Since then, SAKO leaders have made several business moves, including the acquisition of Tikka Firearms in 1983 and a merger with the Beretta Holding Group (SAKO’s present-day parent company) in 2000. The company continued manufacturing submachine gun cartridges for the Finnish Defense Forces through World War II. In between wars, the company gained financial independence from the Finnish Civil Guard, relocated its headquarters to Riihimäki, assumed the name SAKO, and began exporting pistol cartridges to Sweden. Their first shop was a converted Helsinki brewery, where gunsmiths refurbished captured Russian weapons for use in the Finnish Army. The wood condition is very good with some signs of use near the bottom metal, but overall this is a very good example of a 80’s production Finnbear. This rifle shows an excellent bore with strong rifling and a very good barrel finish with a small patch of minor wear on top the barrel. SAKO first opened its doors in 1919, shortly after Finland declared its independence from Russia, under the name Civil Guard Supreme Staff Gun Works. Sako A5 Finnbear chambered in 7mm Remington Magnum. The company’s name hails from a voluntary Finnish militia, called the “Civil Guard” or “White Guard”, that successfully crushed socialist opposition during the Finnish Civil War of 1918. SAKO, Ltd., or Suojeluskuntain Ase- ja Konepaja Oy ('Civil Guard Gun and Machining Works”), is a Finnish firearms company that can trace its roots all the way back to post-WWI Europe.