LH Tikka T-3 Light SS .223

[gee-gaw]

Saw a pic of one and had to have it. Found mine on GB and got a fair deal with a decent Nikon scope on it. I know they have hammer forged barrels so when I got it I put about three patches of JB bore paste worked in good through it to smooth things up.
To start, this rifle has a sporter weight barrel, and a smooth action. A serviceable plastic stock and plastic detachable four round box magazine. The trigger is set at about three pounds. Ergonomics are good for me with a fourteen inch length of pull and an appropriate drop at the comb for scope use. And finally, a one inch thick recoil pad. The action, though smooth is long enough for an -06 length cartridge. Tikka puts a large block in the back of the magazine to ease feeding for the .223 cartridge, in this long action. Twist is one in eight.
In anticipation of the new ( to me ) rifles arrival, I loaded ten each of five different loads. Two heavys, and three light bullets. 60 GR V-Max, 69 GR Sierra Matchkings, 52 and 53 GR Sierra match bullets, and finally, 50 GR V-Max. Turns out the rifle really likes those 60 GR V-Max bullets. Those with a load of 26.8 grains of VV-140, gave me 3220 FPS ( start low and work up ) She was grouping those into a half inch at one hundred yards. Pretty good for a sporter weight barrel! We put around sixty rounds through this little rifle at the range Saturday, and everything fed and functioned just as it was made to do. I'm pleased with the rifle and will take it hunting as soon as the schedule allows.
Has anyone else owned or handled one of these?
Wayne

[82nd airborne]

I can get a stainless left hand tikka t3 in .223, delivered to your FFL for$679+shipping.
Tikkas are one of my new favorites. They are probably the smoothest, slickest working action I think I have ever used. Im a huge fan. We are currently converting a few to .300 BLK. Talk about a sweet gun!

[gee-gaw]

Hey 82nd,
Say your converting some to 300 Blackout? What's a barrel cost? I looked at your website, might be interested in a 6.5 X 45 barrel for the Tikka.
Wayne

[82nd airborne]

I Dont have a set price on tikka's yet, but Im 99 % sure it will be $249 for thebarrel, and $50 for the intallation. That includes lapping the lugs, and all that good stuff.

[NVScouter]

I have the same rifle in 243 as my ultra light pack rifle and I'm going to buy another one in 308 for my Dad. Its about 1/2 the weight of his 700 and the grip is nice and fat!

My only complaint was the owners manual stated it had a set trigger like my CZ527 but it didnt. Its a solid 300 yard rifle with 400 doable w/rest. Past that its too darn light...but thats what I bought an Ultra light for right?

[gee-gaw]

82nd,
I kinda would want to have the action face trued and the lugs lapped, but that means if I want to put my old .223 barrel on then the head space would be short on it. I'm getting .5 groups now and the occasional .3 and would hate to fool with it. What is the shank dia. and thread pitch? What do think about the recoil lug? Had an Anschutlz 54 that was just like that, sure works for them. I still think I'll bed the action.

NVScouter,
I have a Nikon buckmaster scope with mil-dots and the way the load worked out is, one inch high at 100, one inch low at 200, top mil dot center at 300, top edge of second mil dot at 400.
I don't have any business shootin off-hand beyond 200 at game, so I'll hafta come up with some sort of rest beyond that.

Guys, thanks for you're responses on this little rifle, it is the second most accurate sporter rifle I've ever owned, the most accurate was a custom 6BR that could put Berger 69s into .250 at 200 yards.
Wayne

[82nd airborne]

82nd,
I kinda would want to have the action face trued and the lugs lapped, but that means if I want to put my old .223 barrel on then the head space would be short on it. I'm getting .5 groups now and the occasional .3 and would hate to fool with it. What is the shank dia. and thread pitch? What do think about the recoil lug? Had an Anschutlz 54 that was just like that, sure works for them. I still think I'll bed the action.

NVScouter,
I have a Nikon buckmaster scope with mil-dots and the way the load worked out is, one inch high at 100, one inch low at 200, top mil dot center at 300, top edge of second mil dot at 400.
I don't have any business shootin off-hand beyond 200 at game, so I'll hafta come up with some sort of rest beyond that.

Guys, thanks for you're responses on this little rifle, it is the second most accurate sporter rifle I've ever owned, the most accurate was a custom 6BR that could put Berger 69s into .250 at 200 yards.
Wayne

You can always get another one! Just be sure to dodge the wife when you bring it in!
I dont know the numbers off the top of my head, but tikkas are usually pretty true from the factory, so if you still wanted to use the .223 barrel you could leave the action and barrel face as is, or have it rereamed to headspace.

[gee-gaw]

Or cut off one thread and Ackley Improve it! Now that's a thought.
Wayne

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have one (R/H) with wood stock, 1 in 8 twist.Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet rifle! Toying with getting a camo 270 SS.

[gee-gaw]

Hey FFOD,
The wood stock would make it a bit heavier, but I'd take the weight over the hollow sounding plastic stock. And they look nice to. Do you shoot heavy boolits or do you shoot light boolits? What kind of velocity are you getting? Accuracy? Have you did any thing to the bedding? Adjust the trigger?
Wayne

[Four Fingers of Death]

Hey FFOD,
The wood stock would make it a bit heavier, but I'd take the weight over the hollow sounding plastic stock. And they look nice to. Do you shoot heavy boolits or do you shoot light boolits? What kind of velocity are you getting? Accuracy? Have you did any thing to the bedding? Adjust the trigger?
Wayne

You can fill the stock with that expanding spray foam that sets hard. We do that here in Australia as the dry brush makes a lot of noise on the stock. I was talking to a friend about it and I said I had an old pair of jeans that were very soft and I was thinking of glueing material to the stock to quieten it even further. He said that was a good idea and went home and cut up a pair of his teeneger's jeans that had the knees torn! He said it worked a treat, but her and her mum were really p'd off because they had only bought them a day or two previously and paid big money to get them softened, worn and strategically torn! Boy was he in trouble! Lol.

[gee-gaw]

Took this rifle to west Texas during the first week in February, one shot, one kill on a 60 plus pound Javalina at 130 yards. Hornady 60 grain V-Max at 3200 FPS dropped him in his tracks, and did as much damage as my buddies 450 Bushmaster with 250s at 2200 FPS. Man, that sand down there gets into everything!!! Didn't use it to hunt coyotes or bobcats, use the AR for that.
Wayne

[gee-gaw]

Hey Guys,
Thought I'd revisit. I love this little rifle but it is kinda plain-jane, so I decided to Ackley improve it. My buddy Brad ( of Long Range Precision ) and I had talked about improving the chamber on several occasions. When I happened up-on a set of Reding .223 Ackley Improved 40 dies, I new it had to be done! We had no trouble taking the barrel off, though it did seem to have some sort of thread lock or sealer on the barrel threads. We decided to just run the reamer in with out setting the barrel back, no problem since I shoot my reloads and could set the dies up to any reasonable head-space I needed. Up on chucking the barrel in the lathe, we discovered there was about .013 run-out in the existing bore / chamber. That was a little disappointing, but what the hey, it's a factory barrel and chamber. That's why we need precision gun builders... so we can squeeze all the accuracy that can be had from any given barrel, action, stock configuration. We used a floating reamer holder and reamed the chamber just deep enough to clean-up the existing shoulder. Next problem, the factory chamber was slightly larger than the one a custom reamer would make. This left me with a slight transition line ( for lack of a better word ) in the chamber. So we took a small piece of wood dowel and polished the transition till there were no more evidence that there ever was one there. Then we applied some anti-seize, and started to thread the barrel back into the action. Final problem, that barrel and action were both made of stainless steel and before we could get them screwed all the way together, they would gall. The anti-seize, though claiming it would keep this from happening, made no difference at all. Not till after chucking the barrel back in the lathe and cleaning the threads up were we able to put it back together with-out galling. I have only fire-formed about 40 pieces of brass thus-far, but will do some accuracy testing in the near future. I don't expect much in the way of velocity gains, I do expect the brass to last longer with-out having to trim. Hopefully my next post will be singing the praises of the new Ackley improved .223!
Wayne

[Four Fingers of Death]

Sounds promising gee-gaw.

In answer to your previous question, I so far have only shot 55Gns as I am shooting off older reloads from a previous rifle, basically fireforming the brass for future use. I will probably try some heavy bullets (it will stabilise 80gn bullets with the tight twist, but they don't seem to make 80Gn hunting bullets. I will probably end up using cartridges loaded with 70 something grain high quality hunting bullets in the magazine and a 55Gn load on the launching ramp. See little shoot with 55Gn loads, see big, eject 55Gn load and shoot with premium loads. Thats the theory anyway.

[gee-gaw]

I've herd good things about the Sierra 65 GR .224 Gamekings. But those would be for deer sized ( read 180LBs or less ) game. Then , as usual, the shot placement will be very critical with so small a projectile.
Good luck in your ventures!
Wayne

[Four Fingers of Death]

I've herd good things about the Sierra 65 GR .224 Gamekings. But those would be for deer sized ( read 180LBs or less ) game. Then , as usual, the shot placement will be very critical with so small a projectile.
Good luck in your ventures!
Wayne

Thats one of the bullets I was thinking of trying. I think the 1 in 8 twist barrel will be a bit hard on boolits. I will use my old 222 Remington 788 and the Savage 20Ga/222 combo for boolits!

[gee-gaw]

I've herd the same thing, I probably won't try them in the Tikka
Wayne