Thread: Rifle Modifications-Improvement or Victim of Marketing

I’ve been reassessing my Rifle setups lately.
After going down a Howa path for awhile , I’ve decided to concentrate my attention towards my Tikka's .
During my Howa adventure I have purchased Stocks / Triggers / Muzzle Brakes / Barrel Tuner / magazines /numerous Rings and Bases / Recoil Pads etc etc etc .
To be honest all I achieved was close to “ Sweet F*#k all “ in regards to accuracy because the Barrel and Ammo play the biggest part in that story .
Reloading for those rifles was hands down the best “ Bang for Buck “ when it comes down to accuracy improvement.

So I thought I’d comment on my list of modifications above

Stock -

The biggest purchase cost and all I really achieved was a weight reduction and some “ look at me “ status because they are Carbon , no big improvement in ergonomics etc - no great accuracy improvement

Triggers -

Bought a Timney and ended up selling it because it showed no improvement over the Factory trigger with a $15.00 spring swap - no accuracy improvement.

Muzzle Brake -

This is a funny area because without doubt recoil effects accuracy, it helped with the 308 at the range but my ears said no for a hunting rifle - there was an accuracy improvement butttt…………

Barrel Tuner -

This was a fun experiment and one that I’m glad I’ve played with.
Put simply they work butttt…. They have are a pain on a hunting rifle
- They are an accuracy improvement and mine now lives on my .22lr where it really earns its keep .

Magazines -

I tried a larger capacity magazine and ditched it because of feed issues
- no improvement in accuracy, but a big increase in hair pulling.

Mounts/Rings -

After multiple combinations it came down to
- Range work/long range MDT rails and Ken Farrel rings
- Hunting just buy Talley’s

Recoil Pads -

Changed factory pads for better comfort and ergonomics ( I’m tall and most stocks are to short , so during the installation of the pads spacers were added to increase length of pull )

So where am I at now that my attention has drifted over to my Tikka’s

Apart from a Water’s magazine for my .223 to allow me to load the rounds longer and some $15.00 trigger springs there is very little rifle wise that isn’t produced in the Tikka factory . I have done some mixing and matching of factory stocks that were purchased cheap secondhand and maybe I’m lucky because apart from length of pull they fit me well .

My money is now being sent down range in the form of my reloaded ammo and not sent electronically to suppliers of unnecessary gadgets.

Buying and owning cool Shit is fun , but does it actually get us anywhere ?