During the past 50 years Sako rifles have been imported to the US by a multiple importers and Sako actions have been used by a number of US manufactures under their own brand names (e.g., Colt, Browning, Marlin, J.C. Higgins (Sears), and H&R). For a period in the 1970s to early 1980s, the importer for Sako was Garcia Sporting Arms, however, I don't know the end dates on their affiliation. Pre-Garcia would likely put the firearm into the late 1960 or early 1970 at latest. I couldn't assess the value for you, but the timeframe may be of some help. Maybe someone else has a better definition of the Garcia importing dates than the above which I was able to glean from Frank DeHaas' excellent books.
Russ
