I can only speak to my personal 1st hand experience with two Tikka T3's. Mine in 300wsm and my friends in 300wm. His has only shot factory loadings as he doesn't reload, and yes he gets MOA groups with Federal Premium ammo. Mine gets MOA with factory and sub-moa with nearly but not all my reloads, but none of my groups have exceeded 1.5" at 100 yards. I can honestly say with out an oz. of BS I have over a 1/2 dozen reloads using IMR-4831 and 180 grain bullets that have given my sub-moa 3-shot and 5-shot 100 yard groups. I would LOVE to post my targets but they are to big (MBs VS KBs) and the system wont allow it.
I own rifles from Remington, Savage, T/C, Ruger, Mauser, Browning, and Marlin and without doubt my Tikka T3 lite was the easiest to get my reloads to shoot sub-moa for and is the most accurate gun I own.
All I can say is every single manufacturer of anything with parts can and will produce a sub standard product, especially ones produced in a price range that makes inspecting each item a financial impossibility. Send the rifle back to Tikka I'm reasonably certain they will fix it.
If I were to buy another rifle tomorrow without doubt it would be another T3 over all others.
