I have owned and shot a lot of Manlichers..They must have dry seasoned wood and a proper lay out..they do tend to warp if you don't follow those guidelines...Most of mine have been Brno 22Fs and none of them every failed me....Nor have the Manlicher Shoenauers of yesteryear, mostly the 1903 models that I dearly love...
I have stocked a number of them on G33-40 and Sako L461 actions, and they sure are pretty and they balance extremely well...slim, trim and nostalgic.
Posts: 42309 | Location: Twin Falls, Idaho | Registered: 04 June 2000
Quote: I have a chance to buy a Sako 7mm Mag in the L61 model (left hand) with Mannlicher stock. Can anyone tell me about the accuracy with this type of stock, or any experience with this sako model. Don
Is this the one for sale on gunsamerica?
Posts: 1002 | Location: Dixieland | Registered: 01 April 2002
With the full-length Mannlicher style stock, some measures must be taken to ensure shooting consistency. As you know, all wood, no matter how well seasoned and sealed, is going to expand and contract along with changes in atmospheric moisture content. When this happens, it is possible for the forend wood to warp, and to place differing amounts of pressure on various locations on the barrel, making grouping change and producing a wandering zero. The Mannlicher style stock provides a lot more opportunity for the wood to adversely affect the point of impact. I lived in Germany for three years, and had a lot of dealings with various custom gunsmiths in Bavaria, in and near Munich. Almost universally, these guys were NOT fans of Mannlicher fullstocks. Some refused to make them at all, a few others would fit one, but they made the forend portion from several inches ahead of the magazine well to the muzzle from a separate piece of wood, and this piece was held to the barrel with one or two cross keys of the type seen on Hawken rifles. Others would make a Mann. stock, but the action and the first three or four inches of the barrel were solidly bedded, and the rest of the barrel out to the muzzle cap was free-floated so that a doubled-up dollar bill would easily slip all the way from the bedded portion out past the muzzle cap.
I have personally owned two Mannlicher-Schoenauer carbines in .270 Win. caliber that I had to free-float this way to keep their groups from wandering. But after they were free-floated, they would group into 1.25" cosistenty for five shots, and held their zero reliably. (One held its' zero for over 20 years after the initial sight-in!! I test-fired one round every season to verify that the zerro had not changed. It never did.)
