Re: Sako build
Matt, that particular rifle is in a Serengeti, now Kilimanjaro verically laminated custom stock--pretty pricey to be honest. The cerakoting was probably around $175 when I did it, so you could dump that, the stock was a stick of Bastogne that I hand picked, and then Serengeti performed their laminating process on the blank, then carved it to my specs. It was probably pushing 2800 all up, so around 2500 on that particular custom stock, stock only--action pillar bedded and glassed into stock.
Having said that, I had a custom stock done by Richards Microfit, and despite hearing various things about quality (from horrible to excellent) I got a 'pre-finished' blank from them, and all I had to do was put the oil on it, glass bedded it and it turned out awesome, a XXX blank with a decelerator on it, and I had about $650 bucks in it--4 or 5 years back....I let a friend 'steal' it, he just loved the way it turned out--it was a 270 WIN., shot very well.
I have several in the McMillans, and just love them, that is a lot more reasonable, but not cheap, option, and they are very simple to drop in, torque down and rock and roll--you choose your color!
Sakostalker, both of those Grey Wolfs are in fact Pillar Bedded and Glassed. A fellow named JB @ Accuflite did them for me, he is a SAKO guru. He has a few smiths he outsources some work to, but his stuff is always first class. I don't worry to hard about price on rifle projects, but I pay attention--JB is never the cheapest out there, but I trust him totally, and I have ALWAYS gotten good stuff from him, and I have bought a bunch from him.
They Grey Wolf on top is an 85 in 6.5x284 on the IV action so I can seat bullets long if I want, and it feeds like butter, and shoots fantastic. (the one above it is a twin in walnut)
The bottom Grey Wolf is a 270 WSM, and it flat brings it. I simply had JB pillar and glass bed it, and I did the rest, which consisted of trying about 4 loads, and bingo, load 4 did the trick, 140 gr Accubonds flat shoot out of that one.
I think the Sako 75 and 85 series are about as good as it gets as a production hunting rig, and when you tweak em with a custom stock or whatnot, they are really hard to beat for me!