Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Factory Tikka T3 scope rings?

I know most people here do not use these. Anyone have any luck utilizing them on thier rifle? The currect budget will not allow an upgrade on rings for a while so will have to make due with the ones that it came with.

Any tricks to make them better? Seems like I saw a recommendation on here from someone on changing out the socket head screws that come in the rings.

The rifle is a .270 so recoil should not be super bad. Anyway, just looking for peoples experience with these that have actually utilized them.

$50 will solve the problem with some Talleys or DNZ's.

If that's too much, less than $40 will get you some Warnes that are way better than factory.

Start scraping coins out of the sofa and kids pockets and do it.

The screws in the supplied rings are soft. Changing out for some decent hardened screws, regardless of the style of head, will work. I do agree that cap or tork heads would be better than slotted or philips. You would be better served with other rings. Even regular Redfield style windage adjustable bases and standard rings would be a step up.

I have used originals on both a 223 and a 300 wsm for 5 years and both have worked great. I will change the rings on the 300 this year but not because I have to. YMMV
Jon

They are not the best looking, but who cares, it is a working rifle not a showpiece. I spent less than $2.00 to upgrade to better screws at Home Depot. Never had any problems other than the wrenches slipping in the soft factory screws. After replacing them they worked fine.

I agree that with a change of the screws the stock rings work fine as well as being lightweight.

I used stock rings for years on a number of Tikkas with zero problems.

I did, however, splurge on some stronger screws at Home Depot. I think they were Allen or Hex heads, and they were much harder.

Gradually upgraded to Talleys just because I have so much confidence in them, and (perhaps even more so, truth be told) because I didn't like the look of the two tone stainless rings on my matte scopes.

DJ

Mohawk, I have a set of used Warne mounts in a medium for a Tikka T3. I will sell them for a resonable amount when your budget allows. They are next to new but the screws are starting to show some wear, been on two guns. They will still work fine. I really like my Tikka's and will help out a fellow Tikka owner. If you are interested PM me. Buckfever1

I put a set of Warnes on my T3. Not very purdy but sturdy!

stock rings works great, if you want heavy duty get warne

Warne is the way to go,the factory rings are horrible. The recoil pin can actually drive right through the aluminum ring because it's so soft and weak.The screws are also so soft you can hardly even tighten them.

Mine worked just fine.
I recently switched to a DNZ one-piece mount just because I wanted to.

But that is the point everyone who says to use the factory rings is making.
If you replace the very soft factory screws with good hardened screws you can then tighten them down enough that the rings don't slip at all. You can't get the soft issue screws tight enough to prevent movement.
Everyone who has tried the hardened screws in the factory rings reports that they never slip.
The factory rings are a fine lightweight ringmount but not until the screws are replaced.

$3 or $50, you make the call.

The OP stated he's on a tight budget. $3 is affordable.

Mine work fine. If you think you need harder screws you are probably over tightening; 25-30 inchpounds is right for most rings; and that is much less than the it takes to deform even soft screws.

Mine seem fine so far.

husqvarna is right too

I'd think the aluminum ring threads would strip before the screw would fail. Those must be some pretty shiznity screws.

There are many reports of the factory rings slipping even though the factory screws are tightened to the point of stripping the allen heads.

Mine did.

Once these screws are replaced the slippage goes away because you can tighten them sufficiently.

I'm only talking about the cross screws that go transversely across the action to clamp the bottom of the ringmount to the integral dovetail and not the cap screws which hold the scope in the mounts.

Yes Scotty, these are the worst screws I've ever seen on any rifle.

mine worked fine but I switched to Talley's
Much nicer.

I had one slip too.

My first T3 was a 270 WSM. I ran the supplied rings for a while and then went to put a Kahles on it, so I wanted to use Signature rings. I had no problems with that one, but didn't run it long using the factory mounts.

Roll forward few years and I picked up a 6.5x55. I started with the factory mounts, not being able to decide which aftermarket mounts to use, and the scope slipped. When I tried to take the mount off the base screw stripped out and I ended up cutting the base off with a dremel.

I'll never use T3 factory mounts again. It's just not worth 30-50 bucks, when most will have nearly a grand wrapped up in the rig.