Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles BAD TIKKA

Anyone have or ever here of one? All I have seen so far is that they are great. Surely there must be one bad one.

no bad ones here,i have a 270win stainless/synthetic and love it.
one of my hunting buddies has a stainless/grey laminted in 308,he says his is the best rifle he ever owned.

With Tikka's quality control, you're going to have to search far and wide to find a bad one. Good luck with that!

And you can go back through the years and different models, and still find no bad ones.

Yes, my retailer had a bad one - can't remember the cartridge. They sent it back and Beretta sent a replacement. That was it, after hundreds of Tikkas over the years. American manufacturers should take notice, including my favorite, Kimber.
I just can't warm up to some of its features.

Both of mine are bug hole capable.

T3's that is

I have a 695 that will shoot 1/2" with about anything you care to suff in it. Caliber is 280 by the way.

Contrary to popular belief the U.S. does not own the rights to quality craftsmanship. T3's bolt cycle and trigger is like a swiss watch compared to most other rifles. I have custom 700's that aren't as smooth, don't have as crisp of trigger, and don't shoot as well as a $500 Tikka. Almost laughable.

i had a bad one. it was a LA for a SA cart and the stock was a flimsey piece of trash. the bolt was too loose in the reciver for my taste and the barrel was 2" too long.

I had a bad one... (in comparison to the others).... it was a 243 and I could only get it to shoot about 7/8 inch groups.... all the others I own easily shot 1/2 inch groups....

Thought this may be a good place to look for advice. I recently bought a tikka t3 ss 7mm08. factory rings and a bushnell elite 3x9. The action and finish is great. I do plan to go with a deadnutz mount when I have time. First trip to range 140 gr rem corelok shot a box cleaning between shots best group about 8" figured It was breaking in 2nd box no better time to change ammo By the way I do not reload Fed 140 paritions no better, 140 fed BT no better so I have about80 rounds down the barrel I'm at a loss as what to try when I hear everybody else shooting 1' groups. Now I'm no marksman but even my 06 I can shoot 2"oups and would be happy with that for deer. So Do I need to shoot more to bring the barrel around ? suggestions on ammo or take to my dealer Thanx Guys DWG

Amazing that even with the long action you had a 6lb 3oz rifle isn't it? The stock isn't a McMillan tactical stock but they are not too flimsy for hunting applications. In fact thousands of these things are successfully taking game every year without drooping between shooters fingers like a wet noodle.

Get out of here! You can't be serious..... anything plastic is sure to fail, not feel right, explode in your hands, or melt and whither away in your clutches.

DWG7,

My first thought is you have a scope or mounting issue. Next might be an action that is not tight in the stock. Dunno!

Same thoughts here.

I heard someone complain about the accuracy of a 338 Federal on here. Could be a 6# 338 is not for everyone, but it could have been the gun too.

I'd pull it from the stock and make sure the floating recoil lug is properly seating in the bottom of the receiver....

Can you explain this job for me Kinda new here thanx DWG

T3's use a plate mortised into the stock as the recoil lug. The receiver has a groove machined into it that mates to the top of the plate. When putting the barreled action into the stock it's easy to not get things seated properly.

I have 2 T3s and I'm not overly impressed with either.

One is a blued/syn version chambered in 338 Federal wearing a Vari-X II in Leupie DDs. It's the only rifle I've shot that dramatically improved accuracy wise after approx 50 rounds down the pipe. The first few groups fired after break in were over 2"(factory 200grn fusions for the brass and break-in). Chalked that one up to it just not liking that ammo. After a bit of load development, I was able to get it to consistently barely shoot under MOA with 200 HDYs and 200 NBTs over various powders at 2450-2550fps MV. The reason for me stating it shot better with wear is that I shot some groups with the same lot of Fusions that went under MOA months later. Can't really argue about it now as it is quite consistent, but not on the same playing field accuracy wise as the majority of my bolt rifles. It is a joy to carry and quite handy for short range big game. A 200 NBT at 2600 is no slouch. I had to move to a LA Bolt stop and mag to gain enough capacity to get anywhere near 2600 with the longer NBTs. That's another gripe, the short mag length not allowing anything near the lands. The LA stop and mag solved that problem.

The 2nd is a Stainless/syn in 300WM with a Leupie VXIII 4.5-14x40 in Talley LW lows. Never fired factory ammo in it as I hardly ever fire a factory round, but it does just under MOA with a few pet handloads. I settled on a compressed load of 7828 under 180 NPTs that shoots around 2-2.5" at 200(avg MV of 2950) which was suitable for my needs at the time, but again, nothing comparable to most of my hunting rigs. The problems I have with it are the factory drilled and tapped mount holes are off center requiring some hefty lapping with Talley LWs, so-so accuracy, and again mag length too short to reach the lands. I'm not giving up on it despite trying several pills and powders. Next on the list is 168TTSXs.

IME a quality rifle whether factory or custom should consistently shoot .5-.8 MOA with a variety of loads.

No more Tikkas for me, if I want another cheap knock around rig, it will be a A7, 700, xbolt, or 70.

I don't doubt most Tikkas are superbly accurate rigs out of the box, but the two I purchased from different sources were not so and left a sour taste....

Have a Good One,

Loder