Switch Barrel Sako Quad Rifle

Sporting rifles with interchangeable barrels have been with us for a very long time. Several years ago at a gun show, a collector of Winchester lever-action rifles had a Model 94 takedown rifle with barrels in 30-30, 25-35, 32 Special, 32-40 and 38-55 Winchester. According to the owner of that rifle, it was built by Winchester in 1917. At that time each additional barrel cost $12 and it came with its own magazine and forearm.

Moving to the present, we have the Quad rifle on a modified version of the Sako Finnfire turn-bolt action. As the name implies, four interchangeable barrels are available with chambering options of 22 Long Rifle, 22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR), 17 Mach 2 and 17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire (HMR). The rifle comes with one of those barrels and other barrels can be added. Beretta (owner of Sako) introduced the new switch-barrel rifle during a Wyoming prairie dog shoot in 2008, and that’s when I first shot it.

Five Quad model variations have been available, all with 24-inch, six-groove barrels. The Quad Synthetic with a black stock has a standard-weight barrel while the Synthetic Heavy Barrel has, you guessed it – a heavier barrel. Replace the synthetic stock of the latter model with European walnut and you have the Quad Varmint. Give that one fancy walnut, adjustable open sights and a single set trigger and you have the Hunter Pro. The Range model is described by Sako as a target rifle, and in addition to a single set trigger it has a laminated wood stock with a height-adjustable cheek rest.

Switching barrels on the Quad is easy, and doing so does not require removing the stock. Retract the bolt, remove the magazine and use the included T-handle hex wrench to loosen a takedown bolt located just forward of the magazine slot in the bottom of the rifle. Pulling the barrel slightly upward and forward detaches it from the receiver. Slip in another barrel, tighten the bolt and it is done. As the takedown bolt is tightened, the flat surface of a spring-loaded riser block is forced hard against a matching flat on the shank of the barrel. A steel retention lug on the inner surface of the receiver ring engages a beveled groove in the barrel shank and holds it firmly in place. There is a precision V-block fit between the retention lug and the barrel.

The barrels are hammer forged and they free-float in the stock. In addition to having the standard caliber markings, each is identified by a colored ring encircling its chamber area. After a few barrel switches you will remember that green is for 22 Long Rifle, yellow means 22 WMR, blue is 17 Mach 2 and orange is 17 HMR. Magazines for the four cartridges are also caliber-marked and color coded the same.

The Quad action is 7.5 inches long and from a distance it appears to be a scaled-down version of the Sako Model 85 centerfire action. Closer examination reveals its similarities to be only skin-deep. In addition to being nicely shaped, the top of the precision-machined receiver is grooved for scope mounting. Rings are available from both Sako and Burris. Retracting the bolt while pressing on a spring-loaded release removes it from the receiver. A two-position safety lever in the side of the receiver tang blocks trigger travel and locks the bolt from rotation. The fire control unit and magazine housing are bolted to the flat bottom of the receiver.

Bolt rotation is 50 degrees. Bolt diameter is 0.705 inch and it consists of two parts. The front, nonrotating section has a single extractor while a rotating section at the rear handles breech lockup. As is typical for many rimfire rifles, the root of the bolt handle contacts the front of the receiver bridge as the bolt is rotated to its locked position. But Sako took the design of the Quad a step beyond the ordinary. As the bolt is closed, a lug on its rotating section bears against a shoulder inside the receiver. The sturdy little action is more than strong enough to contain chamber pressures generated by the cartridges for which it is presently available. A red indicator in view just under the bolt shroud indicates a cocked firing pin. Exposure of another red dot to the right of that one indicates the safety tab is in its disengaged position and the rifle is ready to be fired.

Two five-round detachable magazines handle the four cartridges, and while their external dimensions are the same, the magazine used with the shorter 22 Long Rifle and 17 Mach 2 cartridges utilizes a filler block inserted behind the follower to shorten interior length. Sako made the design of the rifle as foolproof as possible and a cartridge/barrel mix-up is highly unlikely, so long as cartridges are fed only from the magazines and not manually loaded directly into the chamber. A lengthened vertical retention rib at the front of the 22 LR/17 Mach 2 magazine prevents it from being fully inserted into the rifle when it has a 22 WMR or 17 HMR barrel attached.

The long-cartridge magazine will seat fully in the rifle when a barrel chambered for one of the short cartridges is installed, but that presents no safety problem since the two magnums are too long and fat to enter the 22 LR and 17 Mach 2 chambers. A release tab at the front of the magazine housing is easy to operate even when wearing gloves, and since it only barely protrudes below the belly of the rifle, it is not likely to be accidentally bumped in the field.

The stock of the Quad Synthetic featured in this report is composed of fiberglass-reinforced polypropylene. The shape and dimensions of the grip are a comfortable fit with my hand. The forearm is slim enough to feel good in the offhand position, and it’s wide enough to resist canting when snuggled into a sandbag. The stock features quick-detach sling swivel posts and a silver-colored grip cap with the familiar “SAKO” logo. The rifle weighs 5.5 pounds on my postal scale. Even if you have no desire to buy one or more additional barrels for your Quad, shooters may find the takedown feature to be quite handy since it allows the little rifle to be broken down into a 29.5-inch package and stowed in places too short for longer guns.

While first shooting the Sako Quad for accuracy, I checked out its ability to return to zero when its barrels were switched. I did this by shooting a couple of five-shot groups and then shooting two more after removing and reinstalling a particular barrel. Then I compared points of impact variations between the two pairs of groups. Even though all four barrels returned close to their zeroes, they were sometimes off enough to prompt me to recommend that anytime barrels are switched, the zero of the rifle should be confirmed on paper before it is taken on a hunt.

As a rule, the barrels of a switch-barrel rifle have to be zeroed individually due to differences in their points of impact, and Burris made doing so possible by developing a scope specifically for Sako Quad rifle. The scope may be even more interesting than the rifle. Burris discontinued it several years ago, but for the benefit of those who have a Quad rifle or plan to get one and discover a Quad scope at the next gun show but without its instructions, I have devoted a bit of allotted space to it.

Four aluminum bands on the windage and elevation turrets of the scope are color coded to match the identification rings on the four barrels. Their fit is just loose enough to allow them to be rotated around the bodies of the turrets. Getting bullets from all four barrels to shoot to the desired point of impact sounds more complicated than it actually is. First, the scope is zeroed at 50 yards with the 22 Long Rifle barrel. Then turrets are held in place while their green bands are rotated until “0” is aligned with a reference mark at the base of each turret. Then, while holding on to the turrets, rotate each of the other six bands until their “0s” are also aligned with that white reference dot. Next, the 22 WMR barrel is installed and once it is zeroed at 75 yards, the yellow bands are rotated until their “0s” are aligned with the reference mark. The procedure is repeated with the 17 Mach 2 and 17 HMR barrels and their corresponding blue and orange bands, except those barrels are zeroed at 100 yards. But we are not done yet.

After zeroing the 22 Long Rifle barrel, it is important to note in which direction both adjustment knobs have to be turned in order to individually re-zero each of the other barrels because the directions can differ from barrel to barrel. Unless your memory is better than mine, mark that information on a stick-on reference label that was included with the scope. In its absence, the back of a business card taped to the stock will work. Point of impact of the 22 WMR barrel of my rifle was 4 inches higher and 3 inches to the left of the 22 Long Rifle zero, in which case the elevation knob had to be rotated “down” and the windage knob had to be rotated “right.” Points of impact of the other three barrels were also higher than for the 22 Long Rifle barrel, which made things easy to remember since all necessary elevation adjustments were in the same direction – “down.” Like the 22 WMR barrel, the 17 Mach 2 barrel shot to the left, but windage adjustment for the 17 HMR barrel was exactly the same as for the 22 Long Rifle barrel. You can see all of this in the photo of the reference label I filled out for the test rifle.

Another tip: Always return the scope to its 22 Long Rifle zero before switching barrels, regardless of which calibers are being switched. This makes it easier to keep up with the direction the scope will need to be adjusted for the barrel switch. For example, if going from, say, 17 HMR to 17 Mach 2, you would return to the 22 Long Rifle zero before switching barrels and then dial the scope to the 17 Mach 2 zero.

I still have a Quad scope, and while it no longer is used on the rifle it was designed for, I have found other uses for it through the years. Several years ago, U.S. Repeating Arms, then the maker of Winchester rifles, made a few Model 94 Angle-Eject carbines in 25-35 Winchester. I decided to use the rifle on a deer hunt in Texas and took along handloads with a Winchester 117-grain roundnose bullet at 2,300 fps. Upon hearing that the ranch had a good population of coyotes, I also took along an old faithful Burnham Brothers call and handloads with a 75-grain hollowpoint bullet at 2,700 fps. Those would be single loaded directly into the chamber.

My original plan was to use a Lyman receiver sight on the rifle but due to considerable differences in points of impact of the two bullets, I attached the Burris Quad scope and zeroed it for both bullets. After taking a buck with the deer bullet, I twisted the elevation dial on the Burris scope to the varmint bullet zero and used the rifle to take several coyotes. When on the last day of the hunt the rancher invited me to participate in his population reduction program by taking a few dry does, I dialed the scope back to the deer bullet zero and went to work.