IBI barrel for Tikka is here. Maybe first in the US.

[Kisssofdeath]

Next up is a toss up between Eley Match and SK Rifle Match. I'm giving it to Eley Match simply because I shot two great targets but only shot one target with SK Rifle Match. Remember these are with the shim under the barrel, I shot more SK Rifle Match but it wasn't good and I only had one box left to shoot with the shim in place.

SK Rifle Match. This is a cheaper bullet costing around $7-8 a box.I had a couple of bad groups but a 3/16", two 1/4", two 3/8" groups definitely warrants further testing. I will by buying more of this.

Next is probably Eley Edge. Edge is a cheaper bullet costing around $9-10 a box. One think to keep in mind is I chose these Eley types because they all have the blunt tip bullet or EPS design that the chamber is supposedly chambered for. In the end, I don't think any of that matters.

Next up is RWS R50sc. This is an expensive ammo, I've seen it anywhere between $15 and $20 a box. I bought mine on sale at SWFA for $10.81 a box.

The rest of the ammo groups are all about the same. I do want to say that the Flatnose bullet by SK does have a unique tip profile compared to the others. It appears that the Basic shot as good or better than the Match at $2 box cheaper. The biggest disappointment was in the Eley Team. To be a fairly expensive ammo it really shot bad, just bad. Not sure what "ninch" Eley is trying to fill or sell to but I won't be buying any more of it. The CCI SV was hard to lock the bolt down. CCI has been like this the entire test period. I won't be shooting CCI in this barrel any longer. SK had a very small percentage of hard bolt closures but nothing to be concerned with. Everything else chambered with ease. Another thing to point out is that I had zero malfunctions of any kind throughout this entire test. That's at least 1300 rounds of feed, extract and eject to perfection. I also checked several bullet tips after chambering and none were damaged like you see sometimes with denting the tip, scraping at the drive bands or scratching.

10 photo limit is reached. Final photos and conclusions in next post.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Continuing with groups.

Final conclusion. I am happy with the barrel I have AFTER putting the .003" shim in place. I would hope that IBI increases their barrel diameter but others already shooting this barrel my say theirs shoots fine as is and that's great. I would like to see IBI put out barrels in 17 HMR and 17 HM2, if they did I would be buying one of each. I believe this barrel to be accurate with a variety of ammo and extremely accurate with a few. I believe the IBI barrel to be on par with my 1813 and 1710 Anschutz, the two Sako P94S, the Kimber SVT, Winchester 52D and the Tikka #3. I'd say that's pretty good company to be in. I would highly recommend this barrel to anyone who is not getting the accuracy they desire from the stock barrel.

The maximum cost for someone to build a rifle similar to mine would be something like this..

1. Tikka T1x rifle New $470, used $???.
2. KRG Bravo Stock $370.
3. IBI Barrel $420.
4. Scope Rail $40 but you don't need this as you can use the factory dovetail if you wanted to, it will just limit your ring selection.
5. Scope Rings $120 but a nice set can be had for $50.
6. Scope, my scope $2,000 but you don't have to use this you can find a nice one for $300. You can a cheaper scope but I don't know how nice it would be.

What I would consider the base price (rifle, barrel and stock) is around $1,260. The rest is what you make of it.

Hope you enjoyed the material and get some use from it. If anyone has questions, I'll try to answer.

EDIT: Thanks to all for allowing me to finish up the review without post interruption.

 

[DeadeyeD’rick]

Nice post and lots of excellent information. Did you have any feeding issues when testing?

 

[DeadeyeD’rick]

Can’t wait to get my T1X in 22 and 17 in.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Nice post and lots of excellent information. Did you have any feeding issues when testing?

Copied and pasted from above.

Another thing to point out is that I had zero malfunctions of any kind throughout this entire test. That's at least 1300 rounds of feed, extract and eject to perfection. I also checked several bullet tips after chambering and none were damaged like you see sometimes with denting the tip, scraping at the drive bands or scratching.

 

[DeadeyeD’rick]

Well I sure missed that. Guess I’m a picture guy. Lol

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Well I sure missed that. Guess I’m a picture guy. Lol

LOL no problem at all. It's easy to miss things in a picture heavy post.

 

[littlepod]

How does this really compare to your Tikka #3? I thought your Tikka #3 routinely shoots 1/4 - 3/8? The shim part has me a little troubled. If I'm going to pay $400ish for a new barrel, then it really needs to be a good deal better than the stock barrel, and not require much fuss. Right now it'd be $400 + $100 of me gunsmithing it, and I lose the threaded option of sticking my Sparrow on it

I might have to hold out for a McGowan prefit to see...

 

[DeadeyeD’rick]

I’ve had a McGowan a while back and it was lights out.

I’m sure this IBI has lots of potential. A good lot testing may prove this to be a real shooter after finding exactly what it likes.

 

[littlepod]

Looking closer at the review, I guess center-x really does stand out... a significant amount of 3/16-1/4 groups there. So yeh, outside of shimming it, I think it might actually be a pretty decent investment.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Keep in mind guys that all IBI barrels may not fit like mine did. Also they may not need shimming to shoot well like mine did. But, if I didn't mention the shimming it wouldn't be an honest comparison. I paid for the product so I can be honest and straight up and that's the way with all my reviews. If anyone buys a barrel and needs some shim stock material I have enough for 4-5 more.

Another thing, the Tikka #3 I have has got to be an anomaly. I would show photos of the groups it shoots but I want to keep this about the IBI barrel. I believe there is a post somewhere in here about it, if not I'll make one to compare targets.

 

[DeadeyeD’rick]

Also, thanks for the cost analysis. It’s a good way to compare a full build to a Vudoo or others.

 

[Boltman82]

Awesome review, thank you! I'm will be very tempted to do a barrel swap next year.

 

[slickwill]

Another thing to point out is that I had zero malfunctions of any kind throughout this entire test. That's at least 1300 rounds of feed, extract and eject to perfection. I also checked several bullet tips after chambering and none were damaged like you see sometimes with denting the tip, scraping at the drive bands or scratching.

Has this rifle had any kind of ejector mods? Mine is better than it was after altering the ejector but still nowhere near a 0 out of 1300 rate.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

I have had to mess with the ejector on all my Tikkas and even one Sako P94S.

 

[littlepod]

I messed with my ejector too, and it's pretty easy. Just take out the mag well, which contains the ejector, and you can easily remove and bend the ejector wire. Took like < 10 min of time to add a teensy more bend to it, and everything ejects wonderfully now. Also over time you'll have to tighten that wire. I know mine, after 3000 rounds starting having a few FTE, and I retightened, and have had 0 failures in my last 600 rounds since I retightened it.

 

[DeadeyeD’rick]

Great info here

 

[Paul_T]

Nice writeup Kod (got my approval here to post so will follow up in this forum rather than at rimfire).

I have some Center X on the way and have a couple of bricks of SK Std+ sitting here to check out for less expensive shooting.

Was especially interested to read your info regarding the shimming of the barrel in the receiver. I know some guys with 455's (I have one in 17HMR) epoxied their barrels in for more rigidity (plus used the two set screws). It may be that using the shim does the same thing....

Hopefully I'll get out to the range next day or so.

 

[Paul_T]

Got to the range today with a couple of boxes of ammo. Mainly wanting to confirm headspace and re-zero the scope.

I headspaced with Eley Tennex (left that ammo at home). Left the Lapua Center X at home to try another day past 100 yards.

Took some CCI SV to check the action and zero the scope and some SK Std+ to see how the barrel likes it.

The SK is reasonably inexpensive and I was hoping it would be good for general shooting. I have a couple of bricks of it.

Temp 11°C (52°F), no wind. Bag rest front and back.


The CCI SV was a bitch to chamber but it got the scope on paper. The SK was smooth to chamber, no issues at all.
Once zero'ed did five shots with the CCI. 3/8" - Not bad for pretty standard/cheap ammo.
Then did a few groups with the SK Std+ (first target not shown I had to adjust 1 click from the CCI sight in).

Std+ best group at 50 yards pretty much same hole, worst group under 3/16". Happy Happy Joy Joy

Took it out to 100 yards and shot a 4 shot group just over 3/8" - 1 shot to test scope holdover.

Measurements were taken edge to edge after zeroing my calipers at .224



These were not cherry picked, I wasted 8 shots sighting in and switching from the CCI to SK and those 2 targets were binned.

Have a box each of Eley Tennex and Eley Match as well as 2 bricks of Lapua Center X to try out at some point.
This barrel certainly likes the SK Std+.

 

[littlepod]

Got to the range today with a couple of boxes of ammo. Mainly wanting to confirm headspace and re-zero the scope.

I headspaced with Eley Tennex (left that ammo at home). Left the Lapua Center X at home to try another day past 100 yards.

Took some CCI SV to check the action and zero the scope and some SK Std+ to see how the barrel likes it.

The SK is reasonably inexpensive and I was hoping it would be good for general shooting. I have a couple of bricks of it.

Temp 11°C (52°F), no wind. Bag rest front and back.


The CCI SV was a bitch to chamber but it got the scope on paper. The SK was smooth to chamber, no issues at all.
Once zero'ed did five shots with the CCI. 3/8" - Not bad for pretty standard/cheap ammo.
Then did a few groups with the SK Std+ (first target not shown I had to adjust 1 click from the CCI sight in).

Std+ best group at 50 yards pretty much same hole, worst group under 3/16". Happy Happy Joy Joy

Took it out to 100 yards and shot a 4 shot group just over 3/8" - 1 shot to test scope holdover.

Measurements were taken edge to edge after zeroing my calipers at .224



These were not cherry picked, I wasted 8 shots sighting in and switching from the CCI to SK and those 2 targets were binned.

Have a box each of Eley Tennex and Eley Match as well as 2 bricks of Lapua Center X to try out at some point.
This barrel certainly likes the SK Std+.

Did you have any barrel loose fitting issues like KoD did? Did you have to get a .003" shim? I ended up ordering the 20" bull barrel instead of the 22" fluted one, but after seeing your groups at 50/100, I sure hope my 20" bull shoots as well.... I wanted 2" shorter length to get in / out of barricades, and the extra weight I think will make my T1X almost exactly identical to my T3X .308.

Also what did you get it chambered in? Eley EPS or Winchester 52D?

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Paul_T, nice shooting. I also have the same questions as littlepod does.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

If you take the 1" dots and use a single hole paper punch from Walmart it works really well and the white shows up great against the cross hairs. Very nice shooting by the way

That's a good idea. I have those bullseye red dots, mostly used them for longer ranges when I belonged to the FOP and shot there.

 

[idgunnut]

That's a good idea. I have those bullseye red dots, mostly used them for longer ranges when I belonged to the FOP and shot there.

It works really great

 

[Paul_T]

Did you have any barrel loose fitting issues like KoD did? Did you have to get a .003" shim? I ended up ordering the 20" bull barrel instead of the 22" fluted one, but after seeing your groups at 50/100, I sure hope my 20" bull shoots as well.... I wanted 2" shorter length to get in / out of barricades, and the extra weight I think will make my T1X almost exactly identical to my T3X .308.

Also what did you get it chambered in? Eley EPS or Winchester 52D?

I have same slop in barrel fitment as kod but at the moment I have not shimmed it. Once I take it out to 200 and 300 yards will see if I need to do that. I have a bunch of shim stock of various thickness' so that won't be a problem.

FWIW Ryan at IBI said same thing to me regarding set screw torque (hand tight and they see no accuracy difference with different torques). When I contacted Stoeger (Canadian Distributer), they contacted Tikka who says 10Nm (88.5in/lb) if you can believe it. I started with 65 but am now at 45 - same setting as the chassis/receiver screws as I'm lazy and don't want to change the torque wrench settings between them, lol.

My barrel is exactly the same as kod - Eley EPS chambering.

 

[littlepod]

I have same slop in barrel fitment as kod but at the moment I have not shimmed it. Once I take it out to 200 and 300 yards will see if I need to do that. I have a bunch of shim stock of various thickness' so that won't be a problem.

FWIW Ryan at IBI said same thing to me regarding set screw torque (hand tight and they see no accuracy difference with different torques). When I contacted Stoeger (Canadian Distributer), they contacted Tikka who says 10Nm (88.5in/lb) if you can believe it. I started with 65 but am now at 45 - same setting as the chassis/receiver screws as I'm lazy and don't want to change the torque wrench settings between them, lol.

My barrel is exactly the same as kod - Eley EPS chambering.

Thanks! My barrel should be here in 1-2 weeks. I have my equipment ready - vise, pb blaster, and some t15 torx bits. Did you do anything special to get your barrel off?

 

[Paul_T]

Thanks! My barrel should be here in 1-2 weeks. I have my equipment ready - vise, pb blaster, and some t15 torx bits. Did you do anything special to get your barrel off?

I guess I am the lucky one in that regard. I read kod's thread on another site ref difficult screw/barrel removal. Others commented the same there.

Info I got from Tikka via Stoeger was they use an epoxy as well as the set screws (their exact wording was "adhesive beading compound"). Ryan at IBI said heat heat heat has been the order of the day to get the screws out and OEM barrel off.

I was prepared to hit it with my heat gun but decided to try first. The bit that came with my Wheeler Fat Wrench popped the 3 screws quite nicely. No fuss, no muss. No stripping of heads, no stripping/breaking of bit etc etc like others have had. I had the torque wrench set to Max (65 in-lb) just to see if it would click/spin rather than remove the screws based on Tikka saying 88 in-lb. They all came free at that setting without the wrench clicking.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Great information here.

 

[littlepod]

@Kisssofdeath IBI chipped their Eley EPS reamer and won't be able to make any more Eley EPS for a few months while they get a new reamer so they only have Winchester 52D available.

What do you think I should do? Wait for Eley EPS, or do you think Win52d will shoot as good?

 

[Kisssofdeath]

I think you should get the 52D chamber regardless; I would have if I had known they offered it. Everyone is in the tactical game and it's Eley, Eley, Eley so normally people are going to choose Eley EPS, if nothing else, for the name alone. The 52D chamber is the tightest chamber in the SAAMI specs. The 52D is an older rifle but IMO one of the best ever made. Because it's older no one knows or hears anything about them.

I have 3 Winchesters, a pre-A, 52B Repo and a 52D. I don't have any extraction or ejection issues with any of those rifles.

Here is my 99% 1964 52D along with a few targets with different ammo. Obviously not every ammo shoots this good in it but it gives you an idea of its capability. Of course none of this is any guarantee that an IBI barrel with a 52D chamber will shoot any better or worse or the same. Keep in mind, it doesn't take a lot of movement to turn a 1/4" group into a 1/2" group.

 

[Eostech]

PT&G reamer specs, the 52D is not as tight at the base, will engrave the bullet a fair amount and has a two degree leade. With a good quality barrel that should translate to a chamber that will feed well in field conditions and shoot most types of ammunition well. Though not completely optimised for a certain bullet, ie centre X.

 

[littlepod]

Okay I'll just order it. We will see how it goes and more info for the community.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

I don't think you will be disappointed.

Dimension "C", the Length is what I was referring to as being the tightest.

 

[littlepod]

I got mine in - stainless bull barrel 20" 3.25 lbs.

Heat gun, then soaked in PB Blaster over night.

Barrel came right off in the morning. Minimal force required for screws, barrel wouldn't budge. I used the heat gun to heat up any glue/compound around the barrel. Then I took a hammer and a screw driver and tapped it out.

New barrel installed... I wanted black, but this will look nice in the new MDT chassis... needed higher rings for the scope caps to clear the new barrel so I'll do that later today. I rushed to the range and headspaced it. Winchester 52D chamber was pretty hard to seat a round. I need to really push forward with some oomph to get it seated. I tried to widen up the headspace but got a bunch of no fires. So I put it back... SK ammo seems to chamber easier than Eley.

 

[littlepod]

I was rushed to get back to work in the morning so I shot 150 rounds, but didn't have enough data to really see how it grouped. Running back and forth and rushing through ammo at 100 yards is a hard way to prove anything. They all shot within 1.5" so that's good. Smallest group was 1/2" at 100 yards with Eley Target... I'll post some pics in a bit, but I'll be heading out to the range in 2 hrs with some new scope rings on and get everything zeroed before the match. Going to wait on the MDT Chassis until I get an arca mount for my bipod.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

I was rushed to get back to work in the morning so I shot 150 rounds, but didn't have enough data to really see how it grouped. Running back and forth and rushing through ammo at 100 yards is a hard way to prove anything. They all shot within 1.5" so that's good. Smallest group was 1/2" at 100 yards with Eley Target... I'll post some pics in a bit, but I'll be heading out to the range in 2 hrs with some new scope rings on and get everything zeroed before the match. Going to wait on the MDT Chassis until I get an arca mount for my bipod.

Where did you get that cheek pad?

 

[Kisssofdeath]

How was the shank to receiver fit?

 

[littlepod]

How was the shank to receiver fit?

Shank to receiver fit perfectly snug. No wiggle.

 

[littlepod]

Where did you get that cheek pad?

Cheek pad is Wiebad Mini Stock Pad for KRG Bravo.

 

[littlepod]

Alright, went back to the range and started my groups. I'll post separate pictures of everything, but here's the aftermath. I shot 7 rounds of ammo, 30 rounds each. 5 fouling sharts / test POI, then shot 5 groups of 5.

General summary is my Tikka factory barrel shot almost every ammo the same, and it seemed to like Eley. As I progressed through the Eley Line it would do Eley Target 1.1", Eley Match, .9", and Eley Tenex .75". This new IBI barrel the the Eley groups were 20% larger. So 1.2-1.3" for low end ammo, 1" for Match, .9" inch for Tenex..

I switched to SK ammo, and it did better than my factory Tikka. SK+ generally shot 1.1" and SK LRM it didn't like before. With the new barrel I was getting .9" with SK+ and .8" with SK LRM. I'm curious what Rifle Match / Center-X will do...

 

[littlepod]

Here's Eley Club, and Eley Target. Everything was shot top to bottom with the ammo.

 

[littlepod]

I shot 6 groups of Eley Contact because it started shooting well and wanted to see maybe it needed extra fouling to get going.. The random group in between the last 2 was my 6th group. I am curious if I want to go shoot another 100 rounds of this to really see if it's a winner, but the other Eley ammo just didn't hold up for their price.

Eley Match, earlier today, and this evening, I get a lot of horizontal movement with Eley Match Pistol, not sure why.

 

[littlepod]

Tenex for $18 a box, didn't perform as well as I had hoped. This shoots .7" groups in my Ruger and the Tikka Factory Barrel. If I exclude the group with the high and low shot, the overall average isn't bad. But I want better for a $325 barrel investment.

 

[littlepod]

Lastly I switched to some of my few remaining boxes of SK ammo, SK+ and LRM. $5 a box for SK+, and 7.50 for LRM, which puts it significantly cheaper than Match, and Tenex... I'm pretty happy with these results.

LRM

 

[littlepod]

I'm going to get a few lots of Center-X and SK Rifle Match, and Pistol Match Special to see how this performs. I think evidence shows that it's just not a Eley shooter. Now I might have some headspacing issues... the tight chamber of Win 52d, I do have to put some oomph into loading rounds... loading into a bipod wasn't a problem to cycle a round, but on a barricade, that might be rough. I might have to re-headspace it, but I'm pretty new to doing all of this. When I loosened up the headspace I was getting light strikes.

I do notice rougher feeding of Eley Ammo. I am worried the bottom of the bullet is scraping on the barrel. I'm not sure what to do to fix that. Maybe increase the headspace?

 

[Kisssofdeath]

That's good shooting. Glad your barrel fits tight, I'm debating on sending mine back and getting a replacement. It shoots good but the looseness is hard to overcome. I'm always thinking how good could it be if the barrel didn't have so much play.

 

[littlepod]

That's good shooting. Glad your barrel fits tight, I'm debating on sending mine back and getting a replacement. It shoots good but the looseness is hard to overcome. I'm always thinking how good could it be if the barrel didn't have so much play.

Was the shim not working? Ryan mentioned that the Tikka receivers have some variability, and the barrels that he sent you and me had the same overall diameter. I didn't measure mine though, just stuck it in and it fit.

The extra weight did balance my rifle a little better. I have to say though, the factory Tikka barrels are pretty damn good. What's done is done with this barrel, good learning experience.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Yes the shim worked but you seen how much play my barrel had. Ryan said he would make me a barrel with the specific size shank I requested. Seems to me that if Ruger can hold tight tolerances on their 10/22 Tikka surely could.

 

[littlepod]

You could swap your current barrel to your other T1X and see if it's the same fitting. Maybe you did get a 1-off bad product. Have you done any more testing? Is Center-X still the best for your IBI?

 

[Eostech]

Now I might have some headspacing issues... the tight chamber of Win 52d, I do have to put some oomph into loading rounds... loading into a bipod wasn't a problem to cycle a round, but on a barricade, that might be rough. I might have to re-headspace it, but I'm pretty new to doing all of this. When I loosened up the headspace I was getting light strikes.

What you are feeling there is probably engraving force and not excessively tight headspace crushing the rim. The bolt face to barrel face measurement is pretty important and is not something you should play around with too much. Using a set of feeler gauges or measuring an empty sk case with a caliper should get you around 0.043", set it at that.

 

[Eostech]