Does putting the Tikka in a, stiffer/better/glass and pillar bedded, synthetic stock do anything for repeatable accuracy or is simply aesthetic? Understand that replacing the stock turns a 600.00 rifle into at least a 1000.00 rifle. Saw a Sako (Roughtech?) 7 series that had a fiberglass stock. Think the rifle was about 1000.00. Perhaps that is a bargain as well?
The groups I posted were shot with two 6.5x55 T3's. One is stainless in a walnut stock I bought off of Ebay that must have been a prototype. It's been bedded, both glass and pillar, and the barrel floated. It actually shot a little better when it was stock, I think.
My other one is a stock blue with synthetic stock. One will shoot some loads a little better than the other, and vise-versa, but both shoot very good.
It's always a luck of the draw type of thing as to getting a rifle/barrel combo that will produce very tight groups with some regularity, but the Tikka ups the chance significantly out of the box, I believe. Of course, so does handloading.
