Sako Finnlight freebore ??

[NorthernSniper]

Hello all! Anybody have any Idea if you can seat the bullet to the lands on a stock 300WSM Sako Finnlight and still be able to feed through the clip? I have a Tikka T3 Lite 300WSM and they have huge freebore and no way can you load to the lands and feed through the clip. I'm looking at the Finnlight the dealer has 1 comming in next week but if I cannot load to .008-.010 off the lands and still use the clip to feed I don't want it. Thanks for any help!

[Varmint Hunter]

I've heard that the Tikka T3's have generous freebore diminsions which results in reduced velocity with factory ammo. Not sure why they did this though. My Tikka 595 (Whitetail) in 7mm-08 will allow me to crush fit bullets into the rifling and cartridges still fit into the magazine with room to spare.

Frankly, I think that this scenario is the exception in a factory rifle and not the rule.

[Hired Gun]

What difference do you think the long freebore is going to do? For sure what it is going to do is allow you to load it to slightly greater velocity than a non-freebored barrel. It you think peak accuracy is with the bullet almost on the lands that assumption is not always true. The freebored portion is tight to the bullet dimension and it guides the bullets nice and straight into the rifling. Almost all my guns shoot better at .035 to as much as .150 off the rifling and on my Weatherby's is is much greater than that and they shoot .2's to .4's. At one time adding freebore was a standard practice for benchrest. Grandfather worked at the Rockford armory for a short time when he was in the Army. Barnes bullets suggest that their bullets work best with at least .050 off the rifling. I wouldn't be so hasty to judge it based on freebore alone. Sako's are known to shoot rather well right out of the box. Sako might also have done this to stregthen the beginning of the barrel by not extending the rifling all the way back on the Finnlight to lower the pressures and to help stop them from blowing the action to pieces when the barrels were letting go. I'm am still leary of the Finnlights until more time has passed to make sure they have that problem cured for sure.

[riof16]

I have a SAKO FINNLIGHT 300 WSM. I have to seat 180 partitions at least .175 to just barely clear the magazine (yes, one-hundred-seventy-five-thousandths). The recoil then also mashes the nose of the other bullets in the clip when you fire one off. The accuracy is very bad, still researching that one, don't know why. Tried accubond, partition, and gamekings. Also different powders and hugely-varied seating depths. Shooting with a muzzle brake also because it will knock your teeth loose without it. The only good things I like about it: trigger, action, and carrying it around the woods (6.5 pounds).

Here's my lesson-learned: Take that 1200 bucks and have a custom gun built!!!

[sewwhat89]

You may want to try the 168 gr TSX then. They usually recommend being seated off the lands like that, and the 168 gr will offer similar bc to the 180s at a higher velocity. Might be worth a shot.