Thread: 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!