Report on a Forum Nitro Express team effort.

Thanks to Ripp’s post “222 Remington Rifle Cartridge Family Portrait”
http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=345355&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1 , as well as to Marrakai and to .264 that shared with us photos of their respective Sako Riihimäki stutzen rifles L46 & L461 in .222, I was infected by the L46 virus in late 2020 and managed to convince myself that I was missing such a nice .222 stutzen bolt action rifle on my gun rack!

I then started trawling the net for such a beauty: almost never seen in France where I reside, extremely uncommon in Germany, Austria and the UK where I buy from on a regular basis, available from time to time in the US and in Australia but commanding high prices there, in addition to probable troublesome shipping issues and side costs to be expected. I decided therefore to explore opportunities in Finland, Sako’s home country, and immediately found one for sale online, in addition at palatable cost.

I sought - at that point, support from our Finish Forum member Igorrock for making initial contact with the seller, who unfortunately declined to sell outside Finland; however Igorrock kindly found almost immediately a similar rifle for sale and - icing on the cake, at a price lower than the previous one!

In December 2020, once all paperwork expedited – a simple & smooth process within the European Union even in Covid-19 time, the rifle was at home.

Sako L46 rifles were manufactured in Riihimäki (Finland) from September 1946 until September 1962. This one’s serial number #28507 dates her to 1955, according to Internet sources. She is a “Sweet Little Sixty-Six” (referring to Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen”); a real little gem (but I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder) of 107 cm length, with a 60 cm shinning barrel, weighing 2,9 kilos unscopped. She came to me with a five-round magazine and I managed to find three additional ones from other sources; magazines are always a potential issue with out-of-production rifles, so I preferred to get some spare ones from start.

This pretty little stutzen was sold unscopped and Igorrock sourced in Finland original Sako steel scope mounts, specifically engineered for the tronconic shape of the rifle’s rail, an oddity.

With regards to a rifle scope, I had nothing on shelf that would have matched with the L46; my available scopes in 26 mm (central tube) were either too long in size (and I would have had to remove the rear sight, as it is often the case with this rifle) or not powerful enough in magnification (I did not want to fit a X4 scope for engaging fox-sized targets at 100/200m). I spotted in Germany a second-hand Khales Super 3-9x38 dating back to the early 1960’s; Forum member Lancaster agreed to purchase it for me as – again, the seller did not want to sell abroad.

This vintage Khales scope was unfortunately too long by circa 5 mm/0,2in when I mounted it and I could not close the bolt easily; I decided therefore to scope the L46 with a brand-new Swarovski Habicht Nova 4x32 that I had in stock at home.

I test-shot the rifle last week with both RWS Soft Point 50gr and Sako Gamehead Soft Point 55gr; same good results at 100m/110y, 3 shots in 2cm/0,78in. These results should obviously be slightly improved after some practice with the trigger (adjustable) that is new to me and I will try to go to the range again as soon as possible in order to zero the L46 at 200m.

I have not dropped my initial intent of fitting the rifle with a 3-9 rifle scope, however the only not Asian-made one (to my knowledge) that is short enough (less than 30cm-long) is the Swarovski Z3 3-9x36; unfortunately the maker has stopped some years ago to sell the Z3 range in Europe, second-hand ones are really rare on the local market for the time being, I do not want to order one in the US in order to avoid troublesome ITAR regulatory regime and the manager of a rifle shop I buy from once in Montréal (Canada) has told me that they are bound by Swarovski not to export to Europe; but sooner or later I will get one!

I now look forward to fox stalking from 1st June 2021 in France, when the new season will open!

Thank you again to Ripp, .264 and Marrakai for triggering my interest in the .222 and in the L46/461 as well as to Igorrock and to Lancaster for making this lucky acquisition possible.

Louis