A bit of a departure from the thread, but my thoughts on Sako 85 v Tikka T3.... a bit of a story here!
I bought a new 85 synthetic stainless in 243 back in 2013, this was around £1400 at the time, this was my first stalking rifle, I then happened upon a new Tikka T3 hunter in 270 cal about six months later.
The Gunshop I purchased the T3 from was closing down and selling rifles for half price! I haggled a bit and got the T3 for an absolute bargain price of £350 with £100 worth of reloading gear thrown in! At the time these were about £850 in the Sportsman gun centre.
The only reason the rifle was still on the shelf was because of the calibre I believe.
This T3 in 270 with a 22 inch barrel wasn't threaded from the factory, so the Gunshop owner got it professionally threaded and proofed to make it more saleable, even then it still remained unsold in the shop for several years at full price apparently. After I bought it, I then acquired an unused new synthetic stock for it, also at a great price. I got the synthetic stock professionally dipped in a woodland camo pattern which makes it a bit unusual.
Comparisons between the two rifles -
Accuracy, both equally excellent!
The Trigger appears to be virtually identical in my opinion, the big advantage with the Sako 85 however is that you can open the bolt with a round in the chamber and the safety on, you have to disengage the safety on the T3 for this.
The magazine is far more substantial in the Sako 85 being made of metal, I also prefer the feature where you have to physically push the magazine up before it can be released, making it very unlikely that you will unwittingly drop the magazine and lose it, the T3 mag is very easy to drop!
The action, both are very good but I would say the Tikka T3 is slicker, though this may well be down the the Tikka's single stack 3 shot plastic magazine in comparison to the staggered 5 shot mag of the Sako.
Plastic bolt shroud and bottom metal on the Tikka v metal on the Sako,
I know that the latest new Tikka T3 has improved alot of the issues such as stock, bolt shroud etc.
In general I am more than happy to take either rifle stalking, I prefer the 270 cal over the 243 though, the bigger calibre just gives me more confidence when I pull the trigger.
Back to the thread though, It seems that every evolution of the Sako rifle is supposed to be a major improvement over its predecessor according to the manufacturer, well I suppose they would say that wouldn't they. In reality, for stalking purposes, will the latest Sako be a Major improvement over a 20 year old plus sako, very probably not.
Now if Sako could produce a very accurate stalking rifle, weighing around 5.5Lb or less, in a major calibre like 270 or 308, that recoiled no more than a standard weight 243, then that would be a major achievement! But I guess it's too difficult to work around the laws of physics at the moment, and no, the addition of the carbon fibre stock alone as in the Carbonlight or Carbonlight 2, doesn't achieve this!
