Well let you in the club if you build that clone
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So, you think I should buy a Tikka?!
- Thread starter fnbrowning
- Start date
- Nov 3, 2010
- 9,723
- 20,479
Such steep entry fees for the president of the poors club
As everyone has stated Tikka makes a very good action for the price and their barrels tend to shoot better than they have any right to, if a bit slow. Their customer service (Beretta) has a terrible reputation that is well earned. Fortunately the rifles tend to be well made and not need a lot of warranty work, but if they do…… you’ll want to beat children by they time you get anything resolved.
Remington has been turning out dog shit in a box for 20+ years now, went bankrupt, moved to new ownership and a new location. Not sure if current production is passable or not. They burned a lot of bridges with the current and upcoming generations of shooters, and the boomers who loved them are largely dying off or becoming less active as shooters.
I remember when they went down the corner cutting road, I was in college working for Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, MO at the gun counter. The year Remington came out with the Model 710 was the death knell of Remington, absolute shit in a box. One day they had a meeting at corporate HQ with vendors and the CEO of Remington was in attendance, I know this because he came into the store that night and wanted opinions on the 710. I gave him some opinions…. and got fired 2 weeks later for my troubles LOL. I didn’t know it was the CEO of Remington until the next day, a little weasel named Tom Millner, he then went on to run Cabela’s into the ground. Real shit heel. Hopefully he dies of some painful disease someday, guy ruined a lot of lives.
Addressing your other concerns about posted groups being cherry picked: you’re not wrong… BUT; and this is important, asking for 10 round groups is going to bring into play the ability of a shooter to consistently apply the exact same process and position for those 10 shots. Without a machine rest your data set is going to be heavily influenced by wildly variable shooter skill and ability to stay focused.
Asking for a couple of 5 round groups isn’t unreasonable though.
Others have suggested you more realistically define your goals you list a lot of uses that are probably not compatible with the need to be lighter in weight than an AR-10. Sorry but that’s just reality.
In your shoes going by your implied desire not to have to build it all yourself I would buy something that is ready to run out of the box that fills most of your needs rather than trying to piece it together. The Aero Precision Solus is a good choice and takes pre-fit barrels if you ever want to explore other calibers. Same for something like the Seekins Precision HAVAK lineup of rifles.
Tikkas are well-made and shoot. His 10-rd groups are not unique. But for some reason the barrels are slow. I wish someone could explain why….
I have two, both in MPA chassis so I can't speak to the stocks, but everything else is great. Ten shot 1/2 groups are possible and 3/4 are common. Also great trigger with just a cheap spring swap.
If I had to reason, I would say it’s because of the extremely long freebore. These barrels are only slow with factory ammo because of how far the bullet has to jump to the rifling. Lots of room to bleed off pressure. Hand loaders can load them out while adding in the powder to get the pressures up and voilá, slow no more but just as precise.
Nice thing about Tikkas is they come ready to shoot as is. You can upgrade as you have time/ money.
I put this together a few years ago and have tried to keep it updated.
Tikka buying guide T3 thread #3273
Page 66. https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/tikka-t3-thread.6252615/post-7301418
I put this together a few years ago and have tried to keep it updated.
Tikka buying guide T3 thread #3273
Page 66. https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/tikka-t3-thread.6252615/post-7301418
Well I'll be Fuhqed.
24 shots into 3/4 MOA, I'm impressed. You're one of the few who I'd be happy to say have a true sub MOA rifle 95% of the time.
Such a breath of fresh air. I'm completely over the bullshit 3 & 5 shot good group proclamation.
Well, if you want 10 shot groups at 100m, here's two consecutive ones that I did for load testing. Unfortunately it is only .223.
Rifle is a Tikka T3x Supervarmint in .223 with Hornady 53gr Vmax. Rifle is stil in the original plastic stock.
I will be picking up my .308 in February.
The first group is actually 0.8 moa. For some reason shot 6 and 11 wasn't included in the stats.
Rifle is a Tikka T3x Supervarmint in .223 with Hornady 53gr Vmax. Rifle is stil in the original plastic stock.
I will be picking up my .308 in February.
The first group is actually 0.8 moa. For some reason shot 6 and 11 wasn't included in the stats.
If you haven't seen it already, here's an entire thread devoted to 10-round groups from Tikkas: https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/show-your-tikka-ten-round-groups.172391/
There's a 24" 6.5CM Tikka T3X CTR in a KRG Bravo for sale in the PX for $1200. If I had to buy a budget, production rifle to upgrade with a few parts it would end up just like this one. And I only own one factory centerfire action anymore these days and it's a T3.
Why would the seller have the action trued by Preece Precision? Was that necessary due to the re-chamber? I thought the Tikka bolts were the 'bee's knees' and buttery smooth? Why would you go through the expense of a fluted LRI bolt and M16 extractor?
Bolt is a LRI bolt. Fluted, M16 extractor, sterk handle.
I don't know if we're looking at the same one. I don't think there's any truing to do to a T3X. Some people just like to customize shit
Hey that’s my rifle you’re talking about lol
Although it’s not a 24” creedmoor so you may have it mixed up with a different one.
I bought the action with the bolt. The guy I bought it from had a magnum bolt in it and wanted to go to something with a standard bolt face, so easiest thing to do at the time was buy the LRI bolt. The LRI bolts are awesome btw but no longer sold.
As far as the truing aspect…preece is a well known smith in Utah. He would love to share his thoughts on truing tikkas if you wanted to call him. He’s had issues with prefits in the past so he trues every tikka that comes through his door. Just the way he does things. I’m not a smith so I trust his opinion more than my own on the subject and the rifle shoots great so I can’t complain.
They are and they aren't. Some can be off by about .010. One of my smiths will not do a tikka prefit without having it on hand for the first barrel. He has seen to much of a spread in headspace to just shoot for a number in the middle of SAMMI and hope for the best.
Most likely they will still shoot but you could have brass growth issues or chambering issues if you are on either end of the range.
Most likely they will still shoot but you could have brass growth issues or chambering issues if you are on either end of the range.
And everyone of those smiths is dogshit In my experience including proof house chambered barrels. I have first hand horror stories for each of them and a ton of 2nd hand ones. A competent machinist/ smith who measures and indicates correctly each time would see the variance and know something is wrong.
People speak with their wallet. There no conspiracy theory when barrels shoot like shit because proof cant make a consistent bore barrel nor can they chamber a barrel without runnout. Some of the most respected smiths in the country refuse to use proof barrels for this reason (Call Dave Warner of Warner tool up and ask him about proof if you got an hour to burn) . I got 3 of them and about to have a 4th spun up for a cheap tikka build (ironically) because i know the smith will warranty it if it doesn't shoot, He is doing the chamber work and im getting the barrel at cost. My proof chambered barreled can barely hold 1 moa with BH, berger or federal factory ammo. Luckily its a trainer barrel.
Come shoot some matches and ask the boys about PVA. I thought I was hard on them, the cats here in PVA's backyard are BRUTAL. Hell one even became a smith after getting burned multiple times from josh's fuck ups and decided it cant be that hard. He is a pro shooter BTW and won this region last year. I can name a dozen people who had similar expereince including myself.
Keystone fucked up almost as many 22 barrels as PVA. You can have that shit.
You dont like what you are hearing so you blow it off. Guys who burn out a bunch of barrels every year steer clear of them for a reason. Chads who will buy and sell a gun before torching a barrel come here to spout off becuase ignorance is bliss.
Good smiths do not leave things up to chance. They stick with known quantities. Their reputations are everything and they don't want to loose money to something outside of their control. Something like an impact or other custom prefit compatible action will hold action and bolt headspace within about .001. That is close enough to be able to make a barrel by print. More than that, you are taking on risk as SAMMI spec is a range and the actions have their own range. But you knew all this right?
Now tell me I am wrong......
Come shoot some matches and ask the boys about PVA. I thought I was hard on them, the cats here in PVA's backyard are BRUTAL. Hell one even became a smith after getting burned multiple times from josh's fuck ups and decided it cant be that hard. He is a pro shooter BTW and won this region last year. I can name a dozen people who had similar expereince including myself.
Keystone fucked up almost as many 22 barrels as PVA. You can have that shit.
You dont like what you are hearing so you blow it off. Guys who burn out a bunch of barrels every year steer clear of them for a reason. Chads who will buy and sell a gun before torching a barrel come here to spout off becuase ignorance is bliss.
Good smiths do not leave things up to chance. They stick with known quantities. Their reputations are everything and they don't want to loose money to something outside of their control. Something like an impact or other custom prefit compatible action will hold action and bolt headspace within about .001. That is close enough to be able to make a barrel by print. More than that, you are taking on risk as SAMMI spec is a range and the actions have their own range. But you knew all this right?
Now tell me I am wrong......
You think you know something I don't. And you think you've been doing this longer than I have. And you think you hang with a crowd I don't. And you're wrong.
mikeshaw2
Your post could actually be read two ways. Either the Tikka is the Yugo because it's Euro trash, or the Remington is the Yugo b/c it's too cheap and poorly assembled. How about a little more clarity, which do you prefer and why?You could have bought this and be shooting already instead of arguing with nerds on the Internet. Just do like the rest of us have and buy both to create your own opinion and experience. It'll be a lot more fun.
www.snipershide.com
SOLD - Tikka T3X KRG Bravo 6.5cm
Selling my Tikka T3X sitting in a black KRG Bravo that accepts AICS mags. 24” oem barrel in 6.5cm. Shoots .6moa with minimal load development. Will include a 5/8x24 muzzle thread protector. Barrel has a little rash from vice when originally removed. Asking $1250+shipping for the rifle and Tikka...
www.snipershide.com
Reading is fundamental, in your case you missed this sentence in my OP "This will be a .308 because I have FAR too much invested in that caliber and I'm not starting over." Period. Now, you probably take your own advice about arguing on the internet as you seem a bit too contrary here.You could have bought this and be shooting already instead of arguing with nerds on the Internet. Just do like the rest of us have and buy both to create your own opinion and experience. It'll be a lot more fun.
SOLD - Tikka T3X KRG Bravo 6.5cm
Selling my Tikka T3X sitting in a black KRG Bravo that accepts AICS mags. 24” oem barrel in 6.5cm. Shoots .6moa with minimal load development. Will include a 5/8x24 muzzle thread protector. Barrel has a little rash from vice when originally removed. Asking $1250+shipping for the rifle and Tikka...
Tips for buying a rifle
Step 1: Buy something
Step 2: Spend more money fixing a perceived issue
Step 3: ??????
Step 4: Sell it at a loss then start over
Circle of life.
Step 1: Buy something
Step 2: Spend more money fixing a perceived issue
Step 3: ??????
Step 4: Sell it at a loss then start over
Circle of life.
Last edited:
Short answer: Yes.
You've had some good and some not so good replies.
My take is:
Get a CTR or Varmint. There are several stocks out there, some of them with a AICS BDMs/inlet. The stock stock is good enough.
You might get a lemon, there is always a risk, but mostly they are more than decent.
Good luck!
You've had some good and some not so good replies.
My take is:
Get a CTR or Varmint. There are several stocks out there, some of them with a AICS BDMs/inlet. The stock stock is good enough.
You might get a lemon, there is always a risk, but mostly they are more than decent.
Good luck!
Unless you live under a rock its a never ending circle. It impacts everyone from fudds to cloners. New tech, new things are over the place. Varity is the spice of life. Build the nicest m40 clone you can and bam a nice issued smear stock comes up for a good price.... Your now a victim of the circle. You can't escape don't try.
