Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Lengthening Tikka T3 Mag - 223 to 223AI??

Has anybody tried to do this?? I think my Tikka T3 would be a perfect candidate to reaming out to 223AI because of the 1-8" twist barrel. But the mag is blocked to standard COL. I'm not sure how to go about this without damaging the plastic feed lips. Looks like the plastic at the back of the mag is solid, but I can't really tell without digging into it. I thought about using a blade to scrape about .25" off of the face of it, but I don't know if there might be an easier way. Unfortunately, it's all 1 piece except for the follower and spring.

Just wondering if anybody had already tried this. Spare mags are $60, so I couldn't afford to mess up too many of them.

And I'm guessing a regular SA Tikka mag....say for 22-250....wouldn't feed .223. But if anybody has one they might check on it for me.

Good luck. I though about trying the same thing but it's going to be a pain to get it anything like uniform all the way through the magazine.

I never tried another magazine, but I would be surprised if that worked. I finally stumbled upon a great plan to fix the problems I had with that rifle: Sell it and buy a(nother) 700.

There really ought to be a law against what they did with that magazine.

I agree with your last statement. I"ve seen it cussed here on these boards. I will figure out a way to do it....just thought maybe somebody here had been there and done that. Rifle is definitely a great candidate. Only drawback I see is the mag. But like you say....it is a major drawback.

I'm waiting for Tikka to chamber for the 204 ruger and get that magazine,should be about right.

The mags can be modified to get another .080"-.090" OAL for the bullet.

I modded both my .223 and .243 T3's

I can now seat 69SMK in the lands for the .223 and 95 berger VLD's in the .243 in the lands through the mags.

The front of the mag is thicker than it needs to be, all that is needed is a small end mill and drill press to fix.

Does not hinder feeding whatsoever. If you can't do the fix and would like it done, shoot me a pm.

And thats why I love this place.

why shoot heavy bullets in a 223, by doing so you just turn it into a 30-30 well not quite but you get the idea, if you need wind bucking bullets shoot a 243

Eddie,

Thanks for the suggestion and offering to help me with it. But unfortunately, I'm looking for another .200" or so. But 2.35" COL would definitely help and it sounds like that's about what you're getting. I'll continue to research and your suggestion may be the best alternative.

CC: You really need to read up on this board on the 223AI. 75 Gr. AMAX's at a little over 3,000 fps with little powder and cases that never need trimmed.

I've been there and done that with a .243 and even a 6mm AI. But the 223 AI just intrigues me. You should check it out.

There's something to be said for a .435BC at 3050fps and only burning 26gr of powder. Brass lasts forever, long strings of fire, no recoil, no trimming, spotting your own shots etc etc etc.

the 243 moves vld bullets with bc's well into the .5's at the same speeds. so recoil and powder is your only advantage, with as much time as it takes me to monkey with fire forming and going to the trouble of reloading a few grains more powder means nothing to me if the performance is substantially greater.

different strokes for different folks, back to the original question, both my tikkas shoot so well I would be afraid to let anyone monkey with the chamber.

cc - Less recoil, less powder, cheaper bullets, cheaper/free brass, longer barrel life, longer brass life/ease of reloading with no trimming.

Shoot regular or handloaded 223 rounds to fireform....I just don't see the hassle. But like you said....different strokes.

I will agree with you that Tikka's are dang accurate out of the box. That's why I want to use that to my advantage in building a cheap 223 AI. I'll have the barrel trimmed to 21" when it's off for the reaming.

I think punching it to 223AI would be a great choice. As long as the chamber was punched out correctly and set with the proper .004 crush fit.

The AI's I've had shot the fire-forming loads with darn near the same accuracy as the formed case. Never having to trim again is a big plus.

+5.5

Liked the 223 AI so much, I bought a reamer. Now have five 223 AI's and one Super Duece - 222 AI (1:8 twist).

69 gr SMK's run an easy 3300 fps. 75 AMax's run 3150. Several powders work rather well - RL15, Benchmark, H4895, and, and...

After further review......It looks like I may be able to pry the bottom of the mag off, although it doesn't appear that mfr intended for that to happen. It also looks like the spacer at the rear is hollow. So what I intend to do is take off the bottom and cut out the front of the spacer. Then I think I can turn it around and use the smooth side as a dam to build up a new spacer with bedding compound. I'll try to make it about .25" behind where the front was of the old spacer as to allow a COL of up to about 2.5".

Anybody want pics of the process?? Seems like the Tikka would be the perfect candidate for a cheap 223AI with a twist rate that would allow the 75 Gr. AMAX to be used. I'll give it a try and see what happens. Most I can lose is $60 for a new mag!

Will it feed if I can accomplish this?? Who knows?? May be a problem with the mag lips not extending back far enough once the spacer is moved back. But it looks like it should work.

You can pop off the bottom but be careful not to crush the little tabs that hold it in. Your best bet would be to cut out the front spacer (be careful not to hit the feed lips) like you said. Then fab a piece aluminum to the dimensions you need. Then JB weld this into place.

Your idea will work but might be more trouble doing it all with bedding compound or JB.

Should feed fine as long as the bolt comes back far enough to engage the rear of the case to feed out of the mag. If not, you may have to trim the bolt stop/bolt release back a little.

If you have to trim the bolt stop back a little, you may want to fill in the small cutout that is on the bolt stop facing inside the action with JB, let it cure then trim back. If you don't fill in the cutout you will only be able to trim back a small amount.

From the looks of it though, I think you'll be able to get by with no trimming at all.

Good recommendation, Eddie. You may be right.

I don't believe the bolt stop on the 223 is different from any of Tikka's short actions. Bolt travels all the way rearward. So I should be good to go.

257heaven
I would like pictures of that process if possible.

Thanks

Fred

I changed the bolt stop and mag on my T3 in 338 Fed. I wanted to shoot the 200NBTs but the ridiculous mag length robbed case capacity and wouldn't allow me anywhere near the lands. LA mag and LA bolt stop fixed the problem.

I suppose if you could rig the existing mag as mentioned, you could mod the bolt stop a bit as well.

loder

Ditto on the pics & process.RS