other manufacturers?

Any thoughts?

btw, my first post here. Been lurking for a while and hope to learn much at campfire.

Don't know about Tikka strength, but welcome to the 'fire!

Have you ever seen a failure report on one? Me either.

I have seen it is rated stronger than some Remington, Howa, and other actions

Not sure how it rates on strength but it has to be one of the smoothest actions ever designed.

I fired a 280 Rem in a T3 7 Rem Mag. The action stood it just fine. Blew the bottom out of the magazine,and the bolt shroud off. By the way,that plastic shroud snapped back on and hasn't been a problem since. I took a bit of brass frag to the face,but can't say things would have been any better with a Remmy or Savage or Winchester. I held a handfull of snow on it for a few minuets. Stings a bit when a 280 ruptures in a 7mm mag.

The moral of the story is this. ONE type of ammo on the bench at a time! Two open 50 round boxes. Both loaded with Nosler Ballistic Tips. All with the same color tips. BOOM! Picked the wrong cartridge from the wrong box and pulled the loud lever. Never again. I have no qualms about the Tikka action being strong.

Welcome to the fire.

I had a T3 in 300WSM that I shot many VERY hot loads through. It held fine. I'd trust it's strength.

The combined knowledge of the guys here is huge. There is much that can be gleaned here.

Best to you
Jim

Welcome to the fire. Great place to hang out.. Good thread too since I'm going to get a Tikka one of these days. I'm always interested in what these guys have to say about them.. Generally it's all positive, so it makes the choice in Tikka pretty much a no brainer..

Thanks for the welcome, guys.

Number 7 slated to be delivered to my FFL tomorrow. Tikkas are cool. I have or had them in, 22/250,25/06,7 Rem mag,338 Win mag,300 WSM,and 30/06. Hunter,stainless and lite. The early stainless version (22/250),was prone to rust. The later stainless T3s have been rust free. That particular T3 was one of the first to hit the shelves. They are still a very good value,even though prices are creeping up on the "X" version. Its been said they lack soul. Too much plastic. Key stock recoil lug. And so on.

If I had to buy a rifle the day before a hunt,it would be a T3. I have the utmost confidence I could have one field ready in a matter of a couple hours,with hand loads,in any of the calibers I mentioned. They just flat work right out of the box.

I have several Tikka rifles, never a issue with any of them. All great shooters. An interesting note, all Tikka actions are long actions. A change in the bolt stop is what determines short from a long action.

What I'm preparing to do is get the bolt stop kit and a long action mag and shoot .308 win with a longer OAL.

My brother did exactly that with a 7mm-08 cartridge in a .30-06 Tikka. No gas, fragments, nothing. The report sounded odd and I didn't see a hole in the paper. He extracted the case and the shoulder was gone. Same cause, more than one ammo box on the table.




P

Strong as any other action out there. A co-worker had a 'friend' work up a load for his 308. At the range he fired two shots, on the second the bolt shroud flew off and hit him. Action pretty much locked up. Got it open and the case was slightly bulged, primer smeared flat and extractor marks on the case head. Two pieces fell out of the bottom when we opened the floor plate.
I took the rest of the ammo home and pulled it. Found out that of the 18 remaining loaded rounds, 3 more had half the correct amount of powder in them. Powder on the correctly loaded rounds was 42.5 gr +/- and on the 3 others was around 34 grains.
I have never heard of one giving up the ghost on a bad reload or whatever. Solid actions that quite a number of folks have built custom rifles off of.

I've shot quite a few Tikkas over the past 20 years going back to the 695 series. IMO the relatively "tight" ejection port opening (that some anti's whine about)adds to the rigidity of the overall action, and is one big reason why they are so boringly accurate. That and the great triggers and very high quality barrels I might add.

I have a Tikka that's had mostly Federal HE fired through it. So far it's held fine. I'm getting ready to do some load development which closely mimics the HE load. I'll keep y'all updated in the event of a kB.

Two or three years ago I fired a severe overload through my .222 Rem. in a heavy barrel varmint. It was determined after the incident that it was an error on my part in reading the setting on the powder scale. It cost me about $350 Cdn. to get the damage repaired but I never even flinched at the price since I walked away with with only a couple of minor scratches and intact eyes. I was impressed with the way the gun handled the overload.

Jim