What does Tikka offer you for your money that other rifles like:
Savage 10/110, Remington 700, Howa 1500, Vanguard, RAR, etc. do not? Plastic? Aluminum lugs? Poor CS? One action size? Highly over-priced replacement parts? What? Please don't say accuracy, as I know first hand that every one of them is capable of fine accuracy.
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Even the Red Baron let Snoopy go on Christmas.
I ain't in for a pissing match, but here's my take and you can use the whole salt shaker if you wish.
Put the same price tag on a RAR, ADL, and whatever else. Tikka is the only one that's the deal now. If Remmie could sell ADL's with fluted barrels for $700, they simply would. As would the rest of them.
The proof as it stands is the slew of Tikkas getting built. Don't see it with RAR's. I paid $479 for a Dick's SS special in 7-08. Shot like schit until I put it in a $500 McMillan. I've not seen a Tikka that wasn't a bullet whore. Accuracy is the biggest piece of the equation in my book, for what I shoot, and where I shoot it. 505 yards is the back of my range and all the distance I care to phuqq with. Just picked up a 1:8 223 for the sole purpose of having a LW rig that dupes the flight characteristics of a 260 w/120 TTSX and 270 WSM with 160 NPT's. And will poke a 'yote, need being. Cheap thrills.
Plastic mag box, bolt shroud, TG, and aluminum lug are the least of my worries and I've yet to see a catastrophic failure of any. And if any did fail, the gun will still function fine. 50 years and Remmie still can't get a trigger right.
So, would I like a $4,000 chunk? Who the phuqq wouldn't. Another $1,200 Montucky? Sure. A simple lesson in diminishing returns says otherwise.
So the real scoop? I could build any phuqqin thing I want. I just like the damn things.
That phuqqin simple.
And doing the rings for fellas has been a ball for the old man and I.
Still waiting to see one that shoots for schit.
