I bought a Sako 75 Stainless Synthetic in .300 RUM in April of this year. Loved the rifle until this. I called the recall notice line and got a voice message telling me it is "imperative that I do not fire my rifle until it can be determined if it is affected by the recall." I cannot begin to tell you how angry this makes me. Had I not found this board I would have never known anything about it. This should be plastered on Baretta/Sako's websites at the very least. The fact that they tried to keep this so quiet says VOLUMES about Baretta.
Another thing that bothers me about this is that even if mine is not affected by the recall it is still a rifle I will never look at the same. Kind of like if you buy a car and 50 of the same model blow up, and they tell you not to worry your's is not affected. How would you feel about it? So now I am stuck with a rifle that I will always wonder, "Is this the time it's gonna blow?" Looks like my Neverflinch screen name just went out the window as well, as I will probably flinch every time. I have never been so disappointed(angry) at a company in all my life. Anyone want to buy a 75 in .300 RUM with optilock mounts REAL cheap?? This whole thing is pathetic at best.

Yes,
I am curious.
I will arrange to have some samples sent to Sweden. I will post the results in the public domain. I am looking at a US based metallurgist as well.
JCN

86thecat, The answer to whether or not someone has seen a statement or anything in a Hook&Bullet pub. is one of the big beefs on this issue.As of right now I believe that myself or no one on this forum has seen anything.

As Lawndart has said Beretta/SAKO is playing 'secret squirrel' with this issue. Many of us only learned of this recall by others on the forum sharing that info. MarknLinda was good enough to share with us after we first started learning of these failures that there actually was a recall.

SAKO nor Beretta have anything about this on their Websites! Their stealthful notification of the recall has been handled terribly.

I own a bunch of SAKOs and really like the M-75's design. Having said that, it is bullshit that SAKO/Beretta hasn't been more agressive in informing folks that they may have a problem.

I now know of at least one friend that called the recall line after I told him of this issue and his rifle was one in the recall. He had owned this rifle for about 5 months, and no notification!

SAKO/Beretta should be super agressive in tracking these rifles in concern down, and it sure appears that they haven't been.
My pal had no idea until I told him of the issue, he had bought his gun online--the dealer is still in business and is solvent, doing well-- he said that when he talked to his dealer that they told him something similar to what JB at accuflite told me (several of my SAKO M-75's came from accuflite) which was that SAKO wanted to 'confirm' what serial number ranges they had in stock or had sold. They did not tell him (the dealer) of an issue at that time. This was several months before the issue came to light here on AR for me. This is similar to what JB at Accuflite told me. Furthermore, JB was not aware of a recall existing until I told him about it! He called his rep and started the dialogue from there.

Again I feel this is unacceptable. As soon as SAKO/Beretta knew of any problem they should have-- at a bare minimum-- IMO told all of their dealers! Folks buy and trade rifles all of the time and at least if all the dealers were notified, if a rifle came to their attention in the serial number range they would be aware of it, and could be warning all of their customers. I pray each day that no one else gets hurt by one of these rifles, it is known that there is a problem, nobody should be hurt after this fact has been learned due to a crappy notification process.

Leblom, first welcome to the forum. As a metallurgist [retired ] I have great curiosity about the problem and would like to see a complete metallurgical examination of the barrels.I hope one of the members with the problem will send you one of the barrel sections.I have outlined the necessary tests to Lawndart perhaps he will respond.

OK, the dealer I purchased the rifle from just called me back. He had one rifle recalled, and it was made after mine.
Why do I still have scphincter pucker?
No information on Sako/Beretta's websites do not give me that warm, fuzzy feeling.

Hello, I also have a Sako 75 Finnlite 300WSM and have contacted them regarding my serial number. I am told my serial number is not in the recall series. Obviously, I am very concerned about the gun and it's safe operation. I have looked at the pictures of the blow up and it is not pretty..however, as a skeptic I can't help wonder if there was something else in the operation that caused the blow up? Am I correct in understanding that you did absolutely nothing out of the ordinary such as, wrong caliber bullet installed, barrel obstruction, reloads, etc.? I have asked for a written confirmation of my gun being safe. We will see if that happens. Thanks and happy you are still alive.

Danny Pay,

You have a PM.

AC,

They seem to be blowing up at about the 20-30 round point.

Quickfinger

I believe so. I need to specifically say that I don't have possession of any direct statements by Berretta/Sako.

I was a chemist a long time ago, but never a metallurgist.

JCN

G'Day All...again,
OK, I know this sounds a little fishy but I have it on 'reasonable' authority (Beretta Australia employee) that the stainless used in these barrels was purchased by Sako from the Russian Navy.
Yep, You can stop laughing now. Hey ......don't forget, I a victim of this bloody recall.

Fe inclusions ?? Does that mean delta ferrite ?? See my previous comments on this point.

Hello all,
Does anyone have any personal experience or knowledge of anywhere i can find info. of the new Sako 75 SS rifles blowing-up? I know that there is a recall on them now. I had on explode on me in Oct. 04. I'm trying to find others with the same experience.
Thanks Mark

Post deleted by eldeguello

sniff . . . sniff . . . sniff

Do I smell a Lawyer????

Check the Australian Hunting forum, I think I remember they had some photos on there.

MnL, first of all I hope you are OK if you were the operator when your 300 WSM blew up--or whoever was is OK. I would sure like to see some pictures of your rifle that blew. You state that you know there is a recall on them at this time, could you give some more specifics on this? I can't find anything at all about a recall on the Beretta or SAKO websites. I have a bunch of SAKO 75's, including 6 on the new SM action purchased this year. 4 of them are Stainless, one each Finnlight in 300 WSM and 270 WSM and Synthetic Stainless in same calibers. I also own a 300 WSM Finnlight that SAKO made for a short while last year on the V action. Needless to say I am a little bit spooked after your post, please provide more information. Is this recall limited to certain models/actions/calibers? Is there a contact point at Beretta or SAKO? How many rounds had been through your rifle before it disintegrated? Please advise ASAP.
***to any other readers, is there a reasonable way to judge if your rifle is 'out of the woods' in terms of being susceptible to this danger?
Thanks--Don.

Blue,

Go play in the street.



I have been in contact with Mark. I did a background check. He is a firefighter, and is not an attorney.



Look at these pictures, and tell me if they look eerily familiar.



I for one am not going to run out and buy a FinnLight (or FinnLite, whatever the heck it is called). Actually I couldn't if I wanted to. They have all been pulled from the shelves.



Mark was very badly injured. The details are not for me to divulge, but think about how you hold a rifle, and what might happen if it blew apart on you.























Just like the pictures that were posted on this forum a few weeks ago, the barrel is neatly split into three pieces. The cartridge case has opened into a tri leaflet pattern that corresponds to the barrel pattern. The Receiver split along the seam from the investment casting.



The fired cartridge was one with mild pressure, well within SAAMI/CIP specifications. The bore was not plugged.



If anyone knows a good forensic metallurgist please send me some contact info. This is not going to be a class action bullshit thing. It is important to know what is causing these rifles to fail in this pattern.



If you own a FinnLite, please do not shoot it.



When Mark is up for visitors I'll let those guys who live close to him know so you can stop on by.



JCN



Here are those pictures from the first blow up we saw:

Question: I printed out the previous blow up pix, and the same notion puzzled me as for the first one. Hammer forged barrel ? Sako used these at one time. Steel guys: Hoop strength of great uniformity via the process, but perhaps radically altered by fluting?? No slam on hammer forging, but severely cold-worked steels fail as parts in strange ways when the process does not produce near net shape and require considerable metal removal in follow up.
I don't read the catalogs or brochures over much so I'm simply curious about the pre fluted barrel processing.

An update I thought might be of interest. I contacted Beretta this morning and spoke to a live human for about 20 seconds, and then he transferred me to the 'recall line' There was a voice message stating that any SAKO stainless rifle received by the customer after February, 2004 was subject to the recall. The recording then requested that you leave them your serial numbers for any guns that you owned and that they would contact you telling you how to proceed.
Just an update, I thought all might want to know.

Dean,
Thank you for posting that link. I had that on my last computer and it vanished when the hard drive died. I had forgotten that Clint McKee had ramrodded that analysis. As soon as I read your post I slapped my forehead and said "DDDUUUUHHHHHH".

Do spend some more time over here. I believe you'll find the invective refreshing. Welcome to AR.

JCN

I was actually considering buying a Sako, perhaps this coming summer. No more. I will never touch one of their rifles. Not in a million years. Not because of these failures...but because of their reckless disregard for the safety of their customers by not informing them of the potential for a catastrophic blowup. It's criminal. I just hope that a district attorney somewhere doesn't have cause to agree with me sometime in the near future.

---

Sir,
I've never been a fan of Sakos nor Brnos/CZ, not sure why
physic or Phycotic? nor stainless either for that matter.
I've heard of Sako actions letting go, but may have been
the shooters fault? Don't know if you can blow up a Ruger
or even a Win M70 bolt. Might take some doing.
Off course, Sakos stainless barrels arn't the only ones
letting go. I know of two other barrel makers who have
the same type of failures. I have one such.
It seems the delay in at least
a warning stinks. But I can imagine the panic a recall
would cause when no definite knowledge was available.
Cricky, you'd have a million old/new/chrome/after market/
wrong brand/ rifles freighted all over the free world.
John L.

Thanks Danny, I did.

Talked to a Baretta rep face to face today. He told me there is definately a recall but Baretta is not telling them anything about what the problem was or why it was happening. Guess they want to display the image,"we hope nobody finds out." All he really told me was he thinks they got a bad batch of metal. But in his defense he did not know, and Baretta is keeping him in the dark. I work with metal all the time where our customers require material test reports(mtr's) showing the exact chemical composition of the metal they receive. They check every one of them to make sure the metal is not substandard, and many don't even except metal from certain countries due to poor quality control standards. Considering these are gun barrels that are subjected to extreme amounts of pressure they should have (in my opinion)at least a 3x safety factor built into the construction of these rifles. Therefore any failure like this is unacceptable, whatever the reason. If they blame it on a bad batch of metal it is still their fault, because they should be perfectly aware of the composition of the metal they are getting, and the heat treatment procedures their suppliers are using, and it should have been tested thoroughly. They have been using 416ss material in gun barrels for many many years and this is the first I have heard of this happening without barrel obstruction, or exteme cold which 416 is susceptible to. Just my two cents.

Please forgive my spelling mistake of Beretta in my previous posts. I will spell it properly from now on BLOWRETTA. Just kidding. I have enjoyed and had no problems with other Beretta products I have owned. I really hope they do something to right this. It has left a bad taste.

As I've said earlier, I had two Sako Finnlights go through my hands in the last several months, a 300 WinMag and a .308. I wouldn't have known of the recall, except for the forums.
We might want to start an email campaign to get Beretta/Sako to own up and post some serious information.

I have already sent them an email and left voicemails on two seperate lines. Guess it will be Monday(if then) before I hear anything. I can assure you I will voice my displeasure and not rest until I talk to someone who gives me a reason why I had to find out about this by chance. Like I said the message says "any stainless rifle purchased after feb 04". So them saying mine was not recalled really doesn't matter. According to their recording, I shouldn't shoot it. How would I have known that if it wasn't for this forum? I already know why I haven't heard from them though, it's because they are doing thier best to keep it a secret.

Please keep me posted on your Moday visit.

Thanks!

If anybody is, or knows a metallurgist who might be interested in looking at an interesting pile of a deconstructed rifle, please shoot me a PM. Pacific Northwest would be nice, but certainly not essential. Since Berretta does not seem interested in telling us what is going on we'll just have to figure it out ourselves.

Negligence is what happens when a person or corporation does not exercise due diligence in their appointed task in life (eg manufacturing a safe rifle). Recklessness is what happens when you don't take even the most rudimentary steps to prevent further injury, or God forbid, death.

I don't have a dog in this fight; I just don't want to see anyone else hurt. Please continue to spread the word on other forums. One person who was injured in the US is slowly improving. Time will tell if full function will return. Hopefully the boy in Sweden had his thumb reattached. There are some talented micro-surgeons in that country. That is, of course, Alf's territory and not mine.

Because of the nature of the problem, and the pattern of failure, it is most likely that the shooter will sustain major damage to his/her hand. The wild card is the possibility of chunk of steel acting like shrapnel and going through the side of someone's face or skull proper.

I think I'm becoming a bigger fan of chrome-moly construction with each passing day.

Y'all be careful, heah?

JCN

Hi Fritz
What is going on in your website (robesoft)
I can't logg in I AM LOCKED : MAYBE I SHOULD NOT TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT TIKKA AND WHAT HAPPEN HERE FRankly that even not make me laughing. all that paranoia is miserable and not worhty a democratic country like SWeden
danny.

Just recieved an email for Beretta and here it is:

"DO NOT continue to shoot your firearm. Please provide us with the serial number of your firearm so that we can tell you if your gun is affected by the recall.

Thank you,

Beretta Customer Support"

I have already left two voicemails on their "recall line" with no response. I also asked them before I received this response as to why there is no mention about this on their website, and why I had to find out about it over the internet. As you see I got nothing. I also contacted my dealer and they know nothing about it, or so they say. Politics can prevent many people from saying many things. I replied to this email asking them to expedite the recall line process and also contacted thier customer service line, after waiting 45 min I hung up as I am at work. I'll keep you posted, but I have this eiry feeling that they are not going to tell me anything other than what I need to know. So I might have to contact a product manager or something of that sort. Does anyone else think that it is strange that after 4 days of trying to contact them I still know nothing and have a rifle accoring to them that I SHOULD NOT SHOOT? I have heard horror stories about firearm companies customer service but this has to be the worst considering it could have DEADLY consequences. My disappoinment knows no bounds. Any advise form anyone??????

NeverFlinch, Call 800-503-8869 and give them the # of your Finnlite. I called with the 10 Serial #'s of my Sako Stainless M-75's and they checked them all and told me that they weren't affected by the recall. It took less than 10 minutes altogether. Hopefully yours isn't an affected rifle.........DJ

Maybe it's just me, but some operator on a line telling me,"mine isn't affected" doesn't seem to do much to make me feel better. I was looking for a GUARANTEE that it would not happen to my rifle. Mine is not a Finnlite, it's a 75 hunter stainless synthetic .300 RUM. Needless to say I am on the higher end of the pressure scale compared to a 243. I guess I'll just have to see what they tell me, but was more concerned as to why this EVER happened in the first place, and if the same manufacturing(heat treating or whatever caused the problems) methods were used in my rifle. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but can you really be to careful when it comes to something like this? I'll gladly toss it in the trash if I think it's not safe, even if it was a $3000 dollar rifle. In any event I've purchased my last Sako stainless, which is hard for me to say considering it is (was) my favorite rifle. Thanks for the number and your help.

Neverflinch, The problem was traced to a bad lot a materials and I believe it was limited to Finnlites but could be wrong. I've had recalls from other gun manufacturers and will continue using their firearms also. You're a heck of a lot more likely to die in a car accident than in a firearms accident but if you refuse to drive any brand of car that's been recalled you'll be walking everywhere.
I would have the # checked and also ask for a letter of confirmation that your rifle wasn't affected and then enjoy your rifle. Sako's in general are much better manufactured than most and I plan to continue to use them.

As for M-75 Stainless 300 RUM's this is what I did with mine last weekend.......







Mine is still one of my favorite rifles. I guess you can buy something else if you want but it probably won't be as good of a rifle.........DJ

I agree with you, you can't be too careful. I'd want an iron clad answer from someone who should be in the know. I read that some of the Tikka stainless rifles have blown up too, but cannot verify it, and it just might be a case of adding to the story along the way. I can tell you one thing, it's reinforced my dislike for Sako and hasn't helped Berettas' reputation with me.

Just as an aside...Major General Julian Hatcher documented literally hundreds rifle failures and the subsequent investigations of those failures during his lengthy tenure with the US Army Ordnance corps. There were dozens of rifles that were found to have exploded due to improper manufacturing techniques which resulted in flawed crystaline structure in otherwise perfectly fine (from a chemical composition standpoint) ordnance steel. Certain methods for forging barrels were cited as causing this problem as was processes like heat treating--overheating (burnt steel). You can read about this to your heart's content in his book, "Hatcher's Notebook."
It could be Sako was using poor quality material but my bet wold be on flawed manufacturing processes.

I completely agree that if you refuse to use anything that's recalled you'll never use anything. But the COMPLETE failure of these rifles is what has me concerned. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most recalls are due to problems which may or may not result in a problem. If you have a rifle in this batch, it is guaranteed you will have a problem. I've seen many rifles/pistols that have blown or cracked by using the wrong ammo/plugged barrel etc. But these rifles disintegrated. I find it hard to believe(again correct me if I'm wrong) that they made the actions of these rifles out of the same batch of material. Should an action EVER split like these did? Shouldn't that be by far the stongest part of the rifle(besides the bolt) to compensate for say a plugged barrel? I guess since I work with metal(oil industry) and know about safety factors, tensile strengths, yields, brinnell(sp) hardness, elongation...etc., that they did not know exactly what they were getting. Since the numbers in these test have to come from the same batch of material, I find it hard to stomach that this can simple be blamed on a "bad batch" of metal, as every batch is tested. Anyway I know I am beating a dead horse and I will just have to find out what they can tell me. I guess it's my experiance with certain steel suppliers that tells me all 416 or any other grade of metal for that matter is not the same, and they should have known exactly what they were getting.

" every batch is tested" well that's what should be done .If the accountants cut corners they cut it everywhere. Buy lesser priced [quality ] steel,do less testing of the steel, do less testing of the finished product.Remember the embarrassment of the Hubble telescope ? They never tested it because testing was too expensive !I hope , at least for my own curiosity,we find the exact cause but I'm not holding my breath.