Ccrider
Gold $$ Contributor
I bought a Sako A1 several months ago and have not had much time to spend with it. It took me several weeks and a bunch of cleaning to get rid of the carbon ring. I used all of the popular cleaners and soaked the ring over night several nights. The ring was stubborn and slow to respond to everything, including judiciously using a wrapped bronze brush and jb, flitz and iosso.
After a couple of weeks, I finally got the ring down to where it looked like a shadow and figured that’s as good as it will get. Who knows if it really mattered. It did matter to me. Now the fun part. I checked the brass that came with the gun. Nice tight primer pockets, cleaned and ready to load. However, the length was not consistent. Since I had the giraud set up for 6ppc, I resized all of the brass barely bumping the shoulder of the shortest piece and then ran them all through the girard, cutting them to the shortest length. Now I am ready to load and at least sight in the scope.
Did not have the powder that the seller used so I decided to go with N133. I used his seating depth as best I could, and the Berger Columns he sent me with the gun. For reasons unknown to me, the bullets were not seating consistently. I finally gave up and said I would shoot all of the brass, anneal it and then start all over and work up the load. Unsure of how much N133 to use, after much research, I figured 28.7 was safe to start with. I loaded 7 at 28.7 and three at 29. After the barrel settled down, the last 4 of the 28.7 went into pretty much the same hole. I adjusted the scope for the last 3. The 3 at 29 went into the same hole too.
These tiny groups may have just been a fluke. We will see. I will add that the trigger is two stage and I flat do not like it. However, it works well and breaks clean. It is adjustable so I may adjust it after I get a feel for the rifle.
After a couple of weeks, I finally got the ring down to where it looked like a shadow and figured that’s as good as it will get. Who knows if it really mattered. It did matter to me. Now the fun part. I checked the brass that came with the gun. Nice tight primer pockets, cleaned and ready to load. However, the length was not consistent. Since I had the giraud set up for 6ppc, I resized all of the brass barely bumping the shoulder of the shortest piece and then ran them all through the girard, cutting them to the shortest length. Now I am ready to load and at least sight in the scope.
Did not have the powder that the seller used so I decided to go with N133. I used his seating depth as best I could, and the Berger Columns he sent me with the gun. For reasons unknown to me, the bullets were not seating consistently. I finally gave up and said I would shoot all of the brass, anneal it and then start all over and work up the load. Unsure of how much N133 to use, after much research, I figured 28.7 was safe to start with. I loaded 7 at 28.7 and three at 29. After the barrel settled down, the last 4 of the 28.7 went into pretty much the same hole. I adjusted the scope for the last 3. The 3 at 29 went into the same hole too.
These tiny groups may have just been a fluke. We will see. I will add that the trigger is two stage and I flat do not like it. However, it works well and breaks clean. It is adjustable so I may adjust it after I get a feel for the rifle.
