I think it's time we took up a collection for you. You need to spend a couple more $$$ a gram on what ever it is you're smoking. Yes the RSM is nice,but I'll take the Sako 85 Safari over it any day.
I love comments like this, I appreciate the levity. Are you taking your Sako to Africa for dangerous game? My RSM is going in April after Cape Buffalo. The PH's strongly advise against Sakos, Tikkas, Remingtons, and Savages by name for dangerous game. For good reason too, read the review below. The RSM is one beautiful piece of machining, with its integral sight rib ($1500-3000 on a custom), flush easy access mag release in the trigger guard (just like the .375 Ruger's in this case we're discussing actually as well),
all steel construction, a silky bolt that moves as if on ball bearings, and a true
Magnum sized mag box, not just a long action adapted over. I can seat H&H rounds out to just under 4" OAL in the RSM for loading 350gr bullets for Cape Buffalo or 300gr bullets with 80+grs of powder without having to compress the loads (such as H4350, which you can not fit enough of in the H&H case to overpressure, and can attain 2,700fps with a 300gr safely in my RSM). The Sako just simply will not do this. Nor is it CRF, a must for a dangerous game rifle. Nor could it possibly be any more accurate than my RSM. If you prefer the name Sako, go for it, but it's an inferior rifle for its intended use. Branding gets some folks I presume however.
The issues I mention for its use as a DGR are below, here's where I have to side with "the dark side", and admit I'd
gladly take a .375 Ruger Hawkeye African after dangerous game than a Sako 85 push feed...
The Sako's a fantastic North American/European hunting rifle. The RSM is a fantastic
world hunting rifle, especially when hunting things that fight back.
To briefly cover the new features of the new Sako 85 action, let's start with controlled-round feeding. We reviewed a Sako 85 Hunter in depth (see the Product Review Page) and found that the Sako 85 version of controlled feed lacks the advantages of a true controlled feed action. This action does not have a full-length extractor on the Mauser 98 pattern. The 85's bolt head mounted extractor is much smaller than the full-length extractors on a Mauser 98 and takes a smaller bite on the case rim. If you close the Sako's bolt about half way (until you hear the next cartridge in the magazine click up, ready to be fed) and then pull the bolt back and try to close it again, it will jam the rifle by attempting to double feed.
A true controlled feed action, in that situation, holds onto the first cartridge until the bolt is completely withdrawn and it is ejected. If the bolt is run forward again while still holding the first cartridge, the extractor keeps it in place and guides it into the chamber, preventing the bolt from attempting to pick-up the second cartridge and preventing a double feed jam.
Nor does the Sako 85 guide a fresh cartridge into the chamber like a controlled feed action. It simply pushes it forward and into the chamber like any push feed action. It is not until about the last 1/4" of forward bolt travel that the Sako's extractor actually gets a firm grip on the case rim. By that time the cartridge is almost all the way into the chamber anyway, so being "controlled" at that late stage is pointless.
On the plus side, the Sako's extractor will easily over-ride the rim of a cartridge fed directly into the chamber, like a normal push feed action. For all practical purposes (except advertising) the Model 85 is a push feed action. Its receiver mounted ejector lets a reloader deposit fired brass neatly to hand by opening the bolt slowly.
The Total Control magazine-latch system was, frankly, a pain in the rear. It is the firearms equivalent of a child proof top on a medicine bottle. It requires that the flush, detachable box magazine be pushed firmly into the rifle before the magazine latch can be pressed rearward to release the magazine. This means using two hands to get the magazine out of the rifle. The entire Guns and Online staff found this to be a bother and preferred to leave the magazine in place and simply load the rifle from the top, as with a conventional bolt action rifle with an internal magazine.
The RSM is a huge, heavy, clunky, chunky rifle. This is why it sucks.
Riggght there 'lil buddy. Ever shot one? Please let me know where you got clunky from, or huge for that matter, it's smaller than its competitors including the Sako 85 Safari mentioned above
and the CZ550 Safari with a perfect 23" barrel. It's also slimmer in the action body, with a svelte, internal magazine (4 rounds of .375 H&H, vs. 5 rounds and a deeper body in both the Sako and the CZ). Ever even shot a rifle meant for African dangerous game? Please try and tell me you've tried one that's
not heavy. You're more man than I if you want to shoot a 7.5lb .416 Rigby. The RSM's weight is right on par with other true African rifles, as opposed to American rifles adapted to Africa, and I am thankful for it. Especially when launching 300gr bullets at 2,700fps yesterday in load testing... and mine's the
little RSM. Your comments just smack of internet armchair there bud...
