I can't help noticing the similarities between the Sako L61 Finnbear and the early Weatherby Vanguard VGX.

Does anyone know the history behind it?

Howa of Japan was established in 1967. Their first centerfire rifle was called the Golden Bear. It wasn't just similar to the Sako L61, it was an almost exact copy. Almost all parts between the two rifles will interchange. Even the stock was a near-exact copy of the Sako deluxe model with excellent wood, high gloss finish and skip-line checkering.

These rifles were imported to the U.S. (briefly, in the late 1960s) by a company called Dickson as the Dickson-Howa Golden Bear. They were very well made, similar in quality of materials and workmanship to the Sako rifles but with labor costs being lower in Japan at the time, they sold at a lower price.

You still see these Golden Bear rifles for sale used once in a while, and very nice rifles they are. I wouldn't mind having one, though I wouldn't pay as much for one as I would for a Sako in the same condition. They may be as good as Sakos but they aren't better, and I do love Sakos!

Sako protested at being copied so blatantly, and I believe threatened (and may actually have begun) legal action. I'm speculating, but it seems they reached an agreement for Howa to drop the L61 copy and introduce a redesigned action. Howa introduced the "1500" action which is quite similar in appearance and operation to the Sako, but different enough to satisfy Sako it was not a direct copy.

The Weatherby Vanguard rifles I understand have always been built on the 1500 action. At least, pictures I've seen of very early Vanguards show them built on the 1500 action.

Though the Howa 1500 action does resemble the Sako L61 there are numerous differences. The L61 bolt, for example, has the left/top locking lug split to accommodate a fixed ejector (similar in operation to the Mauser 98 ejector) while on the 1500 the locking lug is not split and the ejector is a spring-powered plunger in the boltface. Early L61 bolts had a third locking lug at the rear of the bolt (though this was dropped in the early '70s).

The top of the 1500 receiver is rounded, polished, and drilled and tapped for scope bases. The L61 (and the Golden Bear copy) had the receiver top flattened and had integral dovetail slots for attaching scope rings. There are other differences as well.

Actually I think it did Howa good to copy the Sakos. If you're going to learn to make rifles by copying, you may as well copy a good one and in the late '60s there was no better rifle to copy than the Sako. I'm sure Howa quickly learned a great deal about the manufacturing process, tolerances, steel quality, heat treatments, and tight quality control by emulating Sako.

Certainly in the 40+ years in which Howa has been making the 1500 action and barrels quality has been consistently high. There's never been a period at which you could say quality control slipped, if anything they have only gotten better with time and experience.

While there are differences between the original L61 actions and the Howa 1500 actions there are also many similarities, both in production and in features. Bolts, for example, were and are made in one piece by forging and machining, rather than by having the bolt handle and locking lug section brazed or welded on.

Both actions use a hook-type extractor which grabs a good chunk of the case rim. The receivers have the same big flat bedding area ahead of the magazine, and a large integral recoil lug.

The L61 certainly did influence the design and appearance of the 1500/Vanguard action though as stated earlier there are many differences as well. I think the most important influence the Sako rifles had on Howa was to set an example of workmanship and quality control, setting a standard which Howa has done a fine job of maintaining over the years.

Thanks for the history lesson. I am not intimate with the early Sako's but didn't notice the integral bases until the L61R AV series rifles.

It seems all good designs get plagiarized to some degree going all the way back to the 03 Springfield.

I did a bit more research on the Golden Bear rifles and found I made a mistake regarding the U.S. importer. The company was actually called "The American Import Company", based in California. The "Dickson" name was a trade name they had been using on optical imports and adapted to the rifles when they first began importing them.

As you say, it's hard to come up with something really new in designing bolt-action rifles.

A while back, I got one of these rifles. I don't know how original it was compared to when it was initially reported, but the trigger on the rifle looked like a factory Sako trigger, and was marked Finland. Interestingly, the action itself did not have any markings on it at all, but the barrel was marked with the importer and a number that I would have guessed to be a serial number. Obviously pre 1968, but it was neat to see an action with ZERO markings on it.