Yes, I knew better, and did it anyway! Sometimes the heat of the moment can cause us to have poor judgment. I thought I could reach the heart from that angle, if I could get the needed penetration. But, my shot landed too high for the heart. I literally had about 2 seconds to size the bull up, and make the decision to shoot. Time was running short on the hunt as well.
I have both 75 and 85 rifles. Both have the same ejector. It's not a plunger, it's a blade ejector that is at the 6 oclock position in the bolt face. That is the reason it tends to eject straight up if the extractor isn't gripping the case correctly. I knew this could happen, but it's only been an occasional thing with my particular rifle. But this time it happened at the wrong time.
With Sako and Ruger it happens when you operate the bolt at speed not when slowed down....Exciting story! Glad it turned out ok in the end. And a great looking animal!
As much as I like my Sakos, it is not the first time I hear this story. It seems like the newer models (when they went from the fixed, mauser-style ejector to the spring-loaded pin in the bolt face) sometimes send the case in too vertical an angle, rather than sideways. With a low scope mount and/or large turrets this can send the empty case right back.
I dont think it's a coincidece that even the lowest Sako-made mounts can still handle scopes with 45-50mm objectives. They want that extra gap for safety/margin of error. Maybe it's not much of a conspiracy theory, but at least it's mine
My own rifles predate this innovation but the same thing can of course happen there as well, but only if the bolt is being worked much too softly.
I don't think so. Most people remedy the problem by turning the scope so the elevation turret is on the left side of the action and the windage turret is on the top. Of course this would only work on a plain crosshair style scope, with no yardage marks on the bottom post. My particular scope does have those marks, so I resisted doing this. In hindsight, I wish I had used a different scope, and made the adjustment.
Yes, he is a fun guy to hunt with. We also hunted Lion and Lioness on this trip.
