Bubblefish777
20-07-2006, 08:47 PM
Well I finally put that FAC I had sitting in my drawer to use.
I was a shotgun user and ordered the FAC on the grounds of BUY a SGC and get a FAC for only a tenner ! (Does it seem wrong to induce Clay Pigeon shooters to go buy rifles as well ?)
Anyway I went down to my local dealer and after making the awful discovery that .22 means .22 ONLY .... not anything up to .22 or .22 Hornet or .22-250 (Hey ! there's a .22 mentioned there right ?) I finally asked what was on the market. I saw a lot and nothing really caught my eye until I saw the SAKO Quad.
This was the first rifle I had used and owned for 15 years.
Got it home, cleaned it and immediately noted a few odd things.
1. The magazine was jammed. No seriously ! Couldn't get it out for about 10 mins then finally it came out. Gave it a light oiling and now it's good as gold.
2. Removed the bolt and discovered a rather odd trait !(well it seems to me to be odd) The safety will not engage on a closed empty bolt. Now I'm a creature of habit and the safety always goes on, and stays on no matter what till I'm ready to squeeze the trigger. However on the SAKO the safety will only go on when there's a round in the chamber. :(
3. Trigger. Ugh ! It's HARD and CLUNKY. you have to really squeeze it and when it does go it's a horrible clunk. Even on an empty chamber it causes the rifle to waver when looking at a target at 50m. I definately need to sort that as priority one.
4. Grouping. Ok well this seems to be very good. I can get 5-6 shots touching each other at 50m but every so often I get a jump of about an inch although that may be the ammo. Experience will tell. I really do hope it's not a case of the gun barrel heating up.
5. The interchangable barrel....LOL yeah right !
The barrel is undone from beneath and lifted up then pulled away to swap it out. Now I don't have another barrel to swap it out with BUT I did try to see how this works. I discovered that in order to swap the barrel out you need to REMOVE the scope. The overhang of 99% of scopes will mean you can't lift the barrel up high enough to disengage it from the gun. Now I have to say I know there's a special SAKO scope that has 4 turrets (colour coded to match the barrels) and whether that sits far enough back or is high enough to to interfere I don't know but if it is ...... I smell a marketing rat. The SAKO scope remember is £200.
I plumped for the synthetic stock and to be honest the rifle feels light and portable. My 10 year old is very much at home with it already and can drop 10 shots inside 2 inches at 50m. So all in all what do I think ? Well it's been 15 years and to be honest I don't see the improvement. I've not shot anything else but I am going to apply for a variation this week for the other barrels and for a .22-250 for Charlie. However I may also go for a 10/22 Ruger as I see there's lots of after market support for them.
P.S. Want to make some money ? Sort out a better barrel changing solution or find a replacement trigger for the rifle. *cringe* Still can't believe how bad the trigger is. :(
I was a shotgun user and ordered the FAC on the grounds of BUY a SGC and get a FAC for only a tenner ! (Does it seem wrong to induce Clay Pigeon shooters to go buy rifles as well ?)
Anyway I went down to my local dealer and after making the awful discovery that .22 means .22 ONLY .... not anything up to .22 or .22 Hornet or .22-250 (Hey ! there's a .22 mentioned there right ?) I finally asked what was on the market. I saw a lot and nothing really caught my eye until I saw the SAKO Quad.
This was the first rifle I had used and owned for 15 years.
Got it home, cleaned it and immediately noted a few odd things.
1. The magazine was jammed. No seriously ! Couldn't get it out for about 10 mins then finally it came out. Gave it a light oiling and now it's good as gold.
2. Removed the bolt and discovered a rather odd trait !(well it seems to me to be odd) The safety will not engage on a closed empty bolt. Now I'm a creature of habit and the safety always goes on, and stays on no matter what till I'm ready to squeeze the trigger. However on the SAKO the safety will only go on when there's a round in the chamber. :(
3. Trigger. Ugh ! It's HARD and CLUNKY. you have to really squeeze it and when it does go it's a horrible clunk. Even on an empty chamber it causes the rifle to waver when looking at a target at 50m. I definately need to sort that as priority one.
4. Grouping. Ok well this seems to be very good. I can get 5-6 shots touching each other at 50m but every so often I get a jump of about an inch although that may be the ammo. Experience will tell. I really do hope it's not a case of the gun barrel heating up.
5. The interchangable barrel....LOL yeah right !
The barrel is undone from beneath and lifted up then pulled away to swap it out. Now I don't have another barrel to swap it out with BUT I did try to see how this works. I discovered that in order to swap the barrel out you need to REMOVE the scope. The overhang of 99% of scopes will mean you can't lift the barrel up high enough to disengage it from the gun. Now I have to say I know there's a special SAKO scope that has 4 turrets (colour coded to match the barrels) and whether that sits far enough back or is high enough to to interfere I don't know but if it is ...... I smell a marketing rat. The SAKO scope remember is £200.
I plumped for the synthetic stock and to be honest the rifle feels light and portable. My 10 year old is very much at home with it already and can drop 10 shots inside 2 inches at 50m. So all in all what do I think ? Well it's been 15 years and to be honest I don't see the improvement. I've not shot anything else but I am going to apply for a variation this week for the other barrels and for a .22-250 for Charlie. However I may also go for a 10/22 Ruger as I see there's lots of after market support for them.
P.S. Want to make some money ? Sort out a better barrel changing solution or find a replacement trigger for the rifle. *cringe* Still can't believe how bad the trigger is. :(