Sweet .222

ColColt · Sep 25, 2014

Any Sako lovers in the house today? I bought this Sako Vixen L461 with absolutely no regrets. It's been one of the top three most accurate rifles I've ever owned. Slick action, beautiful stock and superbly accurate with most any powder or bullet weight...it does favor the 52 gr Berger a little however. The addition of the Zeiss Conquest 6.5-20x does help a little.

DrMike · Sep 25, 2014

Looks to be quite accurate. Beautiful rifle, to be sure.

ColColt · Sep 25, 2014

...and, quite heavy with the beaver tail fore end and bull barrel but, no heat up problems.

gerry · Sep 25, 2014

Very nice, it seems anytime someone mentions one of those Sako 222's they rave about them.

Rigbymauser · Sep 26, 2014

Overhere these .222Sakos keeps a good price in general.

ScreaminEagle · Sep 26, 2014

Wow! Beautiful rifle in a classic caliber

SJB358 · Sep 26, 2014

My uncle has an older Sako 222 Rem Mag and 222 Rem. Both with the Mannlicher stocks. They are two of the coolest rifles I have ever held. They are both topped with old 12X Leupolds and the amount of woodchucks and other "stuff" they have taken is probably quite large.

ColColt · Sep 26, 2014

As most know, the .222 held all the bench rest records for many years until the advent of cartridge wildcats like the 6PPC and 6BR. I think it's still a fine cartridge and I've gotten some groups with it that can only bring a big grin to your face.

Two of the best loads to date have been 23.3 gr of IMR4895 with the 52 gr Berger and 22 gr of H322 and again, the 52 gr Berger and 53 gr Sierra. I'm on my 9th reload of 30 Lapua cases and anneal after each 3rd firing. They may go quite a while since I see no evidence of them slowing down.

SJB358 · Sep 27, 2014

That's great info ColColt. I have a 222 Remington that I need to start loading for. It's not anything nearly as beautiful as your Sako, but it does shoot pretty danged well.

ColColt · Sep 27, 2014

I've always liked that caliber. I wanted the Remington 700 40XBR many moons ago but, it was out of my price range by far. As for looks, it don't mean a thing. I have a well known Winchester in 270 that will occasionally give me 1 1/2" groups but the norm is 2-3 inches at 100 yards. I'm sure its a bedding problem but, I can't get the thing apart to tell!!

On the other hand, I have a 1952 Winchester, same caliber, that will consistently shoot 3/4" groups...as they say, the older the grape, the sweeter the wine. :mrgreen: