Old Sako Value

Narragansett

Narragansett

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I am the proud owner off a beautiful early 50's bolt action Sako rifle built on a Mauser action. I bought the gun in about 1976 from the man who bought it, and brought it back from Germany when he was in the service. When I bought the rifle he gave me a half a box of shells with it. With the exception of maybe a box that I have put through it, that is all the use the gun has had. It is a 98% gun. Currently I have a 2-7X Leupold on it. these guns were only made in 270W and 30-06. Mine is 30-06. European cheek piece stock. A magnum version was made in 300H&H and 375 H&H. I believe production of this model ended in 1961


Any idea on current value less the scope???

Sorry, no pic at the moment

Thanks
Pete
 
I'm not aware of any long action Sako made before 1961 but that doesn't mean there isn't one. Their rifles before 1960 were primarily L46/L461 in 222 Remington. The L61R came out about 1961 for long action cartridges. If you provide the serial number and other info (e.g. the model stamping like L61R on the receiver) we can probably provide a bit more information. Really need pictures to help with value although I'd guess $1000 or so if in really nice condition.

Jeff
SWCA #1457
 
Bakebfr480 said:
You say Mauser action.......98 Mauser?
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Yes, a Mauser 98 action. I believe they were called a SAKO High Power, with production stopping in 1960. They were made for about 10 years.

Without pulling it out of the stock, on the top of the barrel below the scope, it is stamped 30-06, close to the receiver ring. On the left of the BBL near the receiver ring, it says SAKO. On the right side of the barrel very small print, it says Made in Finland. The only number on the bbl is 107570. I believe this series started around 100000.
 

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The "High Powers" of that period (starting in 1960) were Browning rifles. The Sako element was that early ones used Sako actions which may be where the confusion is coming from. See this article:

A Blast From the Past: Browning FN High Power Bolt-Action | Field & Stream

I don't find anything on a long action 100,000 serial number from before 1960; the serial number should be on the action, not on the barrel, or perhaps both. Sako had that number but it would have been on an L461 action (short action, probably 222 Rem) from 1962. The L61R long action rifles started in 1962 at 1 and ran to 91,000 in 1973 followed up by much higher numbers in later years until Sako went to their AI,II,III,V long actions. Pictures might help.

Jeff
SWCA #1457
 
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22hipower said:
The "High Powers" of that period (starting in 1960) were Browning rifles. The Sako element was that early ones used Sako actions which may be where the confusion is coming from. See this article:

A Blast From the Past: Browning FN High Power Bolt-Action | Field & Stream

I don't find anything on a long action 100,000 serial number from before 1960; the serial number should be on the action, not on the barrel, or perhaps both. Sako had that number but it would have been on an L461 action (short action, probably 222 Rem) from 1962. The L61R long action rifles started in 1962 at 1 and ran to 91,000 in 1973 followed up by much higher numbers in later years until Sako went to their AI,II,III,V long actions. Pictures might help.

Jeff
SWCA #1457
Click to expand...

I beg to respectfully differ. Please see pics, and Google Sako High Power. My rifle was made in 270 & 30-06. There was a magnum version also. In 40 years, I have only seen one other like it. The serial number is on the left side of the bbl
 
"""The "High Powers" of that period (starting in 1960) were Browning rifles. The Sako element was that early ones used Sako actions which may be where the confusion is coming from. See this article:"""

I have a 30-06 Browning Safari Grade built on an FN Mauser action. These are not the same guns
 
EMP3 said:
If it's an authentic Sako, it's one of the best of not the best factory production rifles ever. I'd keep it and put it to its intended use: big game hunting.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is a true SAKO. The ones like mine were in 270 and 30-06. The magnum version was 300 H&H, and 375 H&H. I wish I could find a matching magnum version
 
FN Mauser-actioned rifles of this type were extremely common in the '50s and '60s. Probably the majority of them were imported under brand names of the big retailers like Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. My best shooting/hunting buddy has a sizeable collection of them amassed over the past 30 years, and all are marked inconspicuously somewhere with the makers' names -- Sako, Mauser, Heym, FN, Husqvarna and others -- while being obviously marked with the retailers' brands. They are without exception excellent rifles of the old school, real steel and walnut, a bit heavy by today's standards but of heirloom quality.

I couldn't venture a guess on the price of one not "disguised" with a retailer's brand, but my friend has never spent over $300 for any of his, even the last one purchased (a Heym) six months ago.
 
Pisgah said:
FN Mauser-actioned rifles of this type were extremely common in the '50s and '60s. Probably the majority of them were imported under brand names of the big retailers like Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. My best shooting/hunting buddy has a sizeable collection of them amassed over the past 30 years, and all are marked inconspicuously somewhere with the makers' names -- Sako, Mauser, Heym, FN, Husqvarna and others -- while being obviously marked with the retailers' brands. They are without exception excellent rifles of the old school, real steel and walnut, a bit heavy by today's standards but of heirloom quality.

I couldn't venture a guess on the price of one not "disguised" with a retailer's brand, but my friend has never spent over $300 for any of his, even the last one purchased (a Heym) six months ago.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information. I do know the history of this gun. It was bought in Germany and brought back here I believe in 54/55. This gun is marked SAKO. if you look at the links i provided, you will see they were made by Sako. Without going to manufacturers like say Cooper, this is as nice a rifle as you will find. Yes a bit heavy by today's standards, but then again this is not a pencil taper, short bbl, and plastic stocked gun. I am sure it is worth well over 300.00
 
Enjoy the rifle, the FN actions were/are great but they were not made by Sako. The barrel is Sako, as marked, but the rifle could have been put together by anyone who could get Sako barrels, FN actions and make a stock. I have a couple High Powers built by Browning (barrel and stock, with Sako actions). As mentioned above, various manufacturers big and small, built these rifles. Do you have a picture of the left side of the action? That should tell us who built the rifle. If Sako built the entire rifle it should have Sako and a model number/sn stamped there. If no Sako stamp, could have been anyone. Either way, nice rifle, enjoy.

Jeff
SWCA #1457
 
22hipower said:
Enjoy the rifle, the FN actions were/are great but they were not made by Sako. The barrel is Sako, as marked, but the rifle could have been put together by anyone who could get Sako barrels, FN actions and make a stock. I have a couple High Powers built by Browning (barrel and stock, with Sako actions). As mentioned above, various manufacturers big and small, built these rifles. Do you have a picture of the left side of the action? That should tell us who built the rifle. If Sako built the entire rifle it should have Sako and a model number/sn stamped there. If no Sako stamp, could have been anyone. Either way, nice rifle, enjoy.

Jeff
SWCA #1457
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Got what you are saying. These are guns before sako made their own action. They bought Mauser actions and barreled them and sold them as sako. I have a heavy barrel browning safari rifle in 222 with a sako action. I am going to contact sako directly. I am sure it is a sako not made for a distributor. One of the links I provided has one for sale and you can see it says sako and where the serial number is. The other link is an article on them. But like I said I am going to sako directly. Thank you for your input. This rifle is gorgeous and reeks quality. Pete
 
OP you are correct, I believe your rifle is a Sako which was built on the
commercial FN 98 action before Sako built their own long actions. A
former coworker and sometimes hunting companion, now gone, had a
Sako .270 rifle that had an FN mauser 98 action. He served in the Korean
war and probably bought his rifle overseas and brought it back but I'm not sure. He also had an early Sako sporter in .222 Rem. I have what
may be a first year Sako L61 in .338 Win mag. It has a 4 digit serial
number and from what I have read 1962 was probably the first year
the L61 was offered in the US.
From what I have seen on GB the pre Browning FN sporters don't
bring as much as the Browning FNs do but sell for a good bit more than
the FN actioned guns like the JC Higgins. Just a guess but I think your
rifle is probably worth around $800 or so.
 
alwslate said:
OP you are correct, I believe your rifle is a Sako which was built on the
commercial FN 98 action before Sako built their own long actions. A
former coworker and sometimes hunting companion, now gone, had a
Sako .270 rifle that had an FN mauser 98 action. He served in the Korean
war and probably bought his rifle overseas and brought it back but I'm not sure. He also had an early Sako sporter in .222 Rem. I have what
may be a first year Sako L61 in .338 Win mag. It has a 4 digit serial
number and from what I have read 1962 was probably the first year
the L61 was offered in the US.
From what I have seen on GB the pre Browning FN sporters don't
bring as much as the Browning FNs do but sell for a good bit more than
the FN actioned guns like the JC Higgins. Just a guess but I think your
rifle is probably worth around $800 or so.
Click to expand...

Agreed. This is when sako built rifles before they made actions. I have heard numbers like 800 to 1000 dollars. It is not worth selling. The quality that i see in today's rifles, cannot duplicate this rifle.
 
I graduated HS in 1962. We had a Finnish exchange student who told me he hunted moose with a Sako. I bet it was one of these FN-actioned ones.
 
They are FINE rifles, whether Sako actions, or Mauser actions.

I bought a .243, and .222 Rem. Mag, back in the 60's; shot out the barrel of the .243, with about 4,000 rounds.

I still have the .222 Rem. Mag, and it'll still cut a clover leaf with Nosler Ballistic Tips.
 
I own two Sako AV rifles. Both will shoot one-hole groups at a hundred all day long. They're hunting rifles, not target rifles; I use hunting ammo, not target ammo.

Prices of Sako rifles have gone orbital. I'm not sure I'm buy a Sako 85. But if I were getting in to hunting anew, I would. Since I have two, I'm more than good for the rest of my hunting seasons. But, but, but were Sake to reintroduce the Finnwolf, well, I can see how I'd spring for a copy. Or...were Sako come out with a blued steel and gorgeous wood stock .308 Win carbine, then I'd buy two more Sakos. I could put a .308 Win carbine to a lot of big game hunting use ;-)

Sakos are solid, reliable, accurate rifles. Were I to own only one rifle, it'd be a Sako.

A custom rifle builder would do well to replicate Sako quality.
 
Narragansett said:
Agreed. This is when sako built rifles before they made actions. I have heard numbers like 800 to 1000 dollars. It is not worth selling. The quality that i see in today's rifles, cannot duplicate this rifle.
Click to expand...

There is a very limited market for 30-06 hunting rifles compared
to AR 15s or semi auto pistols and many young buyers either
can't or won't pay the price for older high quality rifles. There
are lots of cheap hunting rifles that are pieced together from
many stamped parts and come with a low quality 3X-9X scope
already mounted. They usually feature a cheap synthetic stock
and serve well enough for a once a year deer hunter. But you're
right that some guns aren't worth selling. Unless you could be
happy with one of the cheapies you'd just have to take the
money from your gun and spend it all or more for a
replacement.
 
Might be a little O.T. so here goes. Back about ten years I wanted a 30-06 Hunting rifle here in Louisiana. Local dealer showed me a Steyr in 30-06. Had the adjustable length of pull by either removing or replacing the various inserts for the butt plate. First three shots could be covered with a quarter. Then I notices the cases. Each and every one showed a distinctive wedding band near the solid portion of the case head. Dealer test fired the rifle with the same result. So I ended up with a Sako 75 Hunter with walnut stock. That rifle is the most consistent '06 I have ever shot. I had a deacelerator butt pad after the stock had been cut 1 inch. It loves my handloads and even has an affair with some old M72 made by Lake City in 1967. There was a rumor floating around that Sako barrels were the hardest ones in terms of rockwell hardness tests. All I know is that after 1100 rounds fired mostly with my IMR 4350 handloads that barrel shows little if any wear. Frank
 
FN actions weren't exactly cheap junk especially Mauser based actions. Pair that with a Sako barrel and that's a recipe for one fine rifle IMO. It may not be up to the level of a more modern Sako 85 but it won't have the price tag of those rifles either. Sako is one of the very best rifle makers IMO. And I'd guess that even an older model would still be a very fine model. I'd have to shoot it before I sold it if it was me. You may find that it doesn't have that spectacular accuracy more modern Sako's have but then again it might. I would want to know before I sold a rifle like that. I'd check it with a number of loads just to see. But I hate giving up really good quality guns of any kind. I have sold more than a few and some were pretty nice but something that good I would very likely have until I die if it's anything like the Sako's I've been around.
 
A North American big game hunter needs no other rifle were he hunting with a Sako chambered for .30-'06. No, I don't own one. I didn't have brains when they'd of done me good.

Caution: Sako Collectors Club will entice you to adopt a huge family of Sako rifles. It's an extremely contagious epidemic for which there's no vaccine.

I forgot something: when I move out of totalitarian CA, I'm buying a Sako .222 Rem.
 
EMP3 said:
A North American big game hunter needs no other rifle were he hunting with a Sako chambered for .30-'06. No, I don't own one. I didn't have brains when they'd of done me good.

Caution: Sako Collectors Club will entice you to adopt a huge family of Sako rifles. It's an extremely contagious epidemic for which there's no vaccine.

I forgot something: when I move out of totalitarian CA, I'm buying a Sako .222 Rem.
Click to expand...

It can't be any worse than the group on this forum that would have you joining the S&W a week club. Actually I have many rifles, and I have not bought a rifle in over 35 years with the exception of a beautiful 1942 Remington Targetmaster 22 a few months ago. Most of my rifles have not been fired in over 30 years, some maybe even 40 years. I have a Belgium made Browning Safari grade heavy bbl in 222 that uses a Sako short action. Great caliber and rifle. Old world quality and craftsmanship
 
Narragansett said:
Actually I have many rifles, and I have not bought a rifle in over 35 years with the exception of a beautiful 1942 Remington Targetmaster 22 a few months ago.
Click to expand...

There's plenty to be said for older rifles especially high quality models. But it's also true that advances in manufacturing have made modern rifles significantly more accurate as a general rule. There were of course accurate rifles many years ago but in my experience they don't match modern rifles.

Anything made in the past 15 years especially has a really good shot at being a MOA rifle right out of the box. That mostly wasn't true of older rifles but of course some were that accurate.

I like old rifles. Don't get me wrong. But for shooting pleasure I will take a newer model every time because I like hitting what I shoot at. Sako, Howa, Weatherby, Savage, CZ, and others make exceptionally accurate rifles now with many of them guaranteed to be MOA rifles. That really doesn't decrease the value of older rifles but not a lot of them were MOA out of the box. Unfortunately modern Remington's are not what they once were according to what I hear. I haven't shot any really good new Remington's but I've shot several that weren't. There are still good Browning and Winchester rifles but they are made by different companies than the ones that made them years ago. A 1942 Targetmaster would almost certainly be more accurate than modern Remington rifles.
 
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