Help deciding on chassis for Tikka T3x

[Cuga]

Help deciding on a chassis for Tikka LA

Good morning guys,

Some context first:
I’ve been hunting and shooting for about 20 years, mostly short range, never exceeding 300 m. I’m from Germany, ranges are scarce around here and anything above 300 m is almost impossible.
Over the last years opportunities in neighbouring countries opened up and as a long time lurker in the long range communities I decided to go for it.
A long time ago I loved reading German Salazars Rifleman’s blog and decided to build a longrange .30-06.
After some trouble with a gunsmith, my barreled action was finally ready in January.
The current set up is the following:

- Tikka T3x action
- Lothar Walther 28“ 9“ twist barrel in a medium contour
- Bixn Andy trigger
- MDT LSS chassis with Arca rail
- XLR TR-2 stock on a folding adapter
- MDT vertical premiere grip
- Spuhr direct to Tikka mount
- ZCO 420
- A-Tec Mega H2 moderator

Now, the LSS chassis was really nice on the original 20“ Tikka barrel, with the new heavier barrel it’s too short though.
I do need a new chassis, which one is the big question.
The budget is up to 2000 €, though that much would be pretty painful and I’d prefer to spend less, or rather on reloading equipment and ammo.
The chassis needs to be a folder, or compatible with a folding adapter, due to the overall length of the rifle.
The Chassis is supposed to be stiff, I want an accurate rifle.
I’m going to use this rifle for 1000 m shooting outside of any competition, static hunting with hikes less than 5 miles, mostly less than 1 mile (weight is a tertiary consideration at best). Hunting will be done inside of 300 m.
Chassis I’ve looked at so far have been the

- LSS-XL
I liked the LSS, but I’m a bit uncertain about the rigidity of the chassis, compared to the competitors. It would be the least expensive option though, especially since I can continue using my current buttstock. I’m not in love with the bolt on Arca rail.

- ESS
It looks good, but I hate MDT buttstocks. The ones I owned felt cheap and flimsy, for 500 € that’s not good enough.
I don’t see a good way to continue using my TR-2 with the ESS, so it’s out (unless someone has an idea how to attach the TR-2 without using several adapters in a row).

- XLR any Chassis
Not available for a Tikka LA around here.

- KRG any Chassis
Not available as a folder for Tikka LA around here.

- Spuhr SICS
Awesome chassis, I’d love to buy it, but it’s bloody exspensive and I’d have to replace all my magazines. 2300+ €.
That’s too much, can’t justify that for a chassis.

- Vision Chassis with standard fore end
It looks very rigid, long fore end, Arca rail uses 3.56“ mags. The butt stock looks good, too.
No m-lok on the front though and a bit pricey with 1500 € for the folder. Biggest and only real con is the 2+ month wait to get one.


So, in the end my question is probably what do you think about the LSS-XL. Is it sufficiently rigid for a long range build, or should I step up to the vision and wait?

Cheers

ps: picture of the current setup:

 

[HaydenLane]

I’ve never had my hands on one, so this is a worthless opinion, but… I’d absolutely be waiting for the Vision.

 

[Emerson0311]

I’ve run the MDT ACC Premier Gen 1 with a folding butt, ACC Elite, and HNT26 folder ARCA. The ACC Elite is much more solid than the ACC Premier. I have never regretted buying any of the 3. The stiffness and long forend are hard to beat. Not sure what the price is for you there though.

 

[memilanuk]

I think MDT is sunsetting the LSS-XL, ESS, and Tac-21 in favor of the new LSS gen 3. Not sure if they'll have all the same inlets available right away.

 

[Cuga]

I’ve run the MDT ACC Premier Gen 1 with a folding butt, ACC Elite, and HNT26 folder ARCA. The ACC Elite is much more solid than the ACC Premier. I have never regretted buying any of the 3. The stiffness and long forend are hard to beat. Not sure what the price is for you there though.

I’d love to get an ACC folder, they don’t offer it for Tikka long actions though. Otherwise it would be my first choice.
The one ACC (non folder) I handled last year was a dream to shoot and I even liked the butt stock.

The Hnt26 is great, too. I had one for a Bergara Extreme Hunter back when the stocks were released.
That was actually the chassis that showed me, that I prefer heavier rifles, the light .308 kicked quite a bit.



For the heavy .30-06 I believe the HNT26 to be too light and short.

 

[Cuga]

I think MDT is sunsetting the LSS-XL, ESS, and Tac-21 in favor of the new LSS gen 3. Not sure if they'll have all the same inlets available right away.

I saw the video about it today.
It will probably be half a year until they arrive in Europe and I’m afraid to see the price of all the individual parts.

The general concept looks interesting though, might be a good chassis for a short hogs and wood rifle I need to build.

 

[Billygoat934]

I currently have an LSS-XL SA that I’ve been using on my Tikka T3x for backpack hunting and general shooting here in Kodiak. I have shot out to 1100 yards with my 6.5 Creedmor and the chassis was not the weak link in the system. With that being said, after seeing the Spuhr SICS in person at Mile High, my intention is to replace the LSS-XL with the SICS in the near future. Part of this decision is also based on the fact that I bought the HNT-26 with folding stock and Arca forend a few months ago. In my opinion this is the best backpack hunting chassis on the planet. In regards to the LSS-XL, it is marketed as a “jack of all trades” chassis which it most definitely is. So as you would expect from a “jack of all trades” it is ok for hunting and ok for target shooting and competition. It took me two years of shooting with it to come to the conclusion I would rather just have two separate rifles, one that is great for hunting and the other that is great for competition. I ultimately ended up putting a lot of money into the LSS-XL as well because I had a lighter hunting configuration and then a heavier weight target shooting configuration and I would swap parts around based on what I was using it for. In hindsight I would have been happier if I had just purchased the HNT-26 from the get go.

 

[Ronws]

I currently have an LSS-XL SA that I’ve been using on my Tikka T3x for backpack hunting and general shooting here in Kodiak. I have shot out to 1100 yards with my 6.5 Creedmor and the chassis was not the weak link in the system. With that being said, after seeing the Spuhr SICS in person at Mile High, my intention is to replace the LSS-XL with the SICS in the near future. Part of this decision is also based on the fact that I bought the HNT-26 with folding stock and Arca forend a few months ago. In my opinion this is the best backpack hunting chassis on the planet. In regards to the LSS-XL, it is marketed as a “jack of all trades” chassis which it most definitely is. So as you would expect from a “jack of all trades” it is ok for hunting and ok for target shooting and competition. It took me two years of shooting with it to come to the conclusion I would rather just have two separate rifles, one that is great for hunting and the other that is great for competition. I ultimately ended up putting a lot of money into the LSS-XL as well because I had a lighter hunting configuration and then a heavier weight target shooting configuration and I would swap parts around based on what I was using it for. In hindsight I would have been happier if I had just purchased the HNT-26 from the get go.

This right here. I am constantly reminding myself of what is the job of the rifle.

I am with the OP that on hunts that don't cover much area, a slightly heavy rifle is fine for taming recoil and making better shots. As opposed to carry Tikka superlite in say .300 WM. It will hurt to shoot but it is so light that you can hike quite a ways and hopefully only have to shoot once.

As opposed to competition and even just ELR shooting, where you will have longer strings of fire. If it is just a static position, like these 1k yard competitions, then it does not matter how heavy the rifle is.

I have not been in PRS but I could see where weight will have input because you have to carry it from station to station and position to position in odd poses.

And yeah, a jack-of-all-trades is just that. Pretty good at several things but possibly not super-best at any one thing.

I don't know the laws of owning more than one gun in Germany but it might be necessary to have two of the Tikka .30-06 rifles. One in the heavier chassis that is comfortable and great for shooting prone or at a bench.

As opposed to another one that is better for the improvised positions of PRS and hunting, regardless of distance. I have an AR-10 that is around 14 pounds loaded. But it would be great to post somewhere on a hog hunt where I don't need to stalk, I just need the quick cycling of a gas gun.