Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders What's the Tikka of muzzleloaders

I would like to get into muzzleloading and I have had great success with my Tikka is there a manufacture of muzzleloaders that equals Tikka for accuracy and reliability.

I don’t know about the custom rifles, but have had great success with Knight rifles shooting Barnes bullets. The 3 I’ve worked would keep 3 shots into 1 to 11/2”. This is excellent accuracy in my experience. They’re more $ than what you see in common sporting good stores but worth the premium. The Barnes MZ bullets and 150 grains of powder are deadly.

Got a pic of your Tikka? Easier to compare style with a pic.

Tikka's are center fire rifles

When the closed breech in-lines first appeared such as the T/C Encore followed by the T/C Prohunter along with the T/C Omega I had the opportunity to work up loads for many rifles for members of my hunting club.

Using the correct sabot for the bore diameter. ( T/C;s bore ranged from .499 to .502) I was able to achieve 1 inch 3 shot groups with most rifles., while others were 1 1/4 inch 3 shot groups. Hodgdon "777" powder was a pain in the azz to work with due to the consistent crud ring until " Blackhorn -209" showed up and saved the day. I found the T/C 200 gr shock- wave the easiest bullet to work with and consistent seating pressure a must. The much-overlooked T/C 200 gr shock wave is the least popular muzzleloading bullet used yet shoots flatter out to 200 yards than a comparable 250 gr ML bullet and just kills them dead....DRT.

I am admittedly biased towards the T/C rifles and have earned the privilege to do so.

The most accurate muzzleloaders I’ve ever shot or owned has been LHR Redemptions. Using Blackhorn 209 powder and Harvester Scorpion PT Gold 300gr sabots has produced repeatable sub-MOA groups at 100 for me.

I live in Washington there maybe some changes coming to the type of ignition system.

My buds say their smokeless Savages are the cats azz.

Big bughole groups at 100 yards from what I have seen.

"accuracy and reliability" in a muzzleloader has as much to do with the nut behind the trigger as it does the rifle. Attention to detail in loading, cleaning and the choosing of components is the key to both reliability and accuracy.

Thompson center makes very nice guns...........

My Knight Ultralite is light, handy, accurate, and reliable. Good trigger (Timney), Kevlar stock. I have the Western ignition, just in case, but have yet to use it. It's a bit of a hassel to clean, but that's not a big problem when using BH 209. Wouldn't buy one now because the current price is $400 over what I paid.

I worked a bit with my son's Strike (aka Redemption). Very slick setup. If I were starting fresh, that's what I'd get.

You still haven't mentioned the style that Tikka's are.

Is it a semi-auto gas?
Is it a bolt-action?

etc......etc......etc....

Do you want a bolt-action ML?..... plunger-action?...... fall-action?........ break-action?.....etc.

I have an TC Encore in 50 caliber and it is a tack driver. Stainless steel, easy to disassemble and clean. Frame can accept other barrels/calibers, so it has a lot going for it.

If I wanted a muzzleloader that I knew would shoot I personaly would buy a Knight. There are a lot of great muzzleloaders out there these days.

The only popular-brand ML that I wouldn't buy is Traditions. I've had three-too-many over the years -- that I regret ever buying.

If you want to shoot smokeless I would say buy a NULA, but they cost $1800 and about a year to have one built, very light and very accurate.

I’ve got the Remington UML. Pretty accurate and seems to be an easy ML to hunt.

I really like the CVA accura 2 in .50 cal. Accurate out to 250 yards. You can get typical ignition or western ignition that is legal is all states. As with all rifles made you have to find what works and then shoot that to get best results. Send me a PM if you want more info
ABLE

CVA Optima V2. It's reasonably priced, accurate, light, great trigger. I own/have owned Knight and several TC inlines. The Optima is what I use in the PA early muzzleloader season.

ONE HOLE GROUPS WITH 100 GR OF AMERICA PONNINER WITH 250 GR LONG COLT XTP 100 YARDS WITH A CVA KODIAK 50 AND 45 CAL LIKE THE 45 BETTER WITH A BLUE SABOT AND 180 GR 40 CAL BULLET THE BEST GROUP WAS WITH THE POWER BUILT

buy tc,cva,traditions latest models and you'll be good.

The CVA's seem pretty simplistic for maintenance wondering about accuracy with the Optima??

THAT WOULD BE CALLED A DINKA THERE 10,000YARDS PISRIFLES HARD TO FINSHOT

lol

If I was you I would look for a new old stock T/C Omega or a used one in like new condition. I have 14 different muzzleloaders and I would have to say that overall the T/C is the most accurate and simple design. I have come to appreciate the fact that it is NOT a break action design. I have several that are break actions and I feel and a NON break action design has more benefits, especially when cleaning or at the range.

My break-action Knight Vision is much easier to tear-down clean than my fall-action Omega. The Vision can be quick-cleaned, not having the deeper nook & crannies the Omega has around the breech.

GoexBlackhorn is your Knight set up for western I am in Washington

Damn! I don't believe any good true muzzleloader should be compared to a Tikka!!

If by Tikka... you mean simple, and easy to get to shoot well without a lot of fuss... I have played with 5 TC Impacts over the past few years and they have all been super simple and accurate. I believe they all shot 200gr and 250gr SST/Shockwaves over 100ish grains of BH209 VERY well.

TDN That's exactly what I mean

My Savage is very accurate, I like it!!

For factory ML, Knight would be considered top of the line. They are very nice, super accurate, high quality, USA made ML's. The Ultra-Lite is money. If I was in the market, that would be my choice.
You can certainly buy a lesser brand that will be effective. Or you can buy a like new/used rifle. I've picked up some very good top end ML's on the cheap over the years.

Another to consider if you can find one, a like new/used TC Omega. Simple and accurate. BH209 ready.

My suggestion on whatever you get, get a stainless gun. They are much more forgiving than blued.

You might be right. Kinda like comparing an apple and an Edsel.

Show me a 50 yard offhand group of 5 from a Tikka....

The Tikka comment was to for out of box simplicity and accuracy.

My CVA optima with the BH BP with Harvester Scorpion bullets prints pretty groups at 100 and it was dirt cheap. I would buy the same exact thing if I needed to do it again.

Oh.

Well, this wasn't from a Tikka, but it was offhand at 50 yards.



About as simple as it gets.

I have owned dozens of muzzleloaders including models from Knight, CVA, Remington and a pile if TC models from over the last 35 years....The most consistantly accurate rifles I have had were either Remington's or the CVA's with the Bergara barrels, I also liked the feel of TC's Encore rifle ( I have owned a dozen of these) but I found them generally less accurate and more picky about the particular load I was shooting......For the money My vote goes to CVA for now.......Good luck.....Hb

Sad that you had to explain yourself on the tikka comparison........lol. I thought your question was very self explanatory.

The T/C's and CVA's I've had and been around have been straight forward...like a tikka.

Lol

I got the CVA Accura 2 nitride northwest edition

Of the ones I had, the Knights were the most consistently accurate with different loads. The T/C Omega was great as long as you were shooting sabots, but SUCKED with conicals (required in Colorado where I hunted with it). I tried every conical made and it shot patterns, not groups.

Knights are very popular and have a great reputation out here in Washington, this is my first MZ and like the simplicity of the CVA. The Cva Accura 2 Western top of the line coated with Nitride was $463.00 to the door Knight would have been $978.00.

For me, it's been my LHR Remption, but unlike a Tikka rifle, you're playing in a whole different field.

Nobody picks up a muzzleloading rifle with the expectation that it's going to be a 100% surefire thing. A Tikka may be close to that for what it does, but part of the sport of ML'ing is the fact that it ain't a 100% proposition. You've got a lot more variations in powder, primer, etc. etc. that make it more uncertain. A Tikka fires stuff out of a brass case and the primer and powder are sealed in. The Tikka also has to cycle round after round through the magazine. With a ML, you make it go bang and then fiddle-fart with the whole system getting it ready to fire again.

In that last respect, it is a lot more the whole success of the system hinges on the nut holding the rifle than anything else. It's about consistency, attention to fine detail and dogged determination more than the precision of the hardware.

I used to work in a solder factory. The VP used to tell us: if you fart favoring your left ass cheek while extruding your wire, you'd better be ready to fart off that same cheek for the rest of the shift if you want consistent wire (he was a hillbilly so he called it 'WAR'.) That's pretty much what accuracy and reliability in a ML demands.

One other thing: The LHR Redeption/TC Strike has been a major game changer. I had been shooting the same TC Hawken since 1984. However, you or the next guy may find another rifle does better or worse. It's a very personal thing. I would not expect your experience to be the same as mine. However, there are LHR Redemptions out there marked waaaay down since the rifle was bought out by TC.

A Google search would have revealed they are bolts but I think you are missing the point: what is the modern muzzleloader with the highest performance at modest cost?