I recently acquired a mint Sako AV in 416 Remington Mag and was at the range last weekend for the inaugural shoot. Everything else is great, but I noticed in the 10 or so rounds I fired that ejection left a lot to be desired. Mind you, the extraction was perfect, but most cases would just lie on the follower when pulled back. The few that did eject sort of lumped out and fell on the ground. Certainly, this isn't acceptable for a DG rifle.

The rifle was barely fired when I bought it, and my suspicion is it wasn't fired at all. This would make it about 30 years old and all the springs and parts accordingly. When looking at things, the extractor is very easy to manipulate with just your finger; there is barely any spring pressure keeping it pressed down. You can see the extractor in the pictures below. The one where I'm lifting it with my finger is done with almost no effort.

My theory is - the extractor itself is fine, but the spring that's supposed to hold it firm is weakened and letting the extractor slip off the rim of the cases when they hit the ejector blade instead of holding fast and flinging them out the side. I also checked and the cases aren't hitting the scope or anything else so far as I can tell. I'll be back at the range this weekend for some more examinations.

Being this is my first Sako, am I on the right track? Are there replacement springs available that would fix this?

Along with the pictures below, here's a video of the issue happening last weekend. Sako ejection issue

It’s pretty much how Sakos work. You could try a bit heavier spring on the extractor but run the risk of it becoming a real struggle to get the extractor out of the bolt. The other thing to check is the diameter of the cases as compared to the boltface. Too much clearance will lead to poor ejection. As you probably know there can be quite a variation in the case head size between manufacturers of brass, and you may find a brand of brass that works better in your rifle.

A Sako in appropriate caliber can certainly be used on dangerous game, but it hardly can be considered a “dangerous game rifle” by any strict standard.

Need to have a good look as you pull the bolt back slowly to extract and eject a case. Watching your video carefully the case mouth doesn't seem to be clear of the receiver ring before the case head drops away from the bolt face. Does it do it when you have other cartridges in the magazine or only when using single shot? Could be a weak magazine spring not holding the follower up tight against the rails when no cartridges in the magazine, or same issue again with cartridges in the magazine where a weak magazine spring can allow the next cartridge to pop out of the rails.
Have a look as you withdraw the bolt with an empty case and see what is kicking the front of the case up and the head off the bolt face prematurely.

That's a good point, eagle27. I am just getting into this rifle, so I haven't been able to nail down too many particulars, but you might be on to something. I do remember during one test I had a full magazine and when shooting & ejecting, the case was sent well clear and subsequent cases got progressively more "limp" as the magazine emptied. I think I might even have a video of that, too. Let me see what I can find.

I have since loaded a bunch of practice rounds for this gun to work through things and get it sorted out. Plan is either today or tomorrow to see what's what. Again, this rifle was unfired and almost 30 years old, so it's reasonable to suspect some things are fatigued from sitting still. If that's the case, the solution is a new follower spring, yes?

Thanks for the assessment!

More reasonable to expect gummed up with old oil.

I soak it in a good solvent first

p dog shooter,

I probably should've mentioned this in my original post, but I already stripped and cleaned the whole rifle when I got it. It was very nicely oiled for storage. I stripped all that off and got it to field condition. I can see no signs of the follower binding or operating oddly. It moves up and down without hesitation, though I'm wondering now if there should be more oomph to the spring.

I was goofing around in the basement yesterday with a few snap caps, and when loading two in the magazine and cycling the bolt, the first snap cap is sent clear of the rifle and the second one ejects but not nearly as forcefully.

It usually has to do with the relationship between how much grip the extractor gets on the case and the ejector spring strength. Slow motion ejection will tell you which one you need to improve, and the fix is usually quite simple. For a gunsmith anyways.

Was experimenting today at lunch and the rifle will fling my snap caps 10 feet across the shop every time, no matter how many are in the magazine. I tried with both Remington and Federal cases (fired in that rifle) and they all have the issue. Can't be the brass. Strange.

Put a case in the extractor. See how it grips it on the rim. Do the same with your snap cap. Measure the two as well and compare. Also, the snap cap weighs more (?) and may be longer oal keeping its angle in the extractor for longer.
You likely have a simple fix, with the extractor is my guess

All excellent points, Dead Eye. This is an evolving situation. I had the action out of the stock (again) today and was checking things over and found the screw that holds the ejector/bolt stop in place was a little loose. Tightened that up and will continue to test. Thanks for the input!

So, I figured it out. It's very, very difficult to see with the naked eye, but the empty cases are hitting the bottom of the scope. It took me taking slow motion video of cartridges ejecting with my phone (works well, BTW) but it's clear as day. The cases also have a tiny dent in the shoulder from where they're hitting things. To further confirm, I took the scope completely off and the rifle sends empty cases flying across the room every time. It works great.

Now, I have the scope mounted in low Talley rings and will likely order medium and high versions to see which one works better. Are there any other modifications I can do to the ejector to get things to change the ejection angle to something more parallel to the ground? Anyone have experience with this on another rifle and would like to share?

If you wanna see the videos, you can look here: Ejection Problems

I was shooting an AV 375 the other day. I also had issues with the case hitting the windage turret, so I rotated the scope 90 degrees to the left turning the windage into the elevation and vice versa. I wanted to keep the scope low so this worked for me.

Yeah, I've heard of that solution. Seems easy enough but for two things unique to my case: this is a LH action, so normally the turrets would already be out of the way (score 1 for lefties!), AND my particular scope has three turrets on it; the third is for illumination on the VX-R.

I have medium Talley rings and a 10 pack of extractor springs from Gre-Tan on the way. I got the 10 pack so I can experiment and cut them down to see how longer or shorter lengths make a difference.

What's puzzling is sometimes cases would eject at a much flatter angle, seemingly without reason. I think it's one of the videos I posted. The case goes out almost flat to the ground and easily clears things. Trying to get some consistency so I can ID and eliminate the issue.

So, I have a new scope on the way, because I found out the cases were hitting - and being dented to hell by - the illumination turret on the left hand side of the scope. A tried and true 1.5-5 Leupold is on the way now and should be here for the weekend. I'll give that a try and hopefully not have to mess with it further.

One other question - I have heard examples of people with similar actions "beveling the top corner of the extractor slightly." The idea here is it gets the ejection angle down a bit. I actually just read an article in the latest American Hunter about how Howa currently does this on their bolt actions. Anyone have any experience with this? Any descriptions or pictures of what that should look like?

Well, I have closure on this issue, and it's stupid simple. The new scope fixed the "issue". Smaller scope, no gigantic turrets. The cases fly across the room every time.

I'll chalk this one up to a learning experience. Since I was old enough to know, the 1.5-5 Leupold has been the only DG scope in my mind. I tried something else just to be different and it bit me in the ass. Went back to the tried and true option. I'm off to the range!

As a related aside, the scope I got is a Vari-X III (not VX anything) that is NEW IN BOX and was made in 1990! It's a fitting complement to my time capsule rifle from 1992 that was also unfired. Weird to think I'll be taking a rifle to Africa that was made when I was in elementary school!