slight) Anyway I sent it and had a new barrel put on and chambered it in 223.
The only trouble I ever had (other than the barrel issue) was with an extractor. I broke one on the Fireball. I found out that they made a long extractor and a short one. My fireball had a long extractor and I like to have never found a replacement for it, but I did and all was well.
If I could find another Vixen 461L action at a good price, I would love to replace the ones I sold.

223 is a 1:12 twist (actually it's metric so the equivalent) the 60 Nos Partition was designed and developed to stabiliae out of a 1:12. I've have very good luck with a max load of Benchmark and 60 gr Nos Parts.

I have shot eactly one deer with it - I though it would be the cat's meow and bee's knees but it was not - not for me.

small buck, shoulder hit (low, angled towards the heart) I watched him through the scope run off, maybe 25 yds, No blood trail, just a small tuft of hair where I hit him.

When I got my SAKO, I called Nosler and asked about a 60 grain bullet and twist rate, told the tech what I was thinking (Bench mark and 60 gr Nos) he said "There you go...."

They won't stabilize vrey well out of a 222 because that's a 1:14 twist.

helidriver, since I posted this I found enough parts to make the rifle work, albeit as a single shot. I finished the 90% inletted stock found with it and have been enjoying the heck out of it since '09. While checking the feed and extractor, no 222 round was available, so I used a dummy 223 Rem round and was surprised to see the action close all the way. Someone had rechambered it and had not remarked the barrel. No matter, I have no problem with it being in 223 Rem.

It is hands down the most accurate rifle I've ever owned and will not leave my clutches. I don't know what the actual twist rate is but repeated attempts to measure it comes up with something between 1 in 13 and 14. I have tried many different bullets in it with outstanding success up through 55 grains. The 60 gr Partition was minute of deer vitals accurate, but it was easy to see that it was right on the edge. The only exception to the 55 gr limits was the 53 grain (or was it 52?) TTSX which I don't believe is made any more. The 45 gr TTSX shot beautifully, but the 53 gr was too long for the twist.

Here is a group I fired earlier this year while trying a 'new to me' powder, DP2200. I had some leftovers, so fired them into one group. This is two different bullets and two different powders.

Beautiful job, Hook, and congratulations on reviving the rifle!!

You guys are making me feel bad again. Sellers remorse big time. This thread started pre-Windfall, but I had one of these slick little Sako Vixen rifles only in .222 Magnum and not handloading back in those days, no more factory loaded ammunition said to me best sell off that one. Big mistake. Oh to have had it in a .222 or .223, but no, that magnum round. What a great little rifle action that I know now would have made into something more available ammo wise. Now I’m in the same hard to get ammo available camp with a .221 Fireball in a Cooper m38.

I had a Vixen .222 with a full-length "Mannlicher" stock for a while. It was very accurate, but eventually somebody else wanted it more than I did.

A couple years ago I bought one of the earlier Sako L-46's in .222. It had been used pretty hard so the bore wasn't in perfect shape--but it shoots just as well. The only handload I tried was one worked up for the Vixen, and it put five shots into .6 inch....

Thanks for the pic Hook, that’s a beauty.

Have a 222 Vixen that I bought at auction about 3 years ago. $547! It is the heavy barrel model. She shoots 50 grain bullets into little bitty dime sized holes.

Same here…About 10 years ago I stumbled into a couple of heavy barreled varmint Vixens in 222 and 223. Both without any fussing around with we’re knot makers.

I later found what I thought from the pictures on GB was another, rarely used Sako Forester with a Bofors tube. Unfortunately it had a small, hairline crack on the fore end of the stock.

Since everything else, metal, rifling, bolt and face confirmed it wasn’t shot much, I went ahead and tricked it out with a MCM stock and Cerakote treatment. It is another very accurate shooting Sako.

Sako Family…A couple have been ‘tripped’ the core group 222, 223, and 243 remained.


🦫

Sexy pic Beav…

Month ago today I scored a L461 mint with factory rings in 222 Remington Magnum. 1st group zeroing it was 1 hole at 50 yds. Beautiful fiddleback frt to rear...mb

My Vixen was a 222 magnum but it was a tight fit in the action so I had the barrel set back and chambered to 221 Fireball. Been hunting coyotes with it for decades. Have been considering using the rifle as a donor for a 17 Fireball or maybe a vartarg.

I have a few Vixens here and I would think there would be a market for such guns today.

The Magnum is a touch too long for modern tipped stuff to magazine feed or to get close to the lands, but every 222 Magnum actioned Vixen I've come across has shot lights out as long as the lands were within an inch.

I've ran a few 223 Vixens but none have ever shot as well as the 222 or 222 Magnums, except an early Bofors barreled one.

I owned a Garcia Vixen .223, and also a 1960-ish Forester .243. The stock on the Vixen never quite felt right and I traded it for a B78 .45/70 that beat the crap outta me and also went down the road. My son has the Forester. I check for similar stuff online now and then, but when they show, there’s no shortage of interested parties.

Nothing quite like the Vixens, though the CZ 527 came close in many respects, but alas it's gone now too, which probably says something about the changed rifle market. Those who appreciate them and similar stuff should probably get ‘em while they can. Everyone ought to have at least one fine rifle amongst their bunch of plastic fantastics.

A few years years ago I got the bug for another Mannlicher stocked rifle and looked at a number of high priced Sakos. I really liked the longer barreled L-46s but ran into a like new L-461 with the stock shortened and got it for a great price. I'm vertically challenged so it was to be cut down anyway so this one sàve me the work and saved my pocket book too.

It is one of my favorite çoyote hunting rifles, 52gr Speer HPs over a mild dose of Exterminator. My only gripe is that you can't mount even a Leupold 1-4x20 in low rings. I have a Leupold 2-7 compact on it in low rings but it does lack FOV even on 2x.

I bought one of those little Sako actions from an army buddy in about 1994. He bought it from the rod and gun club when he was stationed in Germany, so it's probably at least 40 years old now. It was new when I bought it. I've long been a .17 Remington fan so I bought a barrel from Numrich arms that was a take-off from disassembled H&R rifles imported in the, I think, 70s. It was a very light 20". An old friend of mine in Bozeman screwed it on the Sako action and also stocked it in an early MPI synthetic stock. I've only shot one load in it with Remington 50gr PLHPs. It clocked 3900 and shot into a half inch. I like the .17Rem but found it iffy on coyotes out past 250 yards. So, I'm thinking of re-barreling it in .17 Hornet or .221 Fireball. JBs article on the .17 Hornet has gotten me cogitating on a new for me chambering.

Was 50 grain a typo?

Had to be. 2X or more heavier bullet than typical .17 cal 20 and 25 gr bullets. You’d have to have a larger case to drive.17 cal 50s at 3900 fps.

I have three custom Sako A1 rifles, 17 Rem, 221 fb, and 22ppc, and in instances of insanity, I sold a factory 223, factory 6ppc, custom 223, factory 222, and a custom 20VT.
All of these rifles are/were very accurate and 100% reliable.
Wish they were still made.

Trouthunterdj,

I purchased a Sako Vixen in .222 Rem with the intention of re-barreling it to .223

I made the "mistake" of shooting the rifle before doing anything. It was so accurate that I kept it as a .222 Rem!

I easily worked up several handloads with 45 and 50 grain bullets that shot 3/8 inch groups, but it was even more accurate with a better shooter than me on the trigger!

I never tried 60gr bullets, but the 1 in 14 inch twist of most .222's make that unlikely to succeed. Go with a .223 if you also want to shoot these bullets (at deer, or whatever).

If I were you, I'd go for one in .223 because you don't HAVE to handload, and if you are ever forced to sell it (god forbid!) it will sell much easier as a .223

/John

I’ve owned and sold a lot of Sakos over the years but the L461 heavy barrel Vixen in .222 Mag will never get sold. My father in law bought it new before he went to Vietnam and used it in Alaska taking everything from seals for crab bait to brown bear that caused trouble. In fact iirc this rifle has taken several brown bear back in the day. My father in law’s “old man” (a term of endearment and respect for his stepdad) used a .222 Mag for almost everything so it was natural for my FIL & his younger half brother to buy the same caliber as the old man. They made good money fishing and crabbing back in the days when it was still a territory. It still wears the Weaver K6-C3 scope that he bought at the same time. It wasn’t many years later that he was recruited out of his bush flying and fishing in Alaska. He flew solo at 15 flying mail out to Kodiak and at 15 he flew his first passengers to Kodiak….circa 1953. He spent about 10 years in SE Asia starting in Laos for 5+ and finishing up in Saigon. Apparently Civil Air Transport/Air America recruited heavily from the bush pilots of Alaska and my FIL decided to give it a shot since he loved the adventure. That determined the entire trajectory of his life. He loved fishing and he loved flying so he had no reason to leave Alaska and no desire to leave since he made crazy good money as a “kid”. He used to brag to me how he was making as much or more at 15/16 years old than his dad who was an experienced Boeing engineer.

Anyway this is one of my rifles that will always remain in our family. Thankfully our son and daughter both like firearms and shooting so it’ll be appreciated too. <please excuse my poor camera skills>

A sample of the ammo bought at various points in history along with a few prices….$6.95(20)….$12.95(20)….$79.95(50). The boxes in the picture on the right are 222 Remington (not mag) for a rifle I no longer own but I collect old ammo and ammo boxes.

Here’s the rifle I bought here on the classifieds, I’ve had it in my possession exactly 4 hours.This was the 3rd load I tried.
Maybe someone can help me get the pic to show.

[img]http://https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/18079056#Post18079056[/img]

Nice rifle and it looks like a keeper.

I knew I had a few Vixens, but I didn't know how many. It is so cold here, I decided to drag some out of the safe.

Here is most of them, I have a few more that are Custom and a H&R Ultra in 17 Remington.

If anyone is interested, the last 2 Deluxes on the right are for sale, they are 22 PPC and 6mm PPC. Both are extremally rare...

Best story in a long time!

shrap, have you fired the 7X33 you acquired a couple of years ago?

thats a very nice collection you have there Shrapnel, TY for sharing

Yes, my bad. I meant the 25gr PLHP.

Yes, it shoots fine, it just took a year of sending brass and bullets back and forth with a guy that makes the bullets and brass. He machines the brass from 30-30 cases and swages the bullets to reproduce the original size and weight.

It was a lot of work, but I got it done and it shoots darn good…

Good to hear you've got it shooting. Always thought the 7X33 would be quite nifty. Wonder if the 350 Legend brass might be persuaded to morph into 7X33 a little easier than machining 30-30 stuff.

Actually that 350 legend brass can work. The problem with it is the diameter across the base is a few thousandths shy of what the original 7 x 33 cartridge was. I had another guy that sent me some brass that was made from the 350 legend and it did work it was just a tad bit under sized. Getting the 30-30 brass machined down and all of the dimensions correctly was somewhat of a problem because Steve didn’t have a chamber to gauge the finished case by and it was hard for him to do it by dimension rather than an actual chamber to check for the finished case to see how well it would fit.

The next problem to overcome was the bullets fitting inside the neck and being able to still chamber in the rifle. The bullets that he swaged were actual jacketed lead core bullets but when he swaged them there was a tiny bit of a lip around the base of the bullet where it didn’t go completely into the swaging die and that produced a bit of a rim on the base of the bullet. That little rim wouldn’t allow you to seat that bullet inside the neck of the brass and then be able to get that loaded round to chamber. Subsequently I built a little tool that looked like a flat iron and I took all of those bullets that he made, laid them on a hard surface and then took that flat iron and rolled that rim off the base until it was even and the bullet would then seat down into the brass without any obstruction.

It was a long and arduous process to get this gun functioning. I did even find some original Sako brass and Sako bullets which I still have so I am capable of shooting this rifle several hundred rounds without worry of having to come up with more bullets and the brass is such that it can be reloaded and fired many times, probably more than I ever will use them.

Here are pictures of the bullets and brass. As you can see in the first picture, he makes a good bullet, it was just that there was that small lip around the base that needed to be beveled.

The second picture is the bullet, brass next to a 222 Remington Magnum case for comparison.

The third picture is Sako components I got from a guy in England.

The fourth shows the cartridge next to a 9mm on the left and a 223 on the right. They started out with a 9mm case to create this masterpiece.

The last is evidence of what it will do to a gopher...

The Sako Vixen .222 became famous in New Zealand in the 1960's and 70's as the 'go to' rifle for deer cullers in New Zealand. Particularly for cullers working in the bush country as shots were closer, and the report of the .222 didn't carry far. Thousands of deer (mainly reds) were killed via the Vixen / .222 route.

As I said.....a nifty little cartridge! Got a heckova extractor groove, too!

You have an enviable brace of Sakos, shrap. And that 7X33 is a jewel.

Not sure if these are available in the US, but interesting cartridge. I was unfamiliar with it until this thread.

https://www.henrykrank.com/7x33-sako-bertram-case-3154d/

I emailed them to see if they would export, haven’t heard back yet…