Thread: Suggested factory ammo for

Originally Posted by uk_exile

Understood, but doubt the Mrs will look at it that way

you poor bugga, every rifle i get the wife claims as hers

She's seen an article in one of the hunting magazines that added up the total value of venison. If I recall correctly it was about $960 butchered off a 55kg deer. Should have kept a copy!
But I need to actually shoot a deer to be able to use that reasoning for spending $$$. Oh well ;-)

The 154 sst superformance is pretty hot, was getting 3150 from a 26 inch barrel, good group and worked well.

Would suggest the Federal Blue box if you just want to get something and go hunting, and don't have the time to test a bunch of different ammo.
We use it for our training days..I sighted in 10 brand new Tikka rifles the other day, a bunch of different calibers, all with the Blue Box. All shot well. I shot a sub 1 inch group at 200m with it. Not bad for a basic hunting load.

Would advise against the Hornady Superformance. While some rifles may shoot it well, its very hit & miss. We don't use it.

Yeah start with the cheaper stuff/blue box, I've been lucky in that all of my tikkas have liked cheap factory stuff. Chances are it will shoot MOD out to 300 or so and work as a bush load.

Once you have this down as a bush/ all purpose load you can spend a bit more money and find something like hornady precision hunter as a long range load.

Although to be honest at 80-100 a packet it doesn't take much shooting until a cheap $200 lee reloading kit starts to make financial sense.

Thanks ChrisW and Nick-D. That's just the info I was after i.e. info on what works for most and then work on the best for my particular rifle later. Cheers

What scope/mounts are you going to use ?

Took advice from people on this forum and got a good used scope. From the buy sell on here got a mint condition Nikon 3-15x42 Monarch 5 for $500.
Using the supplied Tikka rings as Gunworks said this "If your scope is a 1” scope tube then the rings that come with the rifle will be fine, alternatively you can change them to talley’s but to be honest the factory rings are fine."

Thats interesting about the supplied rings , Gun Works know their stuff and if they say they are OK then I’m sure they will be fine .
I have read that changing the standard screws to tougher ones is a good idea , but I have no first hand knowledge if this is necessary.
We need pictures when you have it all together .
Also did you shorten the barrel when fitting the suppressor or leave it factory .

Factory length as ended up getting SuperLite that's fluted therefore limits ability to shorten. Also recommended length for 7mmRM is same as supplied https://www.gunworks.co.nz/files/rec...ngths_2014.pdf

That Nikon scope will be Beautiful I have 3 nikons they are bloody awesome scopes
Mine are only monarch 3,s and one prostaff on the 22 but the monarch 5 is even better

From what I can tell by hand holding it the image is really sharp. All reviews on them are great and Nikon are popular scopes in US but for some reason not so here in NZ

I have had good results with hornady 162g eld x precision hunter with my Tikka T3x superlite 7mm rem mag. I have also had good results with federal blue box with other tikka rifles.

Buy Norma and a limbsaver deresonator.

Ok. Alt strategy:

Goal is instant usability to 400m with minimum cost.

You won't have time or ammo supply to do trajectory verification. So use a light flat shooting bullet eg 140gr. 160+ will no doubt be better in the long run but needs careful testing and practice so you can't do it for this trip.

Start with a known readily available ammo perhaps the blue box mentioned. Preferably see if it's available on the shelf at 2 retailers in chch right now. Buy one box and take it to the range. If you can shoot 1.5 to 2 " at 100m that's good enough. Go back and buy 2 more boxes. If over 2" repeat and try another brand.

Next go back with your 50 rounds and sight in real good at 200m. Then put manufacturers BCand MV into a calculator and get predicted trajectory for 25 100 300 and 400m. Dont start a shoot up from >300m (200 m if you haven't got a rangefinder). Stick the trajectory onto your rifle butt and you're good to go.

Once you've used up most of your first 60 and got meat in the freezer you can start trialing higher performance or custom hand loaded ammo.