By 'market', do you mean the civilian market? Because if Wiki is right, various militaries are split between TRG and AWM as the most popular, PGM 338 playing runner-up and some bigger countries (US, Canada, Germany) doing their own variants.
Some even use both Sako and AI products, but I have doubts about anyone switching over. Militaries don't really work that way. Then again, it's a pretty niche weapon.
Juku121,
We are talking about the mid to late 90's for this mod and not current times and you are completely wrong on this one; like ALL THE WAY AROUND and you are reading into my statements when you shouldn't and are showing your ignorance. Let me educate you.
The U.S. had a serious wet dream since the early 1980s for an intermediate cartridge between .308 and .50 and actively began trying to find a solution in 1982. The project was farmed out to Research Armament Industries where a .416 Rigby was monkeyed with and a rough action was designed and built based on the AR platform. Ed Dillion, Jim Bell, Boots Obermeyer, and Jerry Haskins all provided something into the mix. If none of those names mean anything? Look them up. In 1984 Lapua was chosen as a production partner because the U.S. wanted their projectiles because they had that European efficient anal retentive quality control while the preliminary Hornady bullets had problems. Haskins' action wasn't that good, but the U.S. decided to let the project continue but really didn't get anywhere and did the fade away in the denouement just prior to the fall of the Soviet Union.
Lapua basically being eager saw a future opportunity and took it. Lapua continued the 338 project themselves and made a few refinements like a greater taper, and web thickness. The German company Heym then heard about this Whiz Bang cartridge and began selling a few custom '98 Mauser pattern rifles chambered in the brand spanking new .338 Lapua in 1985 and it quickly became a hit with competitive long range shooters in Europe. The Mauser Action is simple, strong, and well understood and the .338 had great characteristics but the set up wasn't ideal.
Later sometime in 1988 Accuracy International began developing the Arctic Warfare Magnum and eventually settled on chambering it in .300 Winmag and .338 Lapua. This made the AWM the first production rifle in .338... AI were there first. Now, SAKO had provided barrels for Lapua on their test guns and seeing another company from a different country get in bed with their countrymen pissed them off. So, SAKO began offering chambering of their TRG series in .338; specifically the TRG-
41 and it was off to the races.
Early adopters chose first the AWM and then the more refined TRG-
42 came along and tada! that's why you see lots of countries with both or with the AWM and then another rifle in .338. They bought one model, the AWM and needed more rifles in a .338. SAKO had the production capacity and price that Accuracy International did not. In the interim between the first and second rounds of buying the AWM and Accuracy International being unable to keep up production quantities SAKO dominated by simply being able to provide TRG-42s for purchase... and so some countries field both.
So, that is HOW the military market was dominated by SAKO and that is how markets work including ones that involve the military. If you cannot provide a good or services, then your competitor will and honestly in this case it comes down to the barrel... There are very few barrel makers are in Europe. SAKO is one of them and Accuracy International is not. Besides .338 was adopted and tested for CIP in 1989 but not SAAMI until 2007. Thus The availability of ammo was limited to only, you guessed it! LAPUA!, for the first 20 years of it's existence because none of the larger ammunition manufactures in the Western Hemispheres had good solid numbers from the certifying agency it considered king and no civilian market because the U.S. has had .300 WinMag since 1963. Europe was a different story...
Until after 2000 there wasn't really much choice except Accuracy International or SAKO. Then of course in 2001 everything changed rapidly as Afghanistan showed a need for what the U.S. had been harping about since the 80's. In Afghanistan, long range engagements where humping a 35lb .50 rifle was impractical at best and there being no such thing as match grade machine gun ammo drove the point home. Thus the U.S wanted a new rifle, the Canadians wanted a new rifle and everyone was totally enamored with .338. Macmillian, PGM, SIG, PGW and others came onto the scene with various militaries starting in 2001 until 2005.
The PGM 338 DID NOT EXIST in the timeline of the X-Com Files and is easily provable as Chris Movigliatti did not go to work for PGM until late 1999/2000.
Lapua laughed all the way to the bank.
**edited for clarity**
