jdbrammers

Hello All, After picking everyone's brains a few months ago and asking for opinions on rifles for .17HMR and .22LR I plumped for the Sako Quad. It was mainly a choice between the quad and Anschutz, which I have used before. Why did I get it and not the Anschutz? My main shooting was .22 lamping so the idea appealed to me of having a general rifle for lamping with the option of a .17HMR for an extra £150. This was the main reason. First time I used them I got the .22LR barrel set up and zeroed in order to do the .17HMR next and revert to .22LR to check how it holds its zero with barrel changing. Bloody hell but that little .17HMR is exciting. I was grinning like a kid in a sweet shop. Zeroed it at 50m, one inch high which gave 1.5 inches high at 100m and straight through middle at 150m. That along with the crack and whizz made it all worth it. Anyway, I digress, back to the review. I loved the feel of the thumbhole Anschutz and this was a serious contender. I also had a crack with the CZ and found it very uncomfortable and put it down to the thumbhole. Then I tried the HW and Sako and found that they were very comfortable for my grip, even without the thumbhole. I loved the HW as well but the barrel makes it much heavier than the Annie & Sako and as I normally walk at night with the lamp on the gun, I decided against it. Lovely trigger though and hugely comfortable. Anyway. Down to the Annie & Sako again. The Anschutz is a lot shorter (probably about 7 inches) and a fair bit lighter. All good stuff for carrying around in a field and wielding around inside a car. Add to this a large mod and the Sako is like maneovring a spear in a vehicle. Also, the online reviews said the Anschutz was brilliant and the Sako had a few possible problems with round extraction. So why the Sako. Partly bloody minded and mostly the extra gun for £150 essentially and a lot to do with guys on this forum. So, Sako out the box. Accuracy: Brilliant. Same / better as my shooting partner's Anschutz, limited by the bloke behind the gun. Action: Love it. Short, crisp, good extraction on spent rounds, more to follow shortly. Trigger: Factory standard fine, got it taken down to 2 lbs which I like. Little travel, positive pull, nice and crisp. Not as good as the HW or Anschutz (imho). Scope: Provided you do a bit of research, it would seem that most scopes will allow barrel changes in situ. Magasine: Love the release catch and the way it falls into your hand. Stock: Wood is gorgeous and light. Synthetic is tough and hardworking and a fair bit heavier. Up to you. Now, I managed to get a bit of shooting using mainly the .17HMR which threw me into a panic. Which barrel to keep on the majority of the time. Although the rifle holds its zero quite well, if it's windy or a bit of background noise, I found it difficult to be able to hear the turret clicks meaning that a quick zero was required for confidence. Answer? Got a synthetic stock for .22 and kept the wood for .17HMR. Fantastic. Synthetic stock is a lot cheaper than the wood and a bit more hard wearing, hence fitting it to the .22. I am now as happy as a pig in mud. So, did the extra barrel save me money or was it false economy? If the other shooting hadn't come up and the .22 still been the main shooting I did then it would probably have been the right choice. However, the other shooting did come up but as i had the barrel it meant that I only had to purchase the action and stock and the synthetic is a lot cheaper (not such a dent in the wallet). And I love them! Now for the niggles: 10 round magazine: the mag I bought would feed no more than 7 rounds. I decided to put up with this but then it got on my nerves. Brilliant gun shop (Forest Lodge in Wragby) and service (provided me with masses of advice and put up with me whilst waiting for my ticket) and exchanged the mag there and then. The difference was noticeable immediately with the strength of the spring and the new one fed 9 rounds flawlessly. Put that down to a dodgy mag then. Extraction of live round: I had no problems extracting empty cases but live rounds were a different story. However, provided you are relatively gentle with the action and pull back kind of slowly, in my experience the round extracts with no problem. Size: It is long! However, you get used to it and can get the barrel shortened if you fancy although most people advise against it. If it all goes wrong though you can buy another for £150. I haven't made up my mind on this yet and whilst debating it have grown to live with it. Certainly a big plus for the Annie though, particularly if using in a vehicle. Would I do it again? Well, the option is either exactly the same again: 2 x Quads (.22 & .17HMR) or probably .22 Annie and Quad in .17HMR, which was mentioned quite a lot on the other posts. I hope that's useful to someone. Thanks again to everyone on here for all of your advice, photos, etc. Dave- I love 'em

Wow DaveG, thanks very much for all of that. Didn't know about the glass & poly trick. As I'm not down with the lingo just yet, does Charlie relate just to foxes or anything you might be out shooting? Just wondering if the bunnies get inquisitive about the squeaking or if they just do a runner. If I was a bunny I'd probably go for the latter. However, if the bunnies knew how I shoot they might chance a look to see what all the fuss is about. Love the battery, much better than the brick on my belt but it does the job for me at the moment. Cheers

Thanks very much Dave, can see the gap just fine, thanks to the black tape. At least I know what sort of space to look for. Thanks to everyone on here, this has been extremely useful for me. Back tomorrow to check for any more little gems.

badshot: That's just shy of what I've been offered the first barrel from my friendly gun dealer so I'll stick with that. Thanks very much though and what is RFD? Anyone know if you can change the barrels with a MTC Viper scope? I presume high mounts will be used for any scope to allow the change of barrel. Anyone have any opinions. I was looking to spend about £100 but up to £250. The Viper was mentioned on a previous post sounds pretty good but is top end of my budget and something that works for someone else I will definitely consider. Thanks very much for your help everyone, think I'll take the plunge and go for the Quad.

Apologies badshot, opened my eyes now and can see where you're from.

Thanks for all of that information everyone. The barrel change will come in quite handy as it will primarily wear the .22lr for out walking and lamping but the .17hmr will hopefully be a useful addition with longer range shooting from a vehicle, although this use is quite infrequent but I would rather have a spot on rifle in one calibre rather than a lesser rifle in two, if that makes sense. I would invest in a resettable zero scope if I go down the route of two barrels. Any suggestions anyone. Badshot: How much were you thinking of and what area are you in? Loki: Bit more detail up there perhaps. Popped round earlier today to look at a Finnfire but alas, someone put a deposit down on it yesterday. Mint bar a small scuff on the bottom of the stock. Curses. Dave-G: Think I have read most of your posts researching this particular rifle. I think it was one of your posts that mentioned the extraction problem but (off the top of my head) I think that was 08 and was wondering about a rumoured fix which has been mentioned. Regarding being daft with cash, I certainly wouldn't be buying two Anschutz in .17 and .22. Not for the next couple of years anyway. I would plump with just the .22 for the Anschutz but may be tempted to spend a bit extra on the quad for the extra barrel. And if I don't spend it we'll end up with another feature wall or curtains or something like that. Thanks again everyone, I know that the Anschutz is probably a safe bet but I really enjoy the feel and action of the Quad, which I reckon I'm leaning towards now.

Gents, I am looking to buy a .22LR (and possibly .17HMR) and narrowed it down to the Anschutz XIV or a Sako. The Anschutz certainly seems to be top dog according to internet posts but the Sako Quad praise seems less prolific with a couple of trends for an extraction problem of empty .22 cartridges (this problem with live rounds is one I'm prepared to put up with). I have shot the Anschutz and quite enjoy it but I like the feel of the Quad too. In fact, the overwhelming support for the Anschutz is probably one of the things pushing me towards giving the Quad a chance. Barrel changing apart, I have 3 main questions for the Quad owners and any extra advice or opinions are warmly received. 1. If you had to do it again, would you buy the quad or something else (Coopers, etc are well out of my price range so pretty much read Anschutz or cheaper)? 2. Does the empty .22 cartridge ejection problem seem to have gone away on newer rifles? 3. If you had the option of a mint secondhand Finnfire or a new Quad, which would you pick? Many thanks for all of your help and any additional information on things like scopes is warmly appreciated. I know there is a "Quad v Anschutz" post earlier on but it is obvious there are two very definite camps and I the answers to the questions above will help me decide. Cheers.