Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles I thought Tikkas were supposed to shoot good!

OK, I cleaned good, used same scope and tried some more. Most stuff shot so-so but the one load that I wasn't expecting shot pretty good.

200 grain Partitions loaded over 42 grains of Varget shot into .122"




This was the best group with 150 grain Accu bombs that I had.

The Federal Gold Medal match settled down finally.

Here was the Lake City stuff. Ho-hum


I even switched scopes and put my 15x target scope on that I use for stuff like this.



I ended up switching back and leaving the Meopta on it. I guess I'll load up all my 200 grain Partitions, take a couple of boxes of 180 Normas and call it good. Still very disappointing after all the accolades I have seen about Tikkas.

My hunch is it might do better with lighter, mono bullets like 150-168 gn.

Why??

How can you possibly be disappointed with two loads that go under .5" ???? You haven't even got started good.

One is a target load and one is a 200 grain load. Nothing else shoots worth beans. How many people are restricted to using a 200 grain Partition as their only load in a 308? It would be nice to have some options. In this rifle I really don't. I have to load all the 200 grain Partitions I have today and that is what I am stuck with for the next 6 months. I was hoping for some 150-165 grain load for use on wolves but I suppose a 200 grain will kill them.

Still blows me away that it's not stacking everything that fits in the chamber.

A 200-grain Partition would certainly be a ways down my list for an all-around bullet in a .308. But you are going to be in Alaska, and if anybody can make it work, you can.

I would agree with this too. In all honesty I wouldn't be happy about it either.

BTW, I have a full box and another with 38 remaining that I can send your way if you need more.

Run some Tubbs Final Finish through it. I did that, along with bedding, on a Howa Mountain Rifle and it improved significantly. You have nothing to lose.

Make sure the lugs engage somewhat evenly too.

To this point in time, I have enjoyed phenomenal out-of-the-box performance from all of the Tikkas I have owned and been around. However, from a number of other firearm forums, there are numerous accounts of the T3x not performing as well as the T3. I have no idea if these accounts are statistically significant or just an over representation of normal production anomalies found in all products. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to follow this saga and learn if Will Rogers was right again-"if ain't broke don't fix it". CP.

Is it possible the front action screw is hitting the bolt? I had that happen on a M70 before.


I guess there's always going to be bad apple in the bunch. Buying a 308 to me means I have the widest range of ammo available. Buying a Tikka 308 would mean it shoots it all. My 30-06 didn't care what went down the tube.


Bummer...

Not that I can feel with my finger and some stuff shoots good. A screw hitting the bolt would probably screw up everything (pun intended),not just most stuff.


I loaded up 60 rounds of 200 grain Partitions. The 180 Normas are shooting good enough to hunt with so I will make the 2 of them do.


I am not dogging Tikkas but I am disappointed that it has taken so much to get this one to shoot like most people claim that theirs do.

I bought a new T3 SS in .260 and was pretty jacked because of the Tikka's cred but it shot ho-hum.
Did some checking and found some contact between stock and barrel. Fixed it.
Noticed some scarring on the aluminum recoil lug. Installed a titanium aftermarket lug.
Found that my mag length wouldn't let me seat VLD bullets very close to the lands. Modified the bolt stop and the magazine to allow a longer OAL.
And now it shoots like I expected. Maybe even better.

Maybe the T-3X "improvements" have introduced some unintended issues that are negatively impacting accuracy. I know mine is not impressing me at all right now.

Perhaps some Rem Core-Lokt, Federal Power Shok, Winchester Power Point?

Dennis,

Sorry to hear the .308 is finicky.

I wonder if the throat may be long/and or oversize. Have you measured how much bullets are having to jump?

For a 162 Amax to kiss the lands on the T3 I had, it required seating the bullet a full quarter of an inch longer than mag length would allow.

Where did you score the Ti recoil lug?