Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Range day with the Tikka T3 Lite Stainless .223

The specs:



Rifle: Tikka T3 Lite Stainless .223, 1 in 10" twist (bought from shortactionsmoker)

Scope: Leupold FX3 12x42 AO

Mounts: Talley one-piece alloy, cut down per "mods" thread



Loads tested: Nosler 64 grain Bonded Solid Base, Rem Brass, CCI 400 primers, Varget powder (load over max, so no I won't share), 2.156" OAL.



Hornady 50 grain VMax, Rem brass, CCI 400 primers, 26.5 gr. Benchmark powder, chrono'ed 3396 ft/sec, 2.276" OAL.





First up was the Nosler Bonded Solid Base. The first group was 4 shots, measured right at an inch. The second group was 5 shots, 3 and 2 as the magazine only takes 4 but I thought it only took 3. So three shots, load and fire two more (moving my rest in the process).



The first 3 shots measured 0.261", the next two were almost in the same hole at 0.024". Taken together the 5 shot group was 0.456". Not too shabby.









Next up was the 50 grain VMax. I fired 6 shots with 4 and 2. Once again the last two opened the group up quite a bit. Measured 0.715" and chrono'ed at 3396 ft/sec. I might stick to 5 shot continuous strings. Moving around goofs me up.









If you look at the upper target in the first pic you'll see a 3 shot group with the Vmax load. It measures 0.387".



Funny thing, but the Noslers didn't group worth a darn at 200 yards. I didn't even keep the target. The VMax, however, looked pretty good. Once again 6 shots, just under an inch at 200.







I sure like that Tikka!



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