Does anyone know of a weaver base that will fit on a Sako rifle. I dont want to drill the receiver. I am looking to fit an aimpoint red dot sight on it hence need weaver bases.

Thanks

Arjun

Yes, Weaver makes an aluminum base which slips onto the Sako tapered dovetails and accepts the Weaver cross-lock style rings. They are also an abomination which does not belong on a rifle the quality of a Sako. Come to think of it, neither does the not-fish-not-fowl Aimpoint device. However, that's simply my opinion and since it's your gun you are entitled to hang whatever appendages on it you please without further lectures from me.

I will occasionally buy a Sako which has these Weaver monstrosities clamped to it like parasites. To relieve the rifle's suffering, I immediately exorcise the offending foreign objects and usually throw them in the wastebasket. However, I think my better judgement was impaired by strong drink the last time I removed such bases and I inadvertently dropped them into my spare rings drawer.

If you would like to have them, simply PM me your mailing address and I'll send them to you. That would be better than further despoiling the local landfill with them.

(Forgive me that the same strong drink which resulted in saving the Weaver bases has also influenced my response tonight. You really are welcome to the Weaver bases if you want them, and only for the price of disclosing your address.)

Hint: In installing them, do not use the set screws as this does no good and will only potentially scar the checkered tops of your dovetails. Instead, take a wooden block and using it as a buffer, firmly tap each base as far forward as it will go with a mallet. The nature of the Sako tapered dovetail is such that the recoil of each shot tightens the bases. I'll assure you, if installed in this manner it will require disinstalling them in the same manner in reverse to remove them.

StoneMan,

Stop trying to hype your collection of aluminium bases.

"Ye protest too much"

Kevin

Kevin:

By light of day I realize that my comments on the Weaver-Sako bases have been too severe. Instead of "parasites" they are more like a fungus growing on your rifle. They would probably melt off if you brushed a little full-strength Clorox on them.

I think I saved the last set I mentioned thinking that they might be used in the event of the coming of the Apocalypse. But then I realized that actually using them would be the Apocalypse.

Watch out if you have a long Sako action and a short scope, as I don't think Weaver mounts will work in that situation.

I wanted to put a Kahles Helia 27 on an L61 Sako once. The Sako mounts would not fit the scope barrel and I asked five different gunsmith for the answer before finding one who could fix it. He simply inverted a pair of Redfield extension mounts and they have worked very well for past 30 years.

Good point, about the Sako long action.

I had to use the "reversed" front Redfield base(new manufacture) for this Sako 25-06. Otherwise, the Leupold 3.5-10XAO would have been too short.

Stone.....Just for you, the 3.5-10X....AND, your second favorite mounts...Redfield!!

Kevin

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
... In installing them, do not use the set screws as this does no good and will only potentially scar the checkered tops of your dovetails. Instead, take a wooden block and using it as a buffer, firmly tap each base as far forward as it will go with a mallet. The nature of the Sako tapered dovetail is such that the recoil of each shot tightens the bases. I'll assure you, if installed in this manner it will require disinstalling them in the same manner in reverse to remove them.

That's advice worth noting.

I finally had a front sight put on my rifle to work with a ghostring-type aperture I'd got for emergencies (can't think of the brand now, but it has an A in a circle on the side). Anyway, the gunsmith sent it back with the peep sight in place and it worked fine - but I had some fun getting the scope back on afterwards. What I had trouble working out was: how much tapping was enough.

Kevin: I see you've got some more of that wood from a tree which was in a car wreck while it was still growing so that the trauma showed up in the grain of the wood, being all squiggly and everything.

Merry Christmas to you too, Steve!!

Kevin