Thread: New Shooter

Recently I took the plunge and bought a new Tikka T3 X in 308 Win. I put a 3.5 x 10 Leupold on it in Optilocks. This action trigger registration but that was going to happen next year when license renewal comes up anyway.
Anyway I went with a 20 inch barrel suppressed as I didn't want to lose to much velocity. I decided on Hornady 165 gr SST bullets figuring that these should work well at 308 velocity and not be to explosive.
After loading up several test rounds using 748, AR 2208, and AR 2206H I settled on 43.5 grs Of AR 2206H for a average velocity of 2730 fps which generates the same (2730 ftps) energy which still has a remaining energy of over a 1000 ftps at 625 yards which is more than needed for this rifle.
We tried it out at 606 yards and shot a pretty good group (for me) the white square on the drum is about 8 ''so its about a 7 inch group.
Shot a hind last weekend with it at 297 yards so its on the board after a unlucky encounter with a big sambar stag where my shot only managed a smear of blood the size of a bottle top. It was a difficult shot in a block of pines that hadn't been pruned and there were branches everywhere, had I hit him in the intended spot (neck/head joint) he wouldn't have gone anywhere.
I am more than happy with the rifle/scope and its proving to be a good shooter.