Sako Finnfire "Range"

Vinniew

Hi all,

Recently purchased a Sako Range. Just recently turned to smallbore shooting having previous experience with the military.
Decided to purchase the Range....seems to be getting goodish reviews and coupled it with a Leupold 6.5x20x50 scope...my primary interest is in bench-rest at the moment.
A question I have is: the Range comes with no rails for iron sights. If I wanted to try prone etc. any suggestions as to how iron sights could be fitted?
I've come up with an idea to make an adapter from aluminium to mount the foresights on (basically a clamp, very tidy if I say so myself!!) but I'm told this may cause a problem with the natural resonance of the barrel. I dont want to mill the barrel or "mod" it an any way that cant be reversed. Anyone got any info on barrel tuning etc.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Vinnie

Haket

Why not fit the sights and try them out from a bench or better still a clamp before and after fitting the slight block.

I'd be easier to test the setup than deretmine resonance of a barrel for a given sight weight etc etc.

oldzed

hi Vinnie , without giving the gun to a very very good gunsmith like norman clarke in the uk to make and fix steel sights you are at nothing . this would cost you about the same as you gave for the rifle at a minimum. you have bought yourself a good general rifle which will perform well for you but you get what you pay for , I am not putting your rifle down as i have a sako finfire light barrel myself and its a great little rifle and will produce accuracy to a similar level as your range but the trigger will make it very hard on you in anything but factory benchrest as the lowest you will be able to wind it down to is around the 2 pound mark while in heavy class bench you will be up against purpose built bench guns from anschutz like the br and various other target rifles converted for bench shooting with trigger pulls in the ounce categories and much longer and heavier barrels, if you wanted a rifle that could have mounted steels as well as scopes i would have recommended an anschutz 14 series which you could scope or use irons on ,or if you had plenty of money an anschutz br 50 , Personally I think you should leave your sako alone and buy a cheap second hand target rifle for bench and prone if thats what you want to get into . you should be able to pick these up for 200 sterling upwards in the uk , enjoy your sako , it has a great stock . I have its big brother in 6.5 x55 and love the stock. I love my sako finfire but my heavy barrel 1710d is in a different class accuracy wise , i know the last bench comp i shot in was won by a custom built anschutz bench gun based on a br 50 , second was a 1710 sporter and i was 3rd with my 1710d, i cant remember the winning score but you would need to be putting in around 245 x 250 to win on average , wind and conditions depending of course.

Vinniew

Thanks for the advice Mick and for the suggestions Mark.
Guess I'll have to take another look at things. Maybe the used Anschutz will be the way to go.

Dear Santa.........

Sparks

A used anschutz is a good suggestion - but if you're just looking to give prone shooting a try Vinnie, you could get a used BSA martini from the UK for less than a hundred sterling or so. It won't be fancy, it won't have all the adjustments you'd get on a new aluminium stock anschutz, but for starting off, it might be just the ticket.