Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Opinions on Tikka T3x Rifles

Have you ever used Imgur instead of photobucket? Try it out.

😎 I'll do that.

If you can get past how goddam hideous the things are and the fact that in the unlikely event you need customer service it will likely suck, then by all means forgo offerings from companies that support your right to keep and bear arms. Chances are you will like it.

Paul, have you had some bad experiences with them? We have sent back two Sako's and had them checked over. We had a few week turnaround on each gun. Sample of two, but I was wondering how your experience was.

Those are some outstanding groups. It's stuff like that that's so impressive about the rifle.
That one painted stock sure looks familiar....
That may be my color choice if I am able to trade for the rifle. Either that, or black and silver.

The plastic bolt shroud cracked on my dads 15yr old tikka (he can break an anvil with a rubber mallet). I called Berretta and they sent a replacement for free in just a few days. Can’t ask for much better customer service than that.

Maybe things are turning around for the Beretta group. It took me a long time and a lot of frustration to get a new recoil pad for my Beretta shotgun. I have read of quite a few accounts of non-response or poor response from Tikka. It may have been 'fire member Redneck here who had serious problems getting parts. It was one of our resident 'smiths.

I am switching from Remington 700 to Tikka.

What are Remington standards for me?

1. Replace the barrel with a stainless steel barrel. I have gone to a standard commercial chambering as a tight chamber throated to match a specific bullet has only led to frustration.
2. Replace the stock with a McMillan Edge stock to my LOP although some have had McMillan Remington Classic stocks at one time.
3. Replace the factory firing pin assembly with a Gre-Tan assembly
4. Replace the factory bottom metal with Williams steel bottom metal
5. Replace the factory trigger with a Jewell trigger

There is not much left of the original rifle. At the end of this journey, I still think wistfully of the Remington 700 LTRs I had that shot .308 165 grain Ballistic Tips consistently within .75 inches for 5 shot groups with the only change being the older Williams bottom metal. I sold them off to start on this journey.

I bought two Tikka T3x Lite's in .308 Winchester, one blued and one stainless, to shoot up some reloads. Fussing with them, I did not get the level of accuracy others enjoy. The barrel heated up quickly. I could seat bullets out no further with the magazines then I could with the Remingtons. The stock is just too long a LOP and did not fit me. What to do?

Solution 1: Sell the stainless steel T3X Lite and buy a stainless steel T3x CTR. Replace the factory stock with a GRS Berserk. Start shooting sub-MOA groups right away. Life is good. Enjoy it. I liked this solution so much I did it twice with another CTR and stock.

Solution 2: This is more involved but does not yet approach what I was putting into the Remingtons. Replace the factory barrel on the blued T3X Lite with a Solid Accuracy stainless steel varmint contour barrel (being done now). Replace the factory stock with a GRS Berserk for the CTR (have the stock on hand). Install Greyboe DBM in the stock so I can use AICS pattern magazines (DBM is on its way in a brown truck). When this is assembled, I expect to enjoy a very accurate rifle.

I am keeping one Remington. It shoots Hornady .308 180 grain round noses well enough to go hunt deer on occasion.

GrimJim (not quite as grim now)

Just an excuse to buy more rifles.....
Feed the addiction.... Sounds like a good deal to me.....

Tikkas generally dont need a custom barrel or stock to get them to shoot very well. They do, however, need some work to get them shooting 100% consistently, if you shoot more than 3 to 5 shots per group. I shoot a minumum of 10 and 20 shots per group for score, hence the reason im always stressing 10 shot groups. Generally if you are content with shooting 3 shot groups, most tikka's will shoot sub moa to moa groups. Probably 9 times out of 10.

I tend not to shoot the big game rifles more than once, so 5-10 shot groups just waste components. I’ll do 3 shot strings when I practice at distance in the field but I take my time, no hot barrels.

I lean heavily on both of my .223s (one 1-10”, the other 1-8”) but I haven’t seen accuracy degrade with multiple shots. Just more dead marmots.

My brother gave me a Bell&Carlson replacement stock but it didn’t improve accuracy. It weighs more, though. Looks cool, black with red web.




P

I shot a 12 shot group once with my T3 7-08 and 120 BT's.......

Another benefit I forgot about with Tikkas is they don’t seem to hammer primers the way my Remingtons do. I know it’s not a show stopper but the Tikkas leave nice primer strikes that don’t look like welding slag post shot on my primers.

I hear ya, what's your choice of powder? R-15 is what I use in my 7-08 with 120 Bt.

Yes Rem280, RL15, and Varget works well too. I don't like to send 120's much more than 3000" at the muzzle personally.

I like your style JG - best 12 shot group I've seen posted in a long time

Yeah that is funny. "Up to Remington Standards". Shyt, Daisy has higher standards than Remington.

this is the best reply yet.

unless the OP is looking for an excuse not to get the tikka because of couple plastic pieces, then so be it.
But to bring it up to the same quality as Remingtons, I'm speechless

After shooting quite a bit for more than 50 years I have come to like stuff that works as expected right out of the box and continues to do so in hard use. I have found that Tikkas, Glocks and SWFA scopes are consistently accurate and easily the most reliable and user friendly wares available. I have often spent more for far less and appreciate value but reliability trumps all for me.

I once had a Nula w/ a S&B on it that was amazing and made me very happy, until it was stolen from a hotel room in Anchorage. Never again.


mike r

I have commented repeatedly about how well my Tikkas have served my needs over the years. They just damn well work for me. In so far as the plastic parts and pieces are concerned, I have had zero issues with them. However, I did change-out the trigger guard on my 06 with a Mountain Tactical unit to give me a little more late season glove room inside the trigger bow. CP