I am having regrets over a Rifle I saw this weekend at a Gunshow here in Montana. I travelled over to the Bitterroot Valley to attend the Gunhow there in Hamilton. It was a three day show starting on Friday and going til Sunday. I attended on Friday and stayed overnight with a friend and went back on Saturday.
The Rifle that was there (that is beginning to haunt me now) is a Sako Vixen heavy barrel in 222 Remington! This nifty little Rifle had Sako rings and a period Leupold 12X scope on it. These Leupolds were longer than todays current 12X models. It was in great shape and the only wear on the gun was on the flat muzzle where the blue had evenly wore off to about 85%. The rest of the gun was mint! I looked it over VERY carefully indeed on Friday. The folks selling it wanted $1,099.00 for the Rifle/scope. It kept me awake most all night Friday night and I had in mind offering $875.00 for the rig come Saturday morning. When I did get to sleep I kept dreaming of how cool I would look shooting Prairie Dogs with this Rifle come spring!
Well my "slow to get his ass out of bed friend" delayed my arrival to the show until 10:00 AM! Once at the show I waited til the owners were at the far end of their tables and approached the nifty little Sako for one more shakedown! Low and behold some dweeb had bought the scope off of it! It was now marked $899.00. I was miffed and lost interest - at least temporarily!
Dddiiiyyyaaamm - I said to myself! I know if I had been there earlier I could have gotten the rig for my preferred price! The owners of the Rifle run a hardware and Gunshop combo here in SW Montana so the Rifle may be available if anyone is interested.
Its been bothering me a bit not dealing on the nifty little Sako but I have several 222's already. Including one I picked up last year out on the west coast. That 222 is a Sako L-46 model (clip style model - predecessor to the Vixen) also with the heavy barrel and it came with an 8X Leupold Westerner scope. I paid $600.00 for that rig and would have gone to $800.00 for it as it was a virtually unfired Rifle and came with an expensive gun case.
Still, I am pondering, those early vintage Sakos are really well built Rifles and universally shot well.
The triggers on those older Sakos were also worth noting as they were crisp, creepless and light of pull!
Really good performers in the Varmint fields those older Sakos!
I think I may have missed out on an opportunity to get a really clean Rifle for a pretty good price. I think $899.00 is a bit much for the Rifle as it sits now but for $699.00 I would begin dealing in earnest on it.
Maybe if I have many more sleepless nights I will call and see if its still available.
Decisions.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy,
You'll dream(nightmare) about that Sako for some months to come. Heck, I still think about an L461 with a Douglas barrel in 221 FireBall I owned 30yrs. ago and sold.
In regards to our discussion about early short Sakos and the name Vixen here's what I have found. Looked in 1956,57, and 58 Gun Digest. Those were not called vixens just L46. Clip model, round forend, straight comb with cheekpiece. like the two I have. However in a 1961 Gun Digest the L46(clip model) had a monte carlo stock and a squared forend and was called a Vixen.
A friend beat me to a for sale add in the local paper awhile back and got a clean later model L46/10X Weaver, 300rds of brass and dies for $550 in 222mag. Pedro

Pedro: Thanks for the additional information and the moral support on the passed on Rifle!
Oohh oohh on that 222 Magnum set up getting away from you! That would have been a dandy!
I have been "baby-sitting" a Browning Safari grade Rifle in 222 Remington Magnum for a couple of years now. It is from the late sixties era. It is built on the small Sako action. It is in about 95% condition with mint bore and chamber! It has the slender sporter barrel - no sights. It has been fired very little and just not cared for quite carefully enough. My friend who owns the Rifle went through a bad divorce and some tough times leaves it with me for security reasons mostly. I just drool over this little walking Varminter! One of these days when I get a spare scope I am going to mount it on this Browning and take it to the range for curiosities sake.
Get up early and get after em!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Varmint Guy,

I had a great friend who was a Doctor here in town that died last March in an accident while we were out coyote hunting.

As a doctor he could really afford anything he wanted. In fact his wife was the daughter of a guy with the last name of Wade, who was the person who bought 51 % of Nosler bullets when they were about to go under.

He was the one responsible for moving Nosler over to Bend in the 1960s and then sold out his share finally when his health declined to Leupold, who eventually sold it back to the Nosler family.

Dr. Miller's most favorite rifle was a Sako Vixen in 222 in a Mannlicher stock with a 20 inch barrel, and an 8 round magazine.

He got it when he was working in a gun shop in the late 1950s in the Bay Area. Damon's dad was the guy who owned the San Francisco Baseball team, back in the old days of the Pacific Coast League before the the American League and the National League. Damon use to tell me how he knew Joe DiMaggio before he got famous, when DiMaggio just started in professional baseball, and Damon was the bat boy.

Damon bought the little Sako Vixen and took it to Australia with him in 1961 to work on a Sheep Station in Western Australia. He spend two years down "under". Saving all of his money for two years, he went to Indonesia, India and Africa hunting before he returned to the USA to start College.
The little Sako and a Holland Built 375 H & H he picked up in Australia were the two rifles he took with him on the trip.

After he died with me while out coyote hunting, his wife wanted me to have the rifle. She knew it was his favorite. Although they never had any kids, I felt it should stay in their family, even tho the only person to inherit it was a nephew who I met who was a typical 22 yr old California dickhead.

I often wonder if I should have taken it to give it a good appreciative home.

I decided to take his second most favorite rifle instead, his Remington Stainless 223 with the HS precision stock and a 6.5 x 20 Nikon scope on it.

I did buy several firearms off of the Estate, since his wife wanted the firearms gone. Of the ones, I bought, one worth noting is a 1893 Marlin 25/20 LeverAction that belonged to his wife's grandfather. It was given to Mr. Wade ( the son) and then to his Daughters Husband, my friend Doctor Miller.

I don't know if I will ever own a Sako Vixen, but every time I see one, or even hear of one, I will remember the treasure it was to a good friend of mine, who was a fantastic human being, a true gentleman and a person who I feel remorse that he never got to meet and converse with some of the wonderful people I have had the pleasure to converse with and meet on this board.

God Bless Dr. Damon Miller, June 3, 1941 to March 2, 2003.
You will always be missed by those of us that had the pleasure to know you.


Cheers,
seafire

I lost a mint .257 Roberts/Ackley the same way about 10 years ago and haven't found another one like it. Sometimes sleeping on it for a night can be a fatal flaw. I have a pair of .222Rems. and can tell you the Sako Viken is a real
sweetheart. You'll be regretting it for a while. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

I'll share the story of my first L46 in 222 Rem.
In 1960 I was 15yrs. old. Worked all summer in the S.Ariz. desert for $.75 an hour working with honey bees. I spotted the L46 at Jensen's gun shop and Bob(the owner) laid it away so I could pay it off as the money came in. I gave $110 for it and a 3-7X United vari. scope(the Tasco of that time). Had enough money to also buy 80rds. of 50gr. Rem soft point ammo. Upon sighting it in I fired my very first 1in. group! My other rifles being A 7.35 Ternie and a 7.62 Russ., yuck!
Anyway, My brother-in-law and I made a trip to the Baca Float ranch south of Tucson. Right close to Noglas and the border. The country then had alot of big antelope jackrabbits. The first one I clobbered was right at 200yds. and my brother-in-law couldn't believe it as he was used to a 22rf. The 222 really took the jacks apart, those were some good old days.
As I got older I picked up a 22/250 mauser and a L579 Sako in 243(now on it's 2nd. 22/250 barrel). The 222 didn't seem so hot anymore and I sold it to a friend in Nev. After about 10yrs. I started thinking about again and was able to buy it back. Shot it for years, then about 6yrs. ago I rebarreled it with a Shilen SS #3. I do alot of predator calling and besides the coyotes, bobcats, grayfox, and badgers it's taken it's killed a truck load of jackrabbits and 3 or 4 thousand groundsquirrels. Those little L46s are an honest gun.
My latest L46 is a single shot I picked up at the Spokane gun show for $425. Didn't need another 222 so I rebarreled it to 17Rem. with a #4 Douglas SS. Topped with a KT15X Weaver and shooting 20gr. VMax bullets it's like shooting Squirrels with a lazer beam.
BTW, the 222 barrel that came on the single shot is 25ins. long and is stamped 222cal., Riihimaki, and a couple of proof marks. The action says Sako-Riihimaki. DeHass's Bolt Action book claims the single shot were sold only as barreled actions. Mine came with a fiberglass MPI stock that took alot of work. Call em in close, Pedro