My First Tikka

Over the years I have worked on a great many Tikkas (no problems, just tuning, threading, etc) and formed the opinion that they are well designed and manufactured, and good value for your money. Today I took delivery of a new .223 Tikka T3X CTR, put my 4-12 P223 Nikon on it and took it to the range for a preliminary session. It was bloody cold here today, about 5-6 degrees, and I was interested to see how my handloads and various factory loads compared for velocity between my old pump AR 20" Ranger and the 24" Tikka. My handloads (69 grain Sierra BTHP and 23.5 grains of BM2), and 69 grain factory loads by Fiocchi and GGG (Aoraki Ammunition) produced the following velocities;
Handloads: 20" 2841 fps av., 24" 2964 fps av.
Fiocchi: 20" 2719 fps av., 24" 2867 fps av.
GGG: 20" 2748 fps av., 24" 2875 fps av.

I did not have enough factory ammo to test the Tikka for groups after dialing my scope in but I put 5 shots of my handloads into a ragged hole at 100 metres, 18mm c to c (photo below). I am very impressed with this rifle, bearing in mind that it is straight out of the box with no tuning at all. Bunnies beware!

Good shooting:thumbsup:. Yes, they are a good quality rifle from everything I've seen or read.

I've owned plenty of Tikka's, more than I care to admit, All shot extreemly well and were easy to hand load for. The most accurate one I owned was a 7mmRM, it shot single hole groups... As in 3 shots and the outside dimension was 8-9mm

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Originally Posted by Timmay

I've owned plenty of Tikka's, more than I care to admit, All shot extreemly well and were easy to hand load for. The most accurate one I owned was a 7mmRM, it shot single hole groups... As in 3 shots and the outside dimension was 8-9mm

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First group I shot with the .223 I got from you, was 10mm ctc.


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Nice shooting, could be the start of a few more entering your gun safe.

My Tikka 6.5x55 makes one hole at 100m with handloaded 143 eld-x over 2209.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Tikka ownership:)

Yep I was a bit hesitant to get one but finally bit the bullet nice rifle very accurate mrs has one as well best of all they increase in value when you buy one :)

Handled one of those at a store, really nice kit and tight, the only thing I asked, do they come in blued, got told no, not yet I think I can wait.

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Originally Posted by Survy

Handled one of those at a store, really nice kit and tight, the only thing I asked, do they come in blued, got told no, not yet I think I can wait.

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I would have preferred a blued one but the stainless was the only one available in GC at the time.

I've owned three Tikkas - they just work and are well made. A refined rifle for what you are paying, my latest is a .260.

I shortened and rethreaded the barrel to 21", made a new suppressor, and got it all nicely sighted in ready for a long-awaited goat cull on a local station. 10 of us covered a large area and only shot 9 goats. A couple of smallish mobs were seen at extreme range but there were several recently shot goats lying around so someone has snuck in and bombed them up a day or so ago - bugger! I never fired a shot despite having parked up in a good spot with wind in my face for a couple of hours. Back at the vehicles we were having a bite of tucker after having unloaded the rifles when a big brown billy stood up on a rock 163 metres away. He waited patiently while I got my rifle organised then jumped into the briar never to be seen again! Ah well, at least I got out for the first time in a while!

Attachment 146587

Mine in .308 flavour, they are solid rigs.

Greetings Gundoc,
There are 2 Tikka T3 Lite's here, one each in .223 and 6.5 x 55. Both shoot just like yours out of the box. The 6.5 has a 6 x 36 scope and the .223 a 4 - 12 scope. Both are Leupold.
Regards Grandpamac.

Guncoted stainless. Just like blued only better.
Attachment 146625

I think that will be my next purchase, a Tikka .308, time to start saving. Will try for a simple setup.

Funny thing is from what ive seen out of tikka’s in the past that group although great you would be happy with that any day of the week....it’s still quite big for a Tikka
A bit more load development should see it shooting even better than that :cool:

There’s cheaper that will do the same that’s why I don’t bother with tikka but they are certainly nice rifles the trigger is second to none for a factory rifle