Thread: Haha Tikka haters

and I admit I've been a bit scathing in the past too . . .. but a bit of desperation drove me to it. In a particularly stupid move of self harm some time ago I sold a very accurate Lithgow LA102 308, and nothing since has replaced it as a rifle that would throw a middleweight projectile a a decent distance with some authority. I wanted at least 120 gns of boolit (but ideally not more than 150 gns) with enough snot to take large animals at 4-500M and efficient enough to be able to hold "edge of plate" in most ordinary wind conditions,also to 500M.

So when a modestly priced Tikka T3 6.5x55 that looked like it hadn't done much work came upon trademe I thought it might fill the bill .... and I already had a Boyds laminated stock for it to stiffen up the ergonomics. The stock has bought the weight up to a nice level for "deliberate" shooting, and I might yet add a wee bit of ballast, but already it handles well enough to usually see fall of shot.

And does it shoot, YUP - like a flaming laser. I did a bit of figuring in GRT and used its OCW tool to identify some potential nodes. My magnetospeed crony doesn't work with suppressors, and I have to be pretty mindful of noise here, so I just fired a few test rounds into the ground to establish a baseline - it looked like at about 2830 fps with the Sierra 130 TMK's I would be in a node.

And today I shot it at 100M , in horrible conditions, across a strong turbulent westerly - I'd say I could probably reduce group sizes by 30 to 50% in ideal conditions. The rifle came with 10 rounds of Federal 140gn power-shok ammo, and in a nice twist of fate, I picked up a further 20 "unboxed" rounds of the same stuff for $20 at a LGS. This it shot into an initial first group of 30mm,the subsequent two groups both just on 22mm, pretty good for factory ammo in any conditions. Now I was starting to get the feel of it and my first reloads went into a 14.5mm group, and the balance were just as good. The load "on the OCW node" was 17mm, but with practically no vertical, just a horizontal dispersion (mostly due to wind I'd say).

Can't hate that sort of performance, call me a Tikka "fanboi" and I won't "bite" (much). I'm looking forward to getting to the range in nice conditions with a chrony and play with some larger sample sizes and seating depths-I'd be confident its easily a 1/2 MOA rifle!

I have pile of Lapua brass sitting in storage at Brians if you want some good stuff.

Good stuff

What's 'GWT' and 'OCW' ?

Originally Posted by Rich007

Good stuff

What's 'GWT' and 'OCW' ?

Sorry - Gordon's Reloading Tool and otimum charge weight. Cheers

I had a t3 superlight (fluted barrel) in 6.5x55, think i got it off @buzzman years ago. Brand new from memory.

It shot 1.5 inch groups with my 143gr eldx handloads @400 yards.

It sat it the safe and i never used it, ended up selling to a mate when i was building my custom 28N.

Tikka sure seem to make great barrels

There was once a time when Tikka's weren’t what I thought my cup of tea was either. Then I bought my first one and the rest is history. There’s certainly plenty of other goodies I would take but it’s hard to slag the trusty ol Tikka.

Originally Posted by stagstalker

There was once a time when Tikka's weren’t what I thought my cup of tea was either. Then I bought my first one and the rest is history. There’s certainly plenty of other goodies I would take but it’s hard to slag the trusty ol Tikka.

Hope so, I brought my first Tikka just recently. Hopefully be in my safe soon

Tikkas are great. My 6.5x55 uses 143 eldx and btwn 44 and 45 grains of 2209 with coal @3.1” in Lapua brass. Velocity in the mid 2700 fps range. Capable of cloverleafs at 300 and will happily gong at 800yds.

Yeah my T3 6.5x55 shoots pretty shit with factory ammo (Sako 130TGK).

Originally Posted by GWH

I had a t3 superlight (fluted barrel) in 6.5x55, think i got it off @buzzman years ago. Brand new from memory.

It shot 1.5 inch groups with my 143gr eldx handloads @400 yards.

It sat it the safe and i never used it, ended up selling to a mate when i was building my custom 28N.

Tikka sure seem to make great barrels

Factory fluted Tikka Superlights use Sako finnlight barrels

If you have a keen eye you can see the metal is darker on the Sako barrels

They shoot end of story.

I love my tikka ,but i think its actually the rifle and scope combo that i like ,i have a zeiss hd5 3-15x42 with target turrets on it.
I enjoy using my zeiss so much its become my go to rifle in 7mm rem mag which i got for those longer shots, but i do a lot of bush hunting also so its my do anything gun

Decent carry rifle and weather resistant as well. Change out the action screws for stainless ones.

What tf is a LGS? You are the TLA king!

hahaha caught another one -Local Gun Shop !