Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Tikka blow up

There have been a number of "incidents" involving Sako/Tikka rifles. I've seen pictures of at least two of them.

Coyote hunter
I've seen them too... I just seem to remember the A-bolt incident photos that were in three parts, but the Tikkas were two-piece? But I have slept since then!
art

This one happened in the last week or so.
It's happening because there is still a bunch of stainless barrels out there on Sako's and Tikka's that are defective and overly brittle. The company is dragging it's ass finding the people they sold them to. Seems they are more concerend about keeping this quiet than about the potential danger to their customers who are shooting this bad batch of rifles. They have a recall on them yet they don't advertise it or even have it on their website. Can't respect a company that operates like that.

Unfortunately I blame Berreta for this.

Art,
The most recent one in 3 pieces was a Sako 75. The Browning was about 6 mo. or so before that, I think??

I'm too lazy to do a search right now. There was a thread about this on the Sako's a while back..
Paul

See the Leupie survived!! Who said they weren't tough!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I had not seen this one... The A-bolt actually looked more spectacular IMO because of the way the barrel staves rolled out. But this looks plain painful!
art

Yup...that's the one I remember with the barrel in three pieces. Happened at a club in British Columbia, right?

Ted

sitka,

what abolt?? that is a sako in the other picture. I haven't seen any abolts blow apart like that. I have seen at least two different sako pictures and a tikka now.

I'll give you $50.00 for that POS........... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

badger

Well badger .... almost too tempting <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

If this did happen as the thread suggest i have seen nothing, but i will go out of my way to try and clarrify the full details, you will have to give me a few days on this


dave

Why all the fingers pointing to the rifle? May be it could have been a bad batch of factory ammo that had a double charge of powder or something else,or am i missing something. I look at the whole picture before i jump to conclussions and get all the facts
Regards dave

Yep your missing something!! One gun is a Sako the other a Tikka both made by the same company both useing differant ammo. One is useing Hornady the other Federal

Josh
Right you are... but there were several A-bolts that did similar things and they have been posted here. The one I was refering to had the barrel split in three directions and curl while doing so. I have seen two in hand and several pictured. None have been attributed to anything other than a bad batch of barrel steel (as far as I know).

JJHack had one blow up on a client in similar fashion in SE Ak on a brown bear hunt. Lots of barrel makers have had problems...
art

You are right Sitka, there were two Browning blow ups last year. They were both stainless stalkers and the barrels looked like banana peels. Another one was a Sako 75 in stainless, now this Tikka.

Having seen some REALLY bizzare stuff happen at the local range, I have a hard time believing a gun just blows up like in the pictures. Even if the barrel steel is bad, the action will stay together. There was MUCH more to these stories than is being let on. The most recent picture of the Tikka is very suspect to me. You simply DO NOT get brass in the chamber like that under normal cirumstances...and their wouldn't be anything left to the casing either. The chamber would be black from the powder residue and the case would be vaporized unders such pressure. For the action to split like it did in the Sako and Tikka pictures, there was SUBSTANTIAL pressure, ie; a blockage or serious overcharge in the factory ammo. It takes a ton of pressure to blow up a barrel and an action at the same time. These blow ups are not due to bad barrel steel. I would blame the ammo long before the rifle. Something just isn't right here. I think Barretta recalled the rifles to cover themselves, but they know it is an ammo problem.

Browning hasn't done anything about their blow up problems. Heck, I will give you $75 for that POS Tikka <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Just my 3 cents worth. Flinch

I saw some similar photos a few months ago of a Tikka
that had the barrel peeled back, but the rest of the gun was
okay, was chambered in one of the WSM calibers.

All due respect, Sako blames it on a batch of stainless barrel steel that didn�t meet specifications. That�s why the recall is limited to a specific range of serial numbers � just the rifles that got made with that batch of stainless.

You�re welcome to point fingers elsewhere, but I suggest that Sako has the correct answer.