Just noticed they made these in 375, 337, 416 Rigby, 450 Rigby and 500 Jeffery.

Really? I'll have to look. The only Sakos I've seen in those big calibers (450 R and 500 J) have been $10,000 safari rifles.

This place has them listed, a bit more for the big ones.

http://www.eurooptic.com/sako-brown-bear.aspx

I noticed that too. Want to finger bang one before I decide if I like it or not. Ideally with a scope mounted.

Found a Sako AV safari for $2400 with a KDF type brake on it. Not really my style but these Brown bears sure are, and they are cheaper and new!

Forgive me these images are kind of big and it is beyond my scope of knowledge to resize them.

The 2nd rifle is a Brown Bear, the first is a Kodiak.

I assume these are built on the Sako 85 action. Before you drop your hard earned $$ on one of these rifles do a quick google search on "Sako 85 ejection problem" and you'll find that folks are having problems with ejected cases hitting the scope and dropping back into the action. This is caused by the location of the ejector in the six o'clock position. Beretta, who now owns Sako, won't do anything to correct the problem.

I have a friend who bought a Sako finnlight in 7 Mag. and is experiencing this problem. To say he's disappointed in his Sako is an understatement. His rifle is equipped with Sako ringmounts and wears a 1" Leupold scope. My first rifle was a Sako Finnbear which I still have. It's a great rifle and I've always been a Sako fan until I learned about this problem and the total lack of support from Beretta.

Sako Brown Bear in the 500J has not hit the States yet. Someone said Sako only ships twice a year. Spring and fall. I was told maybe late February or March. Europtics is only getting one 500J. Man said " they dont exactly fly out of here!"

"Sako 85 ejection problem"

If ejection makes cases hit scope. maybe the powers meant it to be

a stopper rifle without scope, but with rear aperture sight,

maybe chambered in our 585HE. And peep sight still good for

decent ranges..Ed

My friends Sako finnlight in 7 mag. would hardly be considered a stopper rifle. These rifles come from the factory without sights, so it's obviously designed to be used with a scope.

quote:

Originally posted by Labman:
My friends Sako finnlight in 7 mag. would hardly be considered a stopper rifle. These rifles come from the factory without sights, so it's obviously designed to be used with a scope.

Tom, Ed is talking about the Brown Bear model...which comes with open sights. Chambered in 500J it IS considered a stopping rifle, and likely for most applications should be without scope.

I know 3 guys that have 85's, plus myself.
2 of the above haven't seen this ejection problem, the 3rd has...but he has a big azz windage turret that extends out.

Mine is LH....for obvious reasons, there is no problems there.

I wish they'd offer these chambering's in LH config....one can only dream

I realized that, but the Brown bear is also offered in 375 H&H. Most folks scope rifles in this caliber and quite a few scope their 416's. I have a 416 Rigby Ruger which also wears a scope. If you're certain you won't be scoping the Sako 85, go for it. But if you think you might want to use a scope my advice is to look elsewhere.

BTW - my friends rifle wears a Leupold 3.5x10x40 without turrets in medium Sako ringmounts. Pretty vanilla combination and certainly something that shouldn't be experiencing ejection problems, but it does.

3 things make the crf desirable but crf doesn't cover them. Its not just controlling the round as it is fed into the chamber. The 2 greater features are the non rotating extractor and the fixed ejector.
I can't visualize how they would put the ejector in the 6 o'clock position. Doesn't make any sense. The ejector should be at about 7:15-7:30