PSA: Don't let your bolt gun fall with the bolt open while cleaning it. **UPDATE: FIXED**

Tens of thousands of T3s out there. 2 failures. One caused by user error.

Clearly a poor design...

@STR-4_uk don’t want it to sound like a rant, but this is supposed to be their “tactical” offering.

If you were ever in the military then you would know that weapons get dropped all the time, I’m not sure which one of us are you referring to as “user error” but certainly no bolt should break by having pressure applied to it.

As far as thousands of t3s out there...I’m sure not everyone with this problem is a member of SnipersHide or even let anyone but the Tikka CS know about it, so no way to say how widespread this issue is, what I know there are at least 2 people with identical metallurgical problem.
 
"tactical offering" is a reach at best. It's a $800 T3X in a chassis. These are isolated incidents, not anywhere close to the norm. Out of curiosity, what were you doing when you man handled it open?
The description is in the thread above, but basically stuck dummy cartridge touching lands
 
Tikka is a rifle made to a price point with resultant tradeoffs. It happens to be one of the best of that breed, but is still an inexpensive, and inexpensively made, rifle.

They are very smooth and accurate, but at $2500 you are getting into TRG territory. TRG looks similar, but is a different animal entirely.
We had a guy shear off his TRG bolt handle in one of my Winter LR courses on Day 1. He might be a forum member here. Former 10th Mountain Division guy I first ran into at Sniper Adventure Challenge in 2013. I’ve shot TRG22s in .308 Win and TRG .338 LMs quite a bit in Finland, in much colder conditions. I do remember several of my Finnish friends mentioning that their confidence in the quality of the rifles went way down with the Beretta merger.

IMG_67541_zpsrvguydka.jpg


Handed him a loaner Surgeon 18” .308 IIRC.
 
We had a guy shear off his TRG bolt handle in one of my Winter LR courses on Day 1. He might be a forum member here. Former 10th Mountain Division guy I first ran into at Sniper Adventure Challenge in 2013. I’ve shot TRG22s in .308 Win and TRG .338 LMs quite a bit in Finland, in much colder conditions. I do remember several of my Finnish friends mentioning that their confidence in the quality of the rifles went way down with the Beretta merger.



Handed him a loaner Surgeon 18” .308 IIRC.

I think once the rifle comes back repaired its going up for sale, I guess will move up to AI AT.
 
Something tells me if LRI is making replacement bolts for the Tikka, there have been more than two failures.

The allure has always been for the ability to change bolt faces. I could be wrong, but that and other small changes like: extractor, better shroud, and fire control(?) plus the limited availability of factory bolts have been the main reasons for development.
 
Gents, I had no issue with accuracy, it was amazing (especially coming off from Rem 700), was getting 1/3 MOA consistently, but was certainly not expecting this shit.

As far as what is stuck (several people PMed me concerned...)

It's a sized, unprimed case, with a bullet just started in the case mouth, was trying to determine OAL to lands (and yes, I'm aware that hornady has a tool to do this, and I own it, but I don't have a special 6.5 cartridge for it)

A size "L" drill bit and a 5/16-36 tap will get you all the cartridge cases you want to fit the Hornady comparator. I haven't bought a case since I got the tap...
 
That's an expensive mistake. You can order a new bolt. There is no fixing that without botching the dovetail. I think a new bolt is like 275.00 or something crazy like that. I have a T3x also, and love it. I wouldn't deal with Berretta for the warranty though. This is not a warranty repair, so just buy a new bolt.
 
That's an expensive mistake. You can order a new bolt. There is no fixing that without botching the dovetail. I think a new bolt is like 275.00 or something crazy like that. I have a T3x also, and love it. I wouldn't deal with Berretta for the warranty though. This is not a warranty repair, so just buy a new bolt.

Which one of "us" are you referring to - there are 2 distinct issues, one is the dropped bolt, another is stuck bolt with a dummy round. The other issue is - if I got a new bolt, it doesn't mean that rifle would headspace correctly (it's possible, but not guaranteed)
 
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Which one of "us" are you referring to - there are 2 distinct issues, one is the dropped bolt, another is stuck bolt with a dummy round. The other issue is - if I got a new bolt, it doesn't mean that rifle would headspace correctly (it's possible, but not guaranteed)
Its very likely it will headspace correctly.
 
Tikka is a rifle made to a price point with resultant tradeoffs. It happens to be one of the best of that breed, but is still an inexpensive, and inexpensively made, rifle.

They are very smooth and accurate, but at $2500 you are getting into TRG territory. TRG looks similar, but is a different animal entirely.


I bought my TRG-22 for $2000 shipped and insured here last year and it had less than 500 rounds on it. I then sold my CTR.

You are 100% correct.
 
Well add me to the list of people who have had this happen. Not sure what happened...if someone knocked it over or the wind was heavy but the gun ended up the ground from the shooting bench. The range requires us to have the actions open so derp.

Curious how the tig welded bolt has worked for clcustom1911, Also what type of material did they tig weld it with? My local place quoted me $80-100 to tig weld it. Not sure if I should go that route or just buy the LRI replacement.
 

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I had the weld done, however it held for only about 50 rounds. I bought LRI bolt after and sold the gun.
Oh wow ... That's not encouraging. I dropped mine off at the shop to get welded. Think I should not go that route. I know he wasnt goin to get to it for awhile so I can prob just get it back.

Also don't blame you for getting rid of it with that customer service. F them
 
Well add me to the list of people who have had this happen. Not sure what happened...if someone knocked it over or the wind was heavy but the gun ended up the ground from the shooting bench. The range requires us to have the actions open so derp.

Curious how the tig welded bolt has worked for clcustom1911, Also what type of material did they tig weld it with? My local place quoted me $80-100 to tig weld it. Not sure if I should go that route or just buy the LRI replacement.
I researched what the bolt was made of and they used that metal. 416 stainless? I believe. It's worked perfectly since.

I'm a lefty. So I had no choice but to weld. Lefty replacement bolts aren't a thing from anywhere.
 
I researched what the bolt was made of and they used that metal. 416 stainless? I believe. It's worked perfectly since.

I'm a lefty. So I had no choice but to weld. Lefty replacement bolts aren't a thing from anywhere.

Thanks for the context. I put a magnet against mine and it ended up sticking so not sure it's stainless though LRI did tell me they were stainless.
Ok just looked up 416 stainless so it is probably that! For me it's mainly cost because the replacement bolts are like $400 now o_O
 
Welp, in case this happens to anyone else. Tig welding does not always seem to work, or maybe the guy I took it to messed up, or maybe it got damaged in the drop, but either way the bolt handle no longer slides into the dovetail. Looks like the geometry of everything to warped or slightly off angle.

Callin it a loss at this point and just buying a bolt from LRI
 

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Welp, in case this happens to anyone else. Tig welding does not always seem to work, or maybe the guy I took it to messed up, or maybe it got damaged in the drop, but either way the bolt handle no longer slides into the dovetail. Looks like the geometry of everything to warped or slightly off angle.

Callin it a loss at this point and just buying a bolt from LRI
You can still get weld distortion tig welding. I would think it was more the welder and less the fact it was a tig welded.
 
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You can just shape it with a small file, make sure to keep geometry correct (Use front edge as a guide), it is common with welds to be just a bit off (very common if you are doing exotic historical weapon work from parts kits).

My problem was that the weld did not hold, but some file work was still needed to get everything to fit 100%.
 
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Welp, in case this happens to anyone else. Tig welding does not always seem to work, or maybe the guy I took it to messed up, or maybe it got damaged in the drop, but either way the bolt handle no longer slides into the dovetail. Looks like the geometry of everything to warped or slightly off angle.

Callin it a loss at this point and just buying a bolt from LRI
Negative, Ghost Rider.

After the TIGing, I had to use a hand grinder to clear the center passage, and used different shaped needle files in the slot where the bolt slides into.


Make it work, you got this shit.
 
lol I think he mentioned already that he sold the gun off

LRI sent me a picture of my fleuted new bolt so that's nice :)
I did :) would not buy another Tikka, but the process of cleaning up the welds is the same. Below is the picture of my rewelded and cleaned up bolt.
 

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