Has anyone else had problems with their Sako 85 in 06 and larger cases ejecting loaded or fired brass? I found my 06 ejects nearly straight up and 3 out of 4 or so rounds hit the windage knob on the scope and drop straight down into the loading ranp. Apparently the location of the ejector causes the cases to come out vertically hitting the scope windage knob. I even tried high Optilock rings and the same thing happened.
I contacted Sako/Beretta and was told to "tilt the rifle" when cycling the bolt. Some solution!
I searched online and discovered a lot of conversation about this problem with some strange home made fittings created but the common solution seems to be rotate your scope 90 degrees placing your windage knob on top and elevation on the left side. It works great unless you have a windage or illumination knob on your scope. You have to get the up and down thing straight since left and right is now on top. There is a video of a fellow with his 375 that apparently nearly had a problem with a buffalo before coming up with this solution. Actually that open area really makes reloading directly into the magazine easier.
Does anyone have any experience with 308 length cases and a scope mounted normally? The best I got from Beretta was they thought it would be OK. This might be the reason I'm seeing some very reasonably priced 270 / 30-06 Sako 85s. The gentleman I bought the gun from said he really didn't shoot the gun much but it worked fine. Surprise!

Lou, I've heard the same issue numerous times on several forums. With today's scope design often adding a turret on the left side for parallax or illumination, that kills the 90 degree tilt option in mounting the scope. I haven't heard of a fix yet, but one would think that a gunsmith would be able to change the angle of ejection with some modifications.

LJS,I had the same problem. I traded off a Model 85 in 25-06 because of that. I had to have the scope in high or extra high rings to clear the spent rounds. My 85 in .308 does not have any issues. I have heard the Gre Tan rifles has a spring kit and possible a recommendation on the extractor to get you fixed up with the 06 based rounds. It is a problem though for sure.
It would be nice if they could get that ejector away from the 6 O'clock position for sure.

I had the same problem with a Sako AV. Took me a bit to figure it out. I went back to an older Leupold Vari-X III scope with a 1 inch tube. They have small windage adjustments which solved my problem.

I put a VX3 on it and it just would not work. If I slammed the bolt back very firmly, the case would bounce off the bottom of the windage knob before falling out. It was really nicking the scope bottom.
I can live with This one but I would like to rig up a gun for long range shooting. It reminds me of the old saying “one time shame on you, two times shame on me”.

As mentioned above this is a common problem with the Sako 85's and Beretta won't do a thing to help. They should simply admit to the design flaw and redesign the action to eliminate the problem Instead, they continue to sell a defective product.

I have a friend who bought one of these rifles in 7mm mag. He mounted a Leupold VX3 3.5x10x40 scope without turrets using Sako Optilock ringmounts. He had the same problem and got the stock answer from Beretta which was to try different rings and scope combinations. He sent the rifle down the road.

My first rifle was a Sako Finnbear in .270 Win. which I still have. Great rifle but I would never buy one of the new Sako rifles.

I found an interesting piece on the sako collectors Club site. A fellow found that the rim thickness contributed to the issue. Thicker case rims worked better, having a better fit in the extractor. To test the theory he used 308 brass in his 30-06 just to see how it ejected and found that spent cases went more horizontal. He then modified the extractor for a better fit and was able to solve his problem.

I have read about this problem many times. As noted, some people have sold it my turn in the scope so that the turrets extend to the left and vertical, not to the right. Some also mount scope higher. No other solutions really.

I know your pain! I had a thread here earlier in the summer about a newly acquired AV in 416 Remington with the same issue. Now, my gun is left handed, so it wasn't the windage turret cases were hitting, it was the dial for the illumination. I took slow motion video of me ejecting cases, and it became very clear what the issue was. I replaced the scope to a Vari-X III without anything on the left side of the gun, and it's been flawless since.

If you read the Sako forums, you'll see a lengthy history of this issue with the M85. I've no idea why Sako placed the ejector where they did, but they did. I have a pack of the Gre Tan ejector springs, which are stronger and supposed to help change the angle slightly. I'd happily send you one or two of them for free if you wanted to give that a try. It's a simple swap to see. I didn't end up using them in my rifle because the issue wasn't related to that.

One other fix I've seen was to have a gunsmith bevel the top corner of the extractor slightly. This is supposed to have a more pronounced change to the ejection angle. It's popular with other types of shooters, too.

Probably because less production line re-tooling with ejector at 6 o'clock for both LH and RH models.

Some long turret scopes can cause issues (got .300 WM Grey Wolf, .375 H&H Kodiak and .30-06 Bavarian Carbine 85's) otherwise ok.

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If you read the Sako forums, you'll see a lengthy history of this issue with the M85. I've no idea why Sako placed the ejector where they did, but they did. I have a pack of the Gre Tan ejector springs, which are stronger and supposed to help change the angle slightly. I'd happily send you one or two of them for free if you wanted to give that a try. It's a simple swap to see. I didn't end up using them in my rifle because the issue wasn't related to that.

Good suggestions but these are things the customer shouldn't have to do to make a new rifle function properly. Especially on a rifle costing over $1,000.

Beretta should have made these rather simple changes to the rifles. That it was really sticks in my craw. Beretta knows they have a problem and won't fix it and continues to sell a defective product.

Has anyone installed a plunger ejector like a Remington?

quote:

Originally posted by Labman:
Good suggestions but these are things the customer shouldn't have to do to make a new rifle function properly. Especially on a rifle costing over $1,000.

Beretta should have made these rather simple changes to the rifles. That it was really sticks in my craw. Beretta knows they have a problem and won't fix it and continues to sell a defective product.

Agreed on all points, and I've been over this with some others. My particular issue wasn't a design flaw (AV model works fine) but rather a simple fact of something in the way of the ejection port. The M85's are a different story and one well-told across many users. The rifles are really nice, and honestly, if I liked it enough and a simple fix like a spring was all it took, I wouldn't think twice about remedying it. This kind of stuff happens on all rifles, though maybe not to this degree, but it's something worth investigating.