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Joined: Mar 2011
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Thanks for the reply John. I think we're on the same page. Tikkas shoot well, have a nice trigger (though I did have one dud out of 5 with more creep than usual), and the magazine feeds great. I didn't know that they lapped those heavy barrels! I had a Super Varmint that shot so well with Remington 55gr MC, of all things, that I don't think most people would believe me. But I sold that rifle without trying any other ammo or handloads. I used handloads in 3 of those Tikkas, and the only thing I did with any of them was to set the trigger pull to the minimum by unscrewing the preload spring all the way out. The other rifles I mentioned, the RAR, 77, Savages, BAR, 760, etc. all shot just as well but did need minor tinkering as you mentioned. The RAR needed the stock stiffened and trigger tweaked, a Timney for the 77, while the BAR needed the fore-end sanded for a free-float but no trigger change. On the 760 I just removed the brush guard, but it could have used a new trigger. The Savages didn't need anything but I've never had one that fed as well as a Tikka. The Kimber trigger is better out of the box than the Tikka, in my opinion, but there's a big difference in cost between the two. My latest toy, a 700, needed a Timney. Based on a your suggestion, I've been shooting a minimum of 5-shots per group for the past several years. And over the past 2-3 years I've upped that to 7-8 shots at 100, sometimes 10-shots. We shoot these hunting rifles out to 600 yards throughout much of the year and have a good idea of what really shoots consistently and what doesn't, for our uses. A good rifle, scope, load, and shooter should be able to hit a 6" target at 500. Usually looking for a group of 3, not just one hit. With low wind, or good wind call, we are pretty good on a 6"x8" plate at 610 yards. And not just one hit but 4 or 5 in a row. Maybe not good enough for competition, but pretty good for hunting rifles. Based on my luck with Tikkas, a few buds bought their own. One shoots handloads well (8-10 shots at 100), but not until we floated the barrel. Before the float, it was less consistent. We floated another T3, but it remained mediocre. So at least one benefited from some tinkering, like those other rifles. All my Tikkas were older, and floated all the way near the shank, but not so with the newer ones. A friend of a friend bought a Tikka, based on all the good luck, but his has a tight/short chamber. He doesn't reload, so he bought different brands of ammo and all are hard to chamber. He wasn't sure why, so we marked some cases... I'm not suggesting that this means Tikkas are bad. I suppose that a spec chamber on the short end, and spec ammo on the long end could be the culprit but I don't think that Tikkas are perfect either and a dud can slip past QC. But for the price, they do seem to offer a lot. What I like best about Tikkas are the stocks and triggers. I think their plastic stocks are tough to beat for the money. And the magazines feed great, but I don't care for them sticking out instead of flush. Jason
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Joined: Mar 2011
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Campfire Tracker
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I've also had excellent accuracy with various lower-priced rifles, and have written more than one article about them, including the Thompson/Center Venture In my experience it's close to Tikkas in out-of-the-box accuracy and trigger quality.
John, I saw your comments on the Venture in another thread, and made note of them, but haven't seen one in person yet. Is the fore-end reasonably stiff and bolt stop robust (or just a small pin that can shear)? Thanks, Jason
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We were just discussing this yesterday @ the watering hole. Everyone who had a Tikka (T3 Lite) bragged on it's grouping.
I have only one, a .223 in stainless. I shoot 3 shot groups and the holes either touch or nearly do so. I can't remember this thing ever opening up to a half inch. I use the same load in 3 bolt action .223s, for simplicity --- I also full-length resize and don't sort brass. I have a Rem 700VS that is nearly as accurate and an old Savage 116 that's at least as accurate.
They are all a joy in a PD town -- The Rem however, ALWAYS allows me to see the impact, due to its weight. I ran 100 rounds thru the Rem and the Tikka at the dogs just last week. Wasn't shooting that great but can't blame the rifles.
Last edited by LarryfromBend; 11/29/16.
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,195 Likes: 24
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
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4th point,
The bolt stop is a spring-loaded horizontal lever on the left rear of the action. It works like many such arrangements: Press on one end and the bolt stop on the other end lifts away from the bolt. But it's stouter than a lot of them.
One major difference between the T/C and T3 is weight. My Venture .308 is the compact model, with a 20" barrel, but with the same scope as a T3 Lite in .260 Remington it weighs 7-3/4 pounds, a pound more than the Tikka.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
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Joined: Dec 2002
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2002
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I suspected that the QC was quite good but I also feel that the design- simple and very stiff contribute to the great accuracy. If you can get around all that damn plastic, they are really quite good rifles.
When machining stuff whether robotic or by hand, you have to deal with tool wear. If you don't have processes in place that check the tool wear, you will get some dimensional changes. I suspect that some will get chambers that were near the end of a reamer's life and will be a little smaller than a fresh reamer will cut. A slightly worn insert will also cut a different dimension than a fresh one- even if we are only talking 10th of thousands. They must have a good program in place that keeps these variables from adding up.
Did I mention that I hate all that plastic?
NRA Benefactor Member
Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
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Joined: May 2003
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Drover: I can only add this to your observation. A few years ago I bought a Tikka T-3 in 338 Federal caliber. I added a Zeiss 3x9 scope and bought some factory ammo to get brass for my reloading. The factory ammo shot so well I just bought two more boxes of it and have been Hunting Spring Bear with it ever since. This is the only Tikka I have ever owned but have seen others shoot at the range and I tend to agree with your contention - Tikka's shoot well. Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
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Campfire Outfitter
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Great QC, which means monitoring not only the product, but the tools and people that are involved in the construction.
A flat bottomed, stiff action and detached recoil lug, and superior barrels. A good trigger is important too. The most import thing, in my opinion, is their QC process, from beginning to end. They care, and it shows.
There is no single thing that makes them great shooters. Everything works together.
Safe Shooting! Steve Redgwell www.303british.comGet your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - Mark Twain Member - Professional Outdoor Media Association of Canada
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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I bet they retire the barrel mandrels way before most other manufacturers do.
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Joined: Mar 2011
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Campfire Tracker
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4th point,
The bolt stop is a spring-loaded horizontal lever on the left rear of the action. It works like many such arrangements: Press on one end and the bolt stop on the other end lifts away from the bolt. But it's stouter than a lot of them.
One major difference between the T/C and T3 is weight. My Venture .308 is the compact model, with a 20" barrel, but with the same scope as a T3 Lite in .260 Remington it weighs 7-3/4 pounds, a pound more than the Tikka. Thanks John, I appreciate it. Jason
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Campfire Regular
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Eurpean companies also have other incentives to use machinies compared to labor. Tax write offs etc..
Alot of the machining companies where I grew up, and worked somethimes as a "buttom pusher" have more advanced machinery than I have seen in many aerospace machine shops in the US..
My brothers shop, buys top of the line Mori Seiki machines every few years, with all the add ons. And they are small shop.
The US in the last 40 years:
Socialism for big corporations and military industrial complex
&
Rugged individualism for the individual.
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OP
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Well, I'm just glad we didn't have Tikkas back in my day.
I never would have learned how to do my own trigger jobs and "tweak" actions for best feeding, how to calculate the parimutuel odds on whether free floating, full length bedding or forend tip bedding would produce best accuracy, the joy of endless hours of cleaning and scrubbing barrels to bare metal, or not, the processes for weighting 37 randomly connected handloading variables that change independently over the course of the moon's phases and most importantly of all the accumulation of an entire library of arcane spells to incant at various times in the loading and shooting cycle, plus associated curses used after the shot is let off.
Young'uns got it too easy today... Pretty well sums it up. I am glad that I know how to do all of those things but it was frustrating at times, and even more frustrating when nothing worked. drover
223 Rem, my favorite cartridge - you can't argue with truckloads of dead PD's and gophers.
24hourcampfire.com - The site where there is a problem for every solution.
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My Tikka T3 SS .260 was a very so-so shooter out of the box. About 1 1/2" groups at 100yds with every load. It flunked the free float test with a piece of paper between the barrel and stock. After fixing that and noticing some divots in the aluminum recoil lug, I replaced it with a Lumney titanium. I found I could not approach the lands when seating handloaded bullets, so I modified the bolt stop and magazine to accept longer cartridges that nudged the rifling. After doing all this my first 5 shot group at 200yds was 7/8", and since verified many times. Not sure which "tweak" did the trick but now I'm happy with it.
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I have several Sako 85 rifles and several Tikka T3 rifles. NONE of the Sako rifles shoot as well as the Tikka rifles with FACTORY AMMO. (I'm not a gun writer, just a bum with a lot of rifles and trigger time.)
Enjoy the hunt while it lasts!
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