My Experience with Sako 85 Ejection Long and Short Action

NewGuard84

NewGuard84

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
5   0   0
Location
Edmonton
I recently revived an older thread (perhaps this was frowned upon, my apologies) which dealt with ejection problems some have experienced with long action Sako 85's. Personally, I thought the issue could use a bit more productive discussion or at least another empirical conclusion I wanted to share, so that others who search for this issue will have a further reference of someone's personal experience. I was lucky enough to have found the links to other forums below, which turned my mind to the issue and to a potential solution, at least one that worked for me.

Links to other potentially useful discussions:

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/6439384/Sako_85_ejection_failure

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-731285.html

http://www.fishnhunt.co.nz/forum/YaBB.cgi?action=print&num=1349840960

Today I picked up my 85 Finnlight in .308 after reading repeatedly in the links above that the short action was not afflicted by the same ejection angle issue as the long action and after a helpful fellow at a local gun shop confirmed the ejection issue was not present on the .308. By way of a brief background, I had originally picked up the same rifle in .270win and was immediately troubled by the ejection angle I was observing with A-zoom snap caps. I then read the links above and noticed the .308 owners were consistently saying their rifles were ejecting without issue.

I simply wished to confirm for anyone who might find this post while researching these rifles and this issue that my short action .308 ejects flawlessly at a nice horizontal trajectory at exactly 3 O'Clock. This allows for adequate clean clearance with my Swarovski Z5 3.5-18x44 mounted with "low" optilock rings. The long action .270 was ejecting at closer to 1 O'Clock with a rainbow-like more vertical ejection (before scope was mounted) and hit the bottom of my Swaro every time (when scope was mounted), even when I mounted it with medium rings which were just too high for having proper eye relief while maintaining a good cheek weld.

For my purposes, the .308 makes for a useful and fortunate alternative to the original plans to do a .270 build. The actions being tailored to the round sizes ended up being a lucky and useful design in this unforeseen way. Anyways, maybe those with experience with the magnum actions could comment on those or even some further thoughts from long action owners. Just posting fo the sake of allowing people access to what turned out to be invaluable information for me. If you're looking at these, cycle them and make your own conclusions about whether it works for you.
 
A shooting budy has an 85 Finnlight in 270 and I asked him about his, he has had zero ejection or feeding issues through a variety of factory and handloads. I don't know what height rings he uses for sure but his Zeiss Conquest 40mm scope looks right at home fairly snug to the rifle I'd guess low perhaps medium forgot to ask him about that part.
 
I have not experienced this problem on any of the Sakos that I either own or have assembled and sighted in for buddies. No issues with real ammo. Only issue close to this is that Snap Caps do not eject properly from either of my Sako 85s. One is a Finnlight 270wsm, the other a 375 Bavarian. Saw the same problem with Snap Caps on my buddy's 7-08, but again, no issues with real ammo.
 
My Sako 85 Bavarian would not reliably clear spent cases from the ejection port. The rifle was chambered in .300WSM and had a 2.5-8x36 VX3 in low leupold rings mounted. Frustrating and disappointing to say the least. The rifle has since been sold.
Unfortunately the scope still remains with the damage to the turret housing sustained from spent cases being kicked into the bottom of it during ejection (read:attempted ejection).
 
Sako ejection problems? ... hmmm ..

My Sako A7 in 7mm-08 had the ejection problem ... and I sold it.
My Sako M85 Greywolf in .270 had the ejection problem ... and I sold it.

My Sako AV in .30-06 had NO ejection problem at all ... and I traded it for a Ruger Hawkeye RSI International SS/walnut in 7x57mm.
My Sako M85 Finnlight in .308 has NO ejection problem at all ... and I still have it.

If you scan the online literature, you'll find that many other brands of rifle have similar ejection problems.
However, perhaps because they cost less?, they have not received anything like the media attention.
 
My Sako 85 Bavarian chambered for the 300 WSM has absolutely no problem ejecting, or any other issues. It does have a snappy recoil though.
 
i have a sako 85 finnlight in 7mm rem mag topped with a huskemaw 5-20lr and have noticed some ejection issues. spent brass can and has ended up just lying in the open action. they seem to hit the horizontal adjustment and fall back inside. not all the time but it does happen
 
102woodsman said:
i have a sako 85 finnlight in 7mm rem mag topped with a huskemaw 5-20lr and have noticed some ejection issues. spent brass can and has ended up just lying in the open action. they seem to hit the horizontal adjustment and fall back inside. not all the time but it does happen
Click to expand...

My model 85 7mm mag does the exact same thing and sometimes puts a mean dent in my brass.
 
I have Sako 85 Finnlight in 30-06 Low Sako mounts, Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 and Swarovski 3.5-14x44
Zero problems.

BTW you need only one shot with Sako...
 
Thanks for everyone's responses. I just wanted to get a sense of what others had experienced and leave another thread for people to find who search for this.
 
Cooper had the same problem when the M52 came out, but they changed from the blade ejector to a plunger shortly after. Seems to be a three lug with blade ejector issue.
 
I have 2 85 Finnlights. One in 300WSM, the other in 7mm-08. No problems with the 7mm-08. The 300WSM had many issues clearing the case past the scope, it was very common for the ejected case to hit the turret of the scope and fall back into the action. I originally had a VX-3 and found the position of the turrets to make the problem worse. I noticed the turrets on the Zeiss scopes are further forward. Also, since I have plex turret on the VX-3, the first thing I tried was to rotate the scope 90 deg counter clockwise, so there would be no turret on the right side, this of course would switch the elevation and windage turrets. The scope rotation trick fixed the ejection problem but didn't work out for me because there is not as much windage movement on a VX-3 as there is elevation, after rotating it there wasn't enough adjustment to get it to zero at 200 yds (could have probably messed with the mounts but it was easier to just put the Zeiss on).
 
Last edited:
blargon said:
Cooper had the same problem when the M52 came out, but they changed from the blade ejector to a plunger shortly after. Seems to be a three lug with blade ejector issue.
Click to expand...

The 6 O'Clock placement of the blade ejector seemed to make the spent case want to stand up more vertically than would be ideal.

double gun said:
I have had well over a dozen 75's and haven't had a ejection issue. Same with the earlier series I have had.
Click to expand...

I have read that this ejection issue was not present in the 75s at all, only the 85s.

ironring99 said:
I have 2 85 Finnlights. One in 300WSM, the other in 7mm-08. No problems with the 7mm-08. The 300WSM had many issues clearing the case past the scope, it was very common for the ejected case to hit the turret of the scope and fall back into the action. I originally had a VX-3 and found the position of the turrets to make the problem worse. I noticed the turrets on the Zeiss scopes are further forward, after changing the scope to the Zeiss, the problem isn't nearly as bad. Also, since I have plex turret on the VX-3, the first thing I tried was to rotate the scope 90 deg counter clockwise, so there would be no turret on the right side, this of course would switch the elevation and windage turrets. The scope rotation trick didn't work out for me because there is not as much windage movement on a VX-3 as there is elevation, after rotating it there wasn't enough adjustment to get it to zero at 200 yds (could have probably messed with the mounts but it was easier to just put the Zeiss on).
Click to expand...

I had read of others rotating their scope 90 degrees on the advice of Beretta, in response to complaints re: ejection. It's too bad that your scope didn't have enough movement on the windage turret, if this could have been a solution otherwise. For me, rotating the scope would not have helped my problem, because the brass was not hitting the turret, it was hitting the middle of the scope body which would have remained in the same place regardless of rotation. How is your setup working with the Zeiss optic?
 
vpsalin said:
85 .308 no problems here. What is the root cause of the ejection issues do we know?
Click to expand...

As far as my investigation found, the blade ejector being at 6 O'Clock causes the spent brass to be kind of "stood up" vertically into the base of the scope or turret and either clear the action after dinging the scope (my problem) or fall back into the action (others' problem).

I went from the .270 to the .308 and have no issues currently. As far as I can tell, the slightly shorter casing of a .308 has enough clearance to not have the issue as opposed to the slightly longer ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom