Tikka T3X CTR First Shots...WOW!

mikehill85 · Nov 13, 2022

Today I took out a new Tikka T3X CTR in 6.5 CM shooting for the first time and I have to say I'm really impressed. I was just using old hand loads (with varying powder charges working up in 0.3 grain increments) I had lying around for a different rifle. I labelled the groups in order. It seems the groups tightened up as I shot more. All groups are 5 shot groups at 100 yards. The average group size was 0.57 MOA and all groups were under 1 MOA. I can't wait to see how she shoots with a bit of load development.

The other cool thing is that the first group being low was a result of crudely boresighting the gun. I shot in the middle of 4 targets sheets to make sure I got on paper. Turns out, I was only 1 inch low on elevation (the point of aim was the red dot above the group) and dead on for windage. It doesn't get much better than that. It was probably pure luck, but I'll take it.

TM6 · Nov 13, 2022

Them Ticklers shoot for sure.

TM6

JohnDeereGuy1996 · Nov 13, 2022

I’ve owned a couple ctr’s and they all shot like that. Really don’t get the love they deserve

mikehill85 · Nov 13, 2022

JohnDeereGuy1996 said:
I’ve owned a couple ctr’s and they all shot like that. Really don’t get the love they deserve

I guess so. I've never had a rifle shoot this well out of the box. It is my first Tikka though.

ToKeepAndBear · Nov 13, 2022

My 223 and 308 CTRs are the same. Two of the most accurate rifles I own! Accuracy/dollar they lead the pack in my gun collection.

4O6shootist · Nov 13, 2022

Curious what bullet powder primer you running? I have a new 65cm ctr at my ffl to pick up when I get off work.

Dough300 · Nov 14, 2022

Great shots, I have a T3X CTR in 308 (left hand) and I load 168gr hornady ELD-M in hornady brass. Shoots consistently half MOA, and admittedly even from bags, I'm not the greatest shot. First time shooting past 100 yards, I was hitting the 10 inch gong at 600 every shot. I have a cheap Nikon Black X1000 on it.

mikehill85 · Nov 14, 2022

4O6shootist said:
Curious what bullet powder primer you running? I have a new 65cm ctr at my ffl to pick up when I get off work.

I am shooting 147 grain Hornady ELD-Ms. The powder is Winchester Staball 6.5. The primers are Remington No 9 1/2 primers. Brass is Lapua. The 6 groups I shot were from 41.8 to 43.3 grains, working up in 0.3 grain increments.
I have some 140 grain Hornady ELD-Ms being shipped to my house and will give those a try next.

mikehill85 · Nov 26, 2022

I took my dad out shooting today. It was his 3rd time shooting a gun in his life and he shot this 5-shot group at 100 yards with my Tikka…Infuriating! It is 0.19” center-to-center.

spife7980 · Nov 26, 2022

mikehill85 said:
I took my dad out shooting today. It was his 3rd time shooting a gun in his life and he shot this 5-shot group at 100 yards with my Tikka…Infuriating! It is 0.19” center-to-center.
View attachment 8008052

That’s when you make him keep shooting until he pulls one

hafejd30 · Nov 26, 2022

mikehill85 said:
I took my dad out shooting today. It was his 3rd time shooting a gun in his life and he shot this 5-shot group at 100 yards with my Tikka…Infuriating! It is 0.19” center-to-center.
View attachment 8008052

Damn nice shooting for anyone!!

mikehill85 · Nov 26, 2022

hafejd30 said:
Damn nice shooting for anyone!!

Yep. He’s clearly a natural. He’s a medical doctor. Turns out he’s a surgeon with a rifle was well.

hafejd30 · Nov 26, 2022

mikehill85 said:
Yep. He’s clearly a natural. He’s a medical doctor. Turns out he’s a surgeon with a rifle was well.

Interesting

I’m a gynecologist,

Well not really but I’ll take a look!

WyomingShooter · Jun 18, 2023

mikehill85 said:
I am shooting 147 grain Hornady ELD-Ms. The powder is Winchester Staball 6.5. The primers are Remington No 9 1/2 primers. Brass is Lapua. The 6 groups I shot were from 41.8 to 43.3 grains, working up in 0.3 grain increments.
I have some 140 grain Hornady ELD-Ms being shipped to my house and will give those a try next.

I'm putting together the same rifle now. What weight of Staball 6.5 did you settle on with the 147 ELDM? Excellent shooting!

mikehill85 · Jun 18, 2023

WyomingShooter said:
I'm putting together the same rifle now. What weight of Staball 6.5 did you settle on with the 147 ELDM? Excellent shooting!

I ended up using 43.3 grains of Staball with the 147 grain ELD-Ms. The gun shot so well across the entire range of powder weights, I just went with the top end.

I found the 140 grain Hornady ELD-Ms shoot ever so slightly better but that might have just been me on the day. For the 140 grain ELD-Ms I used 42.5 grains.

I tried the Nolser RDFs recently. Those don't shoot very well at all out of my rifle (at least with Staball). They average just under 1 MOA for 5-shot groups but that's pretty bad compared to the ELD-Ms.

147 Grain (average group size 0.56 MOA)

140 Grain (average group size 0.48 MOA)

WyomingShooter · Jun 18, 2023

mikehill85 said:
I ended up using 43.3 grains of Staball with the 147 grain ELD-Ms. The gun shot so well across the entire range of powder weights, I just went with the top end.

I found the 140 grain Hornady ELD-Ms shoot ever so slightly better but that might have just been me on the day. For the 140 grain ELD-Ms I used 42.5 grains.

I tried the Nolser RDFs recently. Those don't shoot very well at all out of my rifle (at least with Staball). They average just under 1 MOA for 5-shot groups but that's pretty bad compared to the ELD-Ms.

147 Grain (average group size 0.56 MOA)
View attachment 8165367

140 Grain (average group size 0.48 MOA)
View attachment 8165368

Thanks very much! You've been very helpful. I hope to get the same results. We have a new hunter/sporter class in our local 600 yard match that requires the unloaded rifle with scope to be < 10.5 lbs. This should do nicely!

mikehill85 · Jun 19, 2023

WyomingShooter said:
Thanks very much! You've been very helpful. I hope to get the same results. We have a new hunter/sporter class in our local 600 yard match that requires the unloaded rifle with scope to be < 10.5 lbs. This should do nicely!

I just wanted to add that I have the stainless version of the CTR. I don't know if it makes any difference but just wanted to let you know.

WyomingShooter · Jun 26, 2023

First shots fired last weekend with my new Tikka T3x CTR 6.5 Creedmoor. Mine is the 20" blue version. Everything shot sub MOA. I put together 50 rounds of this load for the 600 yard match next weekend. Thannks for the informative thread!

Ballistic-X-Export-2023-06-25 10_09_46.433645.jpg

4O6shootist · Jun 26, 2023

WyomingShooter said:
First shots fired last weekend with my new Tikka T3x CTR 6.5 Creedmoor. Mine is the 20" blue version. Everything shot sub MOA. I put together 50 rounds of this load for the 600 yard match next weekend. Thannks for the informative thread!

View attachment 8170478

That's moving pretty good from a 20" Tikka. My 24" shoots 140s really well at the same speed you're running there. 2620 or so. Nice shooting!

mikehill85 · Jun 26, 2023

WyomingShooter said:
First shots fired last weekend with my new Tikka T3x CTR 6.5 Creedmoor. Mine is the 20" blue version. Everything shot sub MOA. I put together 50 rounds of this load for the 600 yard match next weekend. Thannks for the informative thread!

View attachment 8170478

Great! Glad she’s shooting well for you! It seems very similar to my results. I guess the stainless barrel doesn’t make much difference when it comes to precision.

xsn10s · Jun 26, 2023

I'd be interested in 143 gr ELDX load using 6.5 Staball. I have two buddies that loves that bullet and 6.5 Staball is easier to find than H4350. Nice shooting btw!

mikehill85 · Jan 16, 2024

I took my Tikka CTR Stainless in 6.5 Creedmoor out this past weekend. I was just trying to confirm the best setting on a barrel tuner I am using. I fired 7 3-shot groups and 1 5-shot group for a total of 26 shots. Anyway, the software I am using lets you aggregate the groups based on your point of aim. The aggregate 26-shot group was 2/3 MOA. I think that's amazing performance from a factory rifle.

For reference, my average 3-shot group size was 0.37 MOA and the 5-shot group I shot to confirm my tuner setting was 0.36 MOA.

Interestingly, the 26 shot group size is very close to what the expected group size would be based on the average 3-shot group. 25-shot groups are statistically supposed to be 93% larger than 3-shot groups. So we'd expect 0.37*1.93 = 0.71 MOA based on statistics. The actual aggregate group was 0.67 MOA.

mikehill85 · Feb 3, 2024

xsn10s said:
I'd be interested in 143 gr ELDX load using 6.5 Staball. I have two buddies that loves that bullet and 6.5 Staball is easier to find than H4350. Nice shooting btw!

I tried shooting the 143 gr ELD-X bullets today out of my 6.5 Creedmoor. I averaged 0.59 MOA for 6 5-shot groups moving up in 0.3 grain increments to a max charge of 43.5 grains of 6.5 StaBall. The best group of the day was the last group (max charge) at 0.38 MOA. The average mean radius for my 143 ELD-X groups is actually identical to my 140 gr ELD-M groups (0.2 MOA). So, it looks like they basically shoot just as well as 140 grain ELD-Ms do in my rifle.

Below is a 3-shot group that I shot at 100 yards with this ammo, testing the tuner settings on my Gen 2 EC Tuner.

dchi · Nov 10, 2024

Do they shoot like that when they get hot? Like after 10-15 rounds?

mikehill85 · Nov 10, 2024

dchi said:
Do they shoot like that when they get hot? Like after 10-15 rounds?

I've never noticed it throwing shots when it gets hot at all. The CTR barrel profile is thicker than most T3X variants. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the only Tikka variant with a thicker barrel is the Super Varmint. In any case, I can't recommend the CTR enough.

Turkeytider · Monday at 7:48 AM

mikehill85 said:
I've never noticed it throwing shots when it gets hot at all. The CTR barrel profile is thicker than most T3X variants. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the only Tikka variant with a thicker barrel is the Super Varmint. In any case, I can't recommend the CTR enough.

The barrel on my Super Varmint is indeed a thick one. Without research, whether or not it is thicker than that on the CTR , I can’t say. Mine is in 6.5 Creedmoor, and the only loads with which it’s been zeroed have been the less expensive AAC 140 grain SMKs and Hornady American Gunner 140s. Three and five shot groups averaged around .6 at 100. There were no groups at 1.0 MOA or larger. For recreational range shooting at a better ammo price,IMHO anyone with a 6.5 Creedmoor should at least give them a try.

brazz04 · Monday at 8:45 AM

Here's a pretty good test showing that zero's really don't shift and "flyers" don't really happen when barrels heat up. Check out Gun #8 as its a Tikka lite barrel that definitely didnt have any issues handling heat. I've noticed the same with my Tikka and Proof prefit, The length of a string of shots really makes no difference to its accuracy.

Cold bore zero versus (very) Hot bore zero “test”

Discussions around “cold bore shifts” and “cold bore zeroes” versus “warm or hot barrel zeroes” are constant. So is the belief that barrels “walk” when they heat up or that groups open when they heat up. After having multiple discussions, @Ryan Avery and Jake @Unknown Munitions and I set up a...

rokslide.com

blisters · Tuesday at 10:19 AM

Turkeytider said:
The barrel on my Super Varmint is indeed a thick one. Without research, whether or not it is thicker than that on the CTR , I can’t say. Mine is in 6.5 Creedmoor, and the only loads with which it’s been zeroed have been the less expensive AAC 140 grain SMKs and Hornady American Gunner 140s. Three and five shot groups averaged around .6 at 100. There were no groups at 1.0 MOA or larger. For recreational range shooting at a better ammo price,IMHO anyone with a 6.5 Creedmoor should at least give them a try.

The CTR is about 20 mm at the muzzle, or a heavy semi-weight in European terms. All the Varmint models (and the pre-CTR "Tactical" model) come with a heavier profile, about 22 mm at the muzzle.

I had both the CTR and a regular Varmint, now I only have the CTR left (plus a T3 Hunter model, and a T1x...). The Varmint didn't do anything much for me as a hunter. If I were a pure range man I'd probably still have the Varmint because that thing is rock solid during recoil, but to lug around in the field, no thank you.

Turkeytider · Tuesday at 2:52 PM

blisters said:
The CTR is about 20 mm at the muzzle, or a heavy semi-weight in European terms. All the Varmint models (and the pre-CTR "Tactical" model) come with a heavier profile, about 22 mm at the muzzle.

I had both the CTR and a regular Varmint, now I only have the CTR left (plus a T3 Hunter model, and a T1x...). The Varmint didn't do anything much for me as a hunter. If I were a pure range man I'd probably still have the Varmint because that thing is rock solid during recoil, but to lug around in the field, no thank you.

Yep, I could see where someone would not want to lug a Super Varmint up hill and down dale. I personally think, though, that it would make a great blind/stand gun.

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