A different Tikka to the Tararuas

I spent a lot of time in the Tararuas as a young fella - tough country, very few deer, but a great training ground. My wife and I headed South for a holiday near Otaki Forks area, and a short evening hunt on the edge of the Tararuas was sorted through some family contacts. I had the Tikka 284 primed and ready to go after loading up a few more rounds and checking it was still zeroed - but found another Tikka waiting on arrival with an insistence it should be used. It was an old LSA55 and wore a fixed IOR 4x32 scope. I was given 3 rounds and told that should be plenty….and being too polite to decline, the 284 stayed in the ute. I hadn’t realised there was the odd Fallow in this part of the country and a keen and very capable local guy took me up the hill and pointed a few out with Binos on a neighbouring property as we climbed. We reached the bush edge with a boundary to the Tararuas where deer and goats had been coming out into the grass to feed.

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We hunted down the bush edge for about 2hrs glassing as we went, but nothing showed and it was looking like a blank evening when just on sunset I spotted movement and the Binos showed two Fallow does grabbing some grass in the last of the sun.
Creeping closer I lay down my daypack for a rest, and ranged the deer at 200yrds and hoped the Tikka 243 was sighted in. The Fallow was actually quite small in the 4x scope not being a big deer. The lower deer stood side on and I sent a 100gr at its shoulder. It wobbled around so my local guide gave it another and down she went. The other one climbed up and stood side on so boom - thwack and other one was down also.

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Now it was getting dark and we had a long walk out with torches so it was back legs and back streaks off and head torch on….arriving back a bit late at 10.30pm, but very happy for a successful quick hunt and venison in the fridge. The only one that wasn’t happy was the Tikka 284…..

Good company, a good hunt, and another great part of NZ to find the odd animal

Great yarn. I started hunting in the beginning of the 80s with a brand new Tikka LSA 55 in 308. I got my first deer with it in the Tiramea in fairly short order but man after that it was a heck of a long time between drinks. I bet a heck of a lot of those early 80s Tikkas got carried a lot not many rounds fired at animals! None of them should really be worn out!

Good old 243 , you certainly had to rely on the person loaning the rifle that it was zeroed, otherwise it could have ended badly.

Those IOR 4x scopes would have to be nearly bulletproof and have superb optics, I treasure mine.

It is almost impossible to not like/love a Tikka.

I have a Tikka M65 with a heavy target barrel, or what some would call a varmint barrel on some rifles, in 6.5x55 and it is a very good rifle that is very accurate, with a great trigger and very comfortable to shoot with.
It is extremely easy to shoot well with.
It is almost impossible to miss with it.

My father that is now over 80 sold all his guns many years ago after he started to loan this rifle from me for his hunting.
He found that he liked to shoot with and hunt with this rifle so much more than all the rifles he owned, so he saw no point in owning all those guns when he was able to loan this gun from me whenever he wants to.
Both he and I have shot many deer with it over the years and dropped a few red foxes as well.

The 6.5x55 is a VERY good deer cartridge in my opinion and it works well on moose as well.

I got a bit confused when I read Tararuas and then saw a fallow, but those buggers are popping up everywhere nowadays. Nice work! especially with a lone-er rifle. You just never quite know what the story will be when you take one of those.

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Originally Posted by Tentman

Great yarn. I started hunting in the beginning of the 80s with a brand new Tikka LSA 55 in 308. I got my first deer with it in the Tiramea in fairly short order but man after that it was a heck of a long time between drinks. I bet a heck of a lot of those early 80s Tikkas got carried a lot not many rounds fired at animals! None of them should really be worn out!

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Ha ..... sounds like my experience. Shot my first deer with an open-sighted .303, and then bought a Tikka M55 in .308 in 1978. Between first and second deer was 19 hunts, from memory ....did manage to tip up quite a few hogs in that time though.

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Originally Posted by Tentman

Those IOR 4x scopes would have to be nearly bulletproof and have superb optics, I treasure mine.

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Funnily enough I've got one also on a 243. Optically I can't fault it. Red deer seem to "glow" any time of day but it was a right bugger to get zeroed

Man what a neat rifle that is. Great yarn

Great yarn. My son has the same rifle with a modern stainless T3 barrel. Lovely rifle.
Two great eaters, fallow seem to be everywhere now.
My .284 Tikka has been stuck in the safe for a while, I imagine it’s sulking too!
:-)