help building a hunter rifle on a Sako 75 action

[SSR]

I'm looking to build a hunter rifle silhouette rifle.  I would strongly prefer to use the Sako 75 action, simply becuase I like the quality, detachable magazine, adjustible trigger, scope mounts, everything.  I've talked to several shooters and gunsmiths, and they all say stick to the 700 action.  Plus, getting a good silhouette stock for a 75 looks to be a major headache.

I'm told there's a top shooter on this discussion group who shoots the 75!!  Can someone point me to this person?  I'd like to call him up for advice.  Thanks

[Hornetx60]

Don't believe all the stuff people say when you know you are right. The Sako Feeds better than any Rem 700. I use a Tikka 6.5x55 White tail. I shoot Master scores with it consistently. My next HP standard rifle will be a Sako 75 SS 6.5 x 55 in their light weight version. It may or may not make weight for the Hunter class. But out of the box I am sure it will be a less than 1/2 moa gun. My Tikka shoots just under 1/2" groups at 200 with a .4" bullet jump, and 3" at 500 meters
The Sako is a superior gun. Talk to Mark Pharr about having him do all of the work and putting the gun in his new stock. I have one of his hunter stocks and it is the best hunter stock I have held. I like it better than the Nesika bay stock.  There are a lot of guys that will tell you about how much they love their 700's when they don't feed right and decide to jam a case.  The 700 is a great action I just think the Sako or Tikka is a better choice for Hunter.  Bill R

[tirador]

SSR, first I want you to know that I own a Sako and Tikka rifles but like most silhouette shooters I prefer to use Rem mod 700 actions for building my silhouette rifles and here are some of the reasons why:

The 700 actions offer a very fast lock time and are not as heavy as Sako’s so I can put more weight on the barrel.

There are a lot of after market things like triggers, stocks, titanium firing pins, mounts, etc. offered for the Rem 700 rifles that are just not available for other brands of rifles including the Sako.

Granted, Sako and other rifles feed the cartridges much better than Remington rifles but that is a non issue in Hunter class any more since we can load them singly if we run the single cartridges thru the magazine first, a thing that can’t be done with a lot of the clip fed Sako rifles like my TRG.  

I have only known one top shooter do extremely well with a Sako rifle and that is Dave Imas with a Sako TRG tricked up by the also famous Dan Theodore.  

For a new shooter that is looking to buy an inexpensive factory rifle that would shoot good out of the box I would recommend he buys a Tikka (not the Lite one) in either 7-08 or 6.5X55.

On the other hand if he/she asked for my advice and the money was not an issue I would recommend to him/her to get a Rem 700 action, Jewell 2 lbs trigger with safety, get a 6.5 mm #5 SS custom barrel, have it chamber to 260 Rem and finished at 26”, for stock get a Mark Pharr, Brown Precision or Nesika Bay with a Limb Saver recoil pad.

And most important have the work done by a good gunsmith like Mark Pharr or Marvin Pearson that know what is needed to make the rifles they put together perform as good as they make them look. Tony Tello