Tikka T1X ACE

It's cute......if you already had/wanted a large platform T3x and wanted to replicate and were going to leave both as is without mods, it it might be worth it. It's bold of Tikka to charge essentially the same $ for the rimfire and centerfire versions.

Let's start out with the obvious.......you're spending $1600-$1800 or so depending on where you buy, and still only getting a factory single stage trigger and factory tikka barrel with what looks like a pretty thin profile. You're basically paying $1000 for the chassis. That's MDT ACC Premier chassis price range. Is their chassis, that good? I don't know but probably not. It's feature rich for sure, but a lot of times corners are cut on such features on factory offerings so while they appear to compete with aftermarket they really don't once you start using them.

So if you slap a barrel and trigger on it, you're probably somewhere north of $2250. Anyone that's serious about comps is going to want something with a much heavier barrel for balance than this comes with at 8.2lbs even after you add all the weights (and probably spend another $350 doing so).

Not a fan of the modular chassis/handguard. I've never seen a chassis where the action and forend parts were modular that were as stiff as a one piece design. It's simply a cost cutting measure.

Worst part is god help you if you have to deal with the shit show that is Beretta customer service.

That said, it's nice to see more manufacturers at least make a moderate try to offer a precision orientated rimfire setup, most likely they are just trying to get on the rimfire gravy train that's been rolling for a couple years now with more and more guys dropping a few grand on rimfire setups.

My personal thoughts when I first saw the video:


Integral Arca-Swiss forend rail for unlimited bipod/bag placement
M-Lock slotted forearm for balancing weights and accessories
Barricade stop
Beveled magazine well
Fully adjustable AR grip
Adjustable cheekpiece with preset
Fully adjustable buttplate assembly
Comes with toe hook which can be changed to a bag rider if desired
Most well thought out FACTORY competition chassis I’ve ever heard of. Everyone else will be playing catch-up.

It does check the box on a lot of features, it will be the details of those features to see how well they actually work out. Often we see factory offerings trying to offer the same features as aftermarket but when the rubber hits the road they turn out to be less durable/useful, ala the Ruger RPR etc. That said they certainly did pack features into it, however much like the s20, features didn't turn out quite like everyone expected. Time will tell if they did better here. Sako/Tikka is known for brittle plastic that cracks, so hopefully they've learned that lesson.

I'm not sure I'd say they've done more than any other rimfire setup though, if anything they are trying to play catchup to CZ. CZ has been selling the 457 in an MDT ACC Premier for basically the same $ for awhile now. That said, Tikka has been abysmally far behind in this arena for years now, so it's great to see them step up with something nice to compete and it will only make other companies push things that much further/better.

The post style thumb rest is pretty slick, it's just a simple post but 3 position adjustable. They also are making a shelf version that's not adjustable, but the post seems like a better idea.

Weights seem nicely designed, hopefully not ridiculously priced being a Tikka line, but hard to say.

So is their idea to offer different inserts to handle different mags is smart. The question there will be they appear to be polymer, and contain the barricade stop. So with Sako/Tikka's trend of using very brittle plastic (s20) will they stand up, or crack like we've seen so many parts on s20's do.

I also would not call the buttplate fully adjustable, but coming from the shotgun side of things my idea of adjustable is different than the rifle world. The adjustable butt plate looks similar to the TRG, so you can move it up and down, increase the thickness, but you can't offset it side to side or change the rotational cant, you can only "twist" it angled out to the L/R. I've never liked the twisting of the buttpad that the TRG uses because the pad face is now not perpendicular to the long axis of the rifle. Seems like a horrible idea for recoil management.

The Cheek rest adjustment appears to be spring loaded with a thumbwheel type stop limiter, for easy bolt removal. However it appears there's no way to "lock" the thumbwheel adjustment which sets your final height. I suspect people will install a second lock nut, or just get used to constantly fiddling with their cheek rest height. The shape of the cheek rest looks very nice. I've never really understood quick adjust cheek rests, once set I've never felt the need to move them around. I'd rather see something that locks down super solid using spacers that I never have to mess with shooting and takes a bit longer to remove for cleaning, than quick adjustment options that I have to fiddle with during shooting but are faster to remove for cleaning.

Reach to the trigger looks extremely long, but with the ability to put other AR grips on it that should be able to be fixed.

The rear stock to action section looks really thin and appears to attach with just one hex bolt, Sako isn't known for really solid connections at this point, we've seen plenty of TRG's and some s20's fail at this junction.

From videos the handguard appears to not "slot" into the action section at all, it simple bolts on with 4 screws on the bottom and is perhaps held on additionally with the 2 side QR's. I suspect it won't be nearly as stiff as 1 piece options.