Woodchuck;
I've got several Tikka's, a coupla T3's among 'em. Good guns, but they do have their weird points. The floating recoil lug is an oddball for sure. If you never take the action outta the gun, you won't care. Unless the rust starts in there of course. Then there's the fact that Sako/Tikka is owned by Berreta nowadays. You can, of course, claim warranty, and in my personal experience they'll claim yer fulla male bovine excreta.
So what happened to the idea of finding a 788? It's pretty much got everything you said you wanted. And, you should have money left over for glass. Tell ya one thing, it's a helluva lot more solid gun than what's being built for the cheapie market these days. And yeah that most assuredly includes the bottom line Marlins, Stevens, and Savages. It does not include Howa and Tikka however.
If you can afford a Leupold, get one. They have the best warranty in the business. They are very good glass for the money, regardless of where in their line you purchase. Nikon also makes a quality product. I've got several of each & no complaints. The only supposedly real good optics company that's consistently been able to do the dirty to me is Burris. Bought four of their products, two scopes. One set of mounts was good, the rest was trash. Including the scope that was sent back for warranty & was returned telling me that all was within spec. Then the reticle fell over. As for sending it in, why bother? Junk is junk, even repaired or replaced junk.
900F
