Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Tikka/Sako - tough backcountry rifle

I have owned a fair number of rifles from various manufactures and am also a trained M24 sniper system armorer, as well as M110 SASS armorer. That said, it has been my observation and experience that the bone stock Tikkas are exceedingly accurate, and boringly reliable. On average they are substantially more accurate than most the Remingtons I have dealt with.

Here is a pic of one of my .308 Tikkas with hunting (versus match) bullets.




The odds of getting a bone stock Remington of recent manufacture to shoot into the .1s is exceedingly low.

I have yet to have a stock barreled T3 that I cannot get to shoot into the .5s or better.

Grab a T3 in the cartridge of your choice, buy a great piece of glass.Mount the glass into some Talley lightweights, add a good sling and never look back.

Personally when I envisioned my ideal all-around, general purpose rifle, I knew starting with a T3 would be a no brainer.

I had the .308 lite stainless T3 trimmed back to 20"s, added a light and compact 2-10x Nightforce, in Talleys and added a VTAC 2 point sling.

The thing shoots 165 grain HPBT Game Kings into tiny little clusters, in spite of the very light weight of the rifle package. It also absolutely LOVES 155 grain Lapua Scenars too.

I could not ask for a better all around lightweight, general purpose gun. From ground squirrels, to coyotes, to mule deer and elk, it has proven to be a deadly little package that is a true joy to carry.





BTW, though some bitch about the composite mags, I find them to be lightweight and dead nuts reliable, much like a Glock magazine. I usually carry one 5 rounder in the gun, and a spare 3 round or 5 round mag in my pack.

The 20" Tikka .308 would be the very last hunting rifle I would ever part with.