Hi,
Has anyone had this irritating problem?

I bought a nikon monarch 3.5-10x50mm but found that it is too short for the sako rings on my sako .270.
The fellow at the gunshop said only the European scopes were long enough to fit well...
Any experiences with this?

Get a european scope?!


Sorry, no but really get a new Leupold or a used european scope, they will fit without the use of extension rings and the what not´s


Best regards Chris

The fellow at the gunshop doesn't know beans.

The problem is that the rear mount for factory Sako rings is placed rather far to the rear. This creates a problem with many variable scopes, some of which tend to have power adjustment rings that take up a lot of space. The continent on which the scope was manufactured has little to do with it.

Most aftermarket rings for Sakos provide a forward offset for the rear ring. This would include the Redfield/Burris types, Millett, and the Leupold that can be place anywhere from mid-dovetail forward.

Here are your options: (1) Trade (or otherwise dispose of) the Sako rings and buy rings with a forward offset in the rear ring base. (2) Look for a scope with a shorter eyepiece-to-power ring dimension. (3) Use a fixed power scope which will mount far enough forward (due to the lack of a power ring) to place your scope as you wish it.

Two otions, buy a Zeiss Conquest or buy the Sako Optilock extension base that will allow your scope more travel room.

I have the same gun and have already made plans to purchase both.

I think you will find that the problem is in the mounts or rather the bases. The rear ring/base is always the same. The front one uou can get one that positions the ring just forward of the action opening or one that mounts the rings further away along the dovetail.

I mounted a Leupold 2.5-8 x 36(one of the shortest tubes around) on my L691 Sako 375 & it fits fine with no extension bases. If I can find a pic I shall post it.

Regards
JohnT

Here's the photo:



Notice on the front base the dovetail screw is towards the front, well there is one where the dovetail screw is towards the rear & the rings mount the other end of the base. (scope turned 90 degrees to avoid ejecting cases hitting turret but irrelevant to this post)

And no you can't just turn the base around cause Sako's dovetails are tapered not straight! Actually, I just found this out myself that there are differences when I bought extra low rings & bases for my A1.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Regards
JohnT

Awesome guys, you just saved me a few hundred quid!
Not that I won't be spending them in the same place....

Sako rings work well, but they're heavy and bulky. I have found Warne and Leupold to work the best and you can adjust their position by sliding them along the dovetail. Lou

John T: Rotating the scope 90 degrees to trade the W with the E adjustments works just fine, as you well know.

I have long felt that the custom of putting the windage turret on the righthand side of the scope was silly, since it can (sometimes) interfere with access to the loading port and, as in your case, ejection.

How about it scope companies? Anyone got the balls to buck tradition and change sides with the windage turret?

Stonecreek,

Yes it does work but I had to make myself labels so I'd know which way to adjust. It would have been nice of Sako not to make any changes from the L61R to the L691 & I owuld never have had the problem. Yesj if you can get the scope companies to label it for the way you mention absolutley no reason why not.

No matter my L691 is still one of my favourite guns. Everything I point it at dies!

Regards
JohnT

Have you tried using Leupold Sako mounts?

They fit anywhere on the dovetails!

Whoops, I see Dr. Lou already said that!

Another thing you might look into is whether or not you have Short Action or Long Action optilock bases. The different bases position the hole for the ring at diffenent ends of the base, You want the ones that have the hole at the rear of the base. The bases in the picture are the long action bases and have the ring mounted in the rear of the base.
You can position the front base forwards or towards the back but this will change your windage a bit (I mounted about 25 different scope combo's on Sako's before I finally realized this).
The Leupold's might work on a 270 but the shifted on both my 300 Weatherby and 375 H&H and so I won't use them anymore............DJ

I used Leupold's Sako rings to mount my Leupold 2.5-8 Vari-XIII on my Sako. The rear rings are mounted as far forward as I could get them on the dovetail and they work fine.