Sako 579 7mm-08

Ronin

Distinguished Member
The rifle came to me last year for repair, the owner advising that it had been recently purchased with "new barrel" but was difficult to extract fired rounds - could I help.

The 579 action was manufactured in 1985 from serial number and fitted in the original stock, however, it had a vermint profile replacement barrel and a bottom metal for AICS fitted.

On examining the chamber and barrel with borescope, it appeared the chamber had been cut with a plastic spoon - it was really bad.

So, I pulled the barrel and set it back, - the new tenon and barrel thread cut well, but the chamber cut poorly, the steel was really inferior quality, so it was sent to the scrap bin after consultation with the owner.

The bolt slide was another issue and the circular retention clip had broken - none were available from the manufacturer and though there are other sources of parts, this particular bolt was of different diameter to other L series Sakos of that era which use the Bolt Slide.

Thankfully, William Wadstein of Finn Enterprises (Finland) came to our aid with new factory part available off the shelf

A new Sassen 8.5 twist fluted stainless barrel was ordered in Tikka Varmint profile, along with a new KKC Laminate stock

The new bolt parts arrived and were duly fitted

Once the barrel was delivered, it was fitted, chambered (which it finished beautifully) in 7mm-08 and sent to proof

The stock arrived a couple of months later as it was special order from the factory via Jacksons (thank you Peter)

The task of opening the barrel channel inlet and bottom metal inlet was undertaken to accomodate the large diameter profile and oversized BM for the AICS mag system - sometimes I wish I had a CNC Mill....

Once completed, the stock was pillar bedded using slim stainless pillars due to lack of available space for larger alloy ones and bedded in Devcon

All parts were then stripped and sent to be ceracoated Matt Black at Liquid Steel Design

The standard Sako Trigger had a damaged retention screw, so I sourced some 10-32 Stainless Set screws of an appropraite length and a slim nylon nut to replace the damaged original

Images of the build and various parts - deliberately left the bolt uncoated as the slide will wear the coating very quickly

A labour of love for this build, but worth it I think



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Bedding before clean up

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New trigger retention screw

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The bolt slide was another issue and the circular retention clip had broken - none were available from the manufacturer and though there are other sources of parts, this particular bolt was of different diameter to other L series Sakos of that era which use the Bolt Slide.
Interesting way of putting it......:)

lovely job there
 
Very nice work Andy,
what bottom metal is fitted? Did you need to rework the bottom of the action for the aics mag? Or was that all done already. I had to mill out quite a bit so the aics mag would reach up far enough on my late sixties L579.
edi
 
The bottom metal was supplied by the customer and has no clue as to who manufactured it

The action lower inlet looks original and unmolested

The bottom metal magazine guide housing is relatively short so doesn’t impede within the inlet

The polymer mag fits pretty much perfectly in the action allowing pick up from mag by the bolt

The only issue I had was the geometry of the rear action hole of the bottom metal was 4 mm askew which didn’t affect action screw fitting as the tolerance is there anyway

I also had to remove some material from the bolt stop with needle files to allow the bolt retract sufficiently to allow the case head to present from the poly mag

Small job but essential for consistent feed
 
A barrel brand I won’t work with

I did a couple when they first started making barrels and didn’t like them and I still don’t like them

So won't use them - cheap for a reason
 
Ronin,
I fitted a Howa aics bottom metal, rear screw was off by quite a bit so I have the rear action screw fitted to the stock and the bottom metal with separate screw also to the stock. All rifles I converted to AICS feed really well and huge improvement over drop plate left right pick-up.
I thought CDI made a L579 AICS mag system, unfortunately the owner died a while back.
edi
 
Hi Edi

Some research on line shows the bottom metal similar to CDI

It’s defiantly marked L579 on the upper inlet surface

It’s decent quality
 
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