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Hello Gabe.

While I am sure the scope could be made to fit I'm not sure whether the cantilever mount would Sakos have a tapered dovetail on top of the receiver.

Marcus

A useful reference thread from a forum in New Zealand

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co.nz/f15/bsa-centrefire-variants-75726/

Marcus

So our daughter now has the shooting bug    She looks forward to coming out spotlighting or fox whistling, and so far this year we have made a bit of a dent in the local population- I've shot 63 YTD, and she has shot 24.

She has claimed the Sako L461 HB chambered in .17-222, and I've mostly been using the Sako L461 chambered in .20-222, but the Rem700 in .22-250 annd the Brno 601 in .250 Myra have also been in on the act. Here are some pics.

Marcus

Tried it out with a variety of factory loads and reloads and it is shooting much better and showing potential for more load development.

Marcus

Got the rebarrelled action back, adjusted the trigger, and put it back together - looks good with the heavy barrel.

After stripping the old finish back, steaming dents, a light sanding and two coats of Tru-oil

So rebarrelling would be the only way to resurrect the old girl, but was it worth spending money on? I asked if he had any take off barrels that might suit. 

The key constraint is the shank diameter on these BSAs - at 1.235" outer diameter, 1.115" outer thread diameter there are not many candidates. 

After some head scratching and searching he did manage to dredge up an ex-F-class .224 cal barrel on a SMLE No.4 action which had enough meat and length. For the princely sum of $100 fitted it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

It took a few weeks for the work to get done, primarily because I hadn't taken the bolt down with the barrelled action. In the meantime I stripped the stock.

The crown looked a bit sad so took the barrelled action down to a clever fella to get an inch or so lopped off the end.

He took a look through it with the borescope and it was a waste of time, the barrel was completely stuffed.

Later he sectioned the barrel which tended to confirm his diagnosis

I haven't played with one of these before.

The bore was pretty ragged. Brad can't remember ever cleaning it, and apparently his dad wasn't big on gun maintenance. We ran quite a few patches through it a got some beautiful blue patches.

Shot some groups which were terrible.

Marcus

My friend Brad inherited his dad's BSA .222 when his dad died 5 years ago. He's been using it for foxes and four legged crop raiders under the spotlight but results have been inconsistent. 

I suggested that unless completely shot out .222s are usually accurate enough for his intended use so something is probably amiss. I said bring it around and I'll have a look.

Sooooo....... it's an CF2, and is a typical cockies rifle that hasn't been coddled.

Yeah the Guns and Game magazine was the best of the bunch, but sadly no longer published. Always had some good practical no frills articles.

Marcus

I wondered about that too, Marcus. I haven't come up with an answer. He liked the .17 Rem, and one of them shot "little bug-holes". (I don't remember which one.  )  I haven' shot either of them yet. I do remember that his favorite load 1) used Vihtavouri powder, and 2) MV was under 4000 f/s. Maybe under 3800. I'm not too interested in a .17 bullet doing less than 4000, because 1) I know it's easy to get them going faster, and 2) if I have a 40-grain .22 bullet going 4000+ (from the .22-250), I don't really care about a 25-grain, .17 caliber bullet doing 3700. The .17 Remington that I have had from the early '80s has an average MV of 4112 with a 25-grain Hornady. It doesn't shoot as precisely as is reported on line for most .17 Rems - "only" 1-MoA at 100. (There's an interesting story associated with that.)

I'll shoot Alain's and see what I want to do with them after that. I do have two grandsons...

Paul

Sounds like a good plan. My daughter loves the Sako .17-222 and has basically claimed it as hers.

Marcus

A former work colleague of mine from over 25 years ago:

" That's the trouble with getting your ambitions mixed up with your capabilities" Dennis Holmes

Marcus

Our daughter had one of her friends over last night and they wanted to head out for a hunt. We grabbed the Anschutz .222 and the Brno Mod 2 Myra Extruder, cammed up and headed into the stones to see if we could whistle up a fox.

No foxes seen at the first stand but daughter shot a rabbit, her first fur with the  .20 Myra extruder built on a Brno Mod2.  I was gifted the rifle by my friend Mark ( aka Camel) who succumbed to cancer last year. I think he would have been well chuffed.

It was a beautiful eveni g to be out and about.

The last stand was shooting over a stone fence. After whistling for a while I noticed two foxes sitting on a track about 300m away looking in our direction but another 10 minutes later they hadn't come any closer and light was beginning to fade. Not wanting to stumble through rocks on the way back to the Ute we called it quits.

Marcus

Then settled in to see how it would group with a few different loads.

So rounds of choice are PowerPoint 40gn HP, and CCI subsonic HP.

Marcus