One of my hunting pals and me just got in a pair of SAKO 85 rifles in .270 Win.

We went to the range last weekend, and he had his set up, (my scope wasn't in yet) so we put his through the paces.

He had purchased 2 boxes of Hornady custom ammo, in their 130 gr. SST. He shot a five round group at 100 to start up, and it was on the order of 3/4".

He then cleaned the barrel, not super thorough, just some citrus barrel blaster and a bore snake through a couple of pulls, and then shot 5 at 200 yards.

This group was maybe just slightly over an inch!.

He chewed his way through all 40 cartridges, and didn't have a group over an inch at 200!

He had scoped it with a Swaro 4x12x50 AV, in Warne rings. Needless to say, he has found an accuracy load--right out of the box (pun intended)

Before we left the range, he called the retailer where he had purchased the ammo, and bought all they had (same lot #) and then ordered a case more to boot.

The rifle handled recoil well, and the stock felt good, albeit it is absent the palm swell that the Sako 75's had. The recoil lug set up is different, but they have made it all steel, as opposed to the aluminum pocket that the Shot Show models had. Both of our rifles had above average pieces of wood on them, mine is actually pretty nice I would say. The rifles have a black recoil pad, which I really like, I hated the orangey ones the M-75's had.

The bolt control round feeds from about the last third of the magazine on into the chamber--in other words, as the cartridge is pushed from the magazine, it is captured in control round feed fashion near the end of the mag. You can top feed the action just like the all push feed of the M-75, the bolt just captures the round control feed as it is closed on the cartridge in this case. The bolt feels a little smoother than any of my 75's, and the magazine has a new design feature, wherein you must push up on the mag slightly while depressing the release, or the mag will not detach. I never had any issues with the 75 mag box, but I think this is a desirable feature to many, I don't care either way I suppose.

All in all, I would say I am impressed with the 85, the first one I saw in action damn well shoots! Mine goes through the paces later today.

Regards all--Don

Here are some pics:

I'm jelous! I would like to see some pics when you get a chance. Congrats on a nice new one............DJ

I have just seen an 85 in 30-06 (hunter) and the fit and finish is very good. Almost tempted.....

I just ordered a Sako 85 Laminated stainless steel in cal. 6.5x55 .......great looking rifle !

Congrats wit your little new.
I had a chance to lay my hands on one of them, while a journalistfreind had one for test.
I was in many ways impressed with the quality, of this nice lookimg and generaly well functioning rifle.
The magazine is outstanding, almost close to perfection. The trigger is perfect.
The boltcykeling was smooth and relativly teight. The only thing that maked it semes cheep was the sound while cykeling, it almost reminded me of cyckeling an unfinished CZ over an empty beercan(yes i know it doesent mater when using, but it took away some of the excitement when playing with it)
The cartridge feeding worked perfect for a "pushfeed rifle" it actualy worked that way, wit no problems at all. I just wonder why they try to marked it as a CRF system(it defitnitly didnt work stable as that)
IMHO the only thing they acheved was a marketinggimmic, and perhaps a 2mm shorter bolttravel, and on the negative side a more unsupported casehead, that will let go with less overpreasure compared to the m75.

according to accuracy it was exelent, but it seemed to deliver a velocity about 100-200 feet/sek below factory ammo spec.(the same 4 types of ammo was also tested in 4 other barrels at same lenght and internal diameters,and those 4 other barrels of 2 different brands, delivered all +-40fps the factoryspec

Hey guys, I will post some pics later tonight. I just got back from the range, and the accuracy in my rig was much the same as my friends. Sub MOA at 100, around .4's and .5's, was shooting virgin Norma brass, 58.5 grains H 4831 SC, CCI LRBR primers and 130 gr. NBT's.
I could only shoot at 100 yards today, there were matches on the 200 and 300/600 yard ranges.

Ingvar, that caliber is not available here yet, I would like one in 6.5x55 myself. Right now I have a Grey Wolf (grey laminated stainless) on order, with the specific intent of converting it to a 6.5x284 !


Jorgen, I'm curious about the desire of the CRF feature as well, but it does have the function of not allowing you to short stroke the bolt and over-run a cartridge in the mag I suppose, I have been pretty pleased with the M-75 series, so I'm still forming my opinion on the 85, but so far so good--really good.

quote:

Jorgen, I'm curious about the desire of the CRF feature as well, but it does have the function of not allowing you to short stroke the bolt and over-run a cartridge in the mag I suppose, I have been pretty pleased with the M-75 series, so I'm still forming my opinion on the 85, but so far so good--really good.

On the 3 diferent i have seen there was no efect of the CRF feature for almost 1½" from the brass was free of the magazinelips, until the chamber had aligned the case enough to force it under the extractor. On all 3 of difernt caliber i could shortstroke everytime i provoked it, causing 2 catridges to jam. But honestly i dont se that as a problem, so i would stil call the magazinesolution near perfect, and the CRF as a MARKETING GIMMIC

jorgen, that's good feedback, I haven't actually tried to shortstroke mine and see what happened, now I won't!

I agree with your assessment, that it is at least some degree of marketing, I have never had an issue with the push feeds I have, including a bunch of M-75's.

My camera batteries are dead so I'll have to charge them overnight, and I'll post a few pics tomorrow.

I would love a Gray Wolf 85. But I want a 9.3x62. I doubt this one will make it stateside. I'll just have to stick to my CZ. But here in Alaska, stainless steel and a laminated stock would be nice.

AK Hunter, just check with your dealer, they may be able to custom order the Grey Wolf in a 9.3x62. It may take awhile but that may be your only choice. I know there was one for sale in Alberta by a fellow a few months ago but in a m75 SS rifle-next to new.

I personally prefered the m75 stock over the m85, as the m85 is identical to the Tikka T3 which Ihave 2 in the LS models.

Welcome to the wonderful world of SAKOS!

Kinda hard at this point not to show off my SAKO 75 300 ULTRA

200 grain Accubond
3175 fps
95 gr Retumbo
.292" at 100 yards
Below is a group at 300 yards
.675" at 300 yds.

Just added some pics in the original post, included an attempt of a shot of the bolt face.....It may be making the Kansas trip this year if it likes 140 TSX's!

What a nice rifle! I think the only things I don't like really well are the checkering pattern and the shape of the cheekpiece. But the overall lines are nice. If it were mine and probably hunt with it until it was nice and scratched up and then reshape it and recut the checkering.
Congrats! I'm still jelous.............DJ

Very tidy, well-balanced package.

Paolo, thanks--I do like the whole combo.

DJ, I agree with you, I would choose a different checkering pattern if I had a chance. The cheekpiece, I don't know how I'd change it, but there is sonething about the stock cheekpiece on the M-75's I liked better, I guess just the shape---It is a pretty good piece of wood for a standard grade rifle IMO.

I just bought my 1st sako.
Mine is an old sako browning .243. I have 3 different loads all done up ready to shoot, this weekend.
I am very impressed with how it is put togther.
I have a few questions about your 85.
1st is it a hinged floorplate or a detachable magazine ?
2nd , I saw on the web site the retail price, can you give a clue as tho what you actually paid for it?
I think I want one in mabye 25,06
...tj3006

The 85 looks generally okay, as does the 75.

Neither can hold a candle to the original L61R. Why would Sako bother to mess with success? If they would reintroduce the L61R they would sell more rifles, IM humble O.

That's a great looking rifle.Congrats.If I might ask, what would it cost? Thanks and congrats once again.

Good shooting-
Locksley,R.

Stonecreek, you are right, the L61's were/are great actions/rifles. I don't have one currently though--I'll fix that one of these days.

Thomas and Robin, I paid $1200 plus tax for the rifle, it came with a set of optilock mounts. I think they'll come down a little when they are more available, I actually ordered this one as soon as I heard SAKO was going to introduce them at the shot show last year. I've seen a few on Guns America too recently--don't recall the price average there right now--I'll look again later.
The 85 comes with a Detachable box mag, it is slightly different from the one for the 75 (they won't interchange), it is slightly slimmer and has a feature where you must push up on the box slightly as you depress the mag release for the box to release. I never had an issue with the 75 mag, but I think this is a well thought out feature.

I've got a second load to try in my new rig this weekend, it is sub MOA with the loads I ran through it so far! I'm looking to finalize the hunting load for this fall.

Thanks for the info. Where does one find info on this rifle? www.sako.fi does not have any.They don't even mention the rifle. I would love to buy one in 30/06.I would also love to know the options available.Can it be bought with iron sights?Sorry for the bother but can't help. Congrats once again on the beautiful shooter.

Best-Locksley,R.

Robin, try here: Beretta USA, I don't think iron sights are available without a custom order, there aren't really a lot of options, obviously .06 is a standard availble caliber, and there a few different models. Interestingly, the laminated stainless or synthetic stainless are right at $100 less than the Walnut blue gun, it should have been that way all along, but in the 75 series the walnut/blue model was always the cheapest....I guess someone finally looked at an invoice and realized that walnut costs more than laminate or plastic!

There is an outfit called Accuflite that has all the scoop on SAKO's, they aren't the cheapest you will find, but there customer service is awesome, and they are just plain good folks. Another well done web site that sells the SAKO's is Able Ammo, take a look at their site.

Good Luck--Don

Thank you very much ,Don.Your help is much appreciated.

Best-
Locklsey,R.