Doc7
Member
Man, do I love my Tikka T3. I bought it in February (I believe that T3X was already on the market, may have been for some time, but price was right on the Lite Stainless 7mm-08 in the original T3). I have only shot it a few times; back in February, when I bought it, I also bought a Leupold VX-3i 2.5-8 scope, so I simultaneously bought my nicest rifle and scope at the same time. It wasn't the Model 70 I always pine for - either in the Extreme Weather or Featherweight model - but it was love at first shot. Back then I shot it off a Caldwell sled and for the first time in my life I shot 6 consecutive 3-shot groups under 1". Wow! That is with Federal PowerShok 150 grain Speer Hotcor hunting loads.
I started shooting again recently to sight in for hunting season - first my 10 year old nephew shot a 1" 3 shot group off the sled, only his second time firing center fire cartridges!
I shot it yesterday between shots with my muzzleloader and sighted it in so quickly to be 2" high at 100 yards. I only have a 130 yard shot at my main ground blind food plot location, but you never know when I will hit a different spot or get invited to hunt coyotes or deer in big ag field area, so having a center-hold up to 250 yards could end being beneficial any time.
Meanwhile, my muzzleloader gave me nothing but problems. I believe it's probably because I tightened Scope rings to 30 in-lbs (per the DNZ Game Reaper instructions) and Vortex says not to exceed 18 in lbs, and that causes problems with tracking and holding zero. I bought the scope used 3 years ago and have never any single time said I felt confident in it on any of the several rifles it's been on, so I sent it back to them for inspection just for peace of mind. I ought to get it back in plenty of time to sight in, IF I can get it to shoot straight. The last two years, with different scopes, this muzzleloader was sighted in less than 5 shots with sub-MOA grouping so I have got to trust the rifle in this case. Yesterday I shot and cleaned the thing over 20 times (several hours) and at the end I was farther from where I wanted to be than I was when I started! I got home and mailed the scope to Vortex immediately for peace of mind.
When I was packing up, I pulled the Tikka back out of the truck and fire it one last time. 2" centered above bullseye for my final shot of the day. A frustrating range day that I drove away from with a smile on my face.
Yeah it is a cost cutting gun as Chuck Hawk's famously discussed. The stock-embedded recoil lug is weird and aluminum. The stock is plastic. It has a plastic bolt shroud and bottom metal (actually going to upgrade this). It has a hard butt pad (going to replace this too actually - even in 7mm-08 it kind of walloped me yesterday). But I will trade any of that for a gun that shoots this consistently! I truly love shooting this rifle, much like my Marlin 22 I know a miss is my fault and not the gun.
I started shooting again recently to sight in for hunting season - first my 10 year old nephew shot a 1" 3 shot group off the sled, only his second time firing center fire cartridges!
I shot it yesterday between shots with my muzzleloader and sighted it in so quickly to be 2" high at 100 yards. I only have a 130 yard shot at my main ground blind food plot location, but you never know when I will hit a different spot or get invited to hunt coyotes or deer in big ag field area, so having a center-hold up to 250 yards could end being beneficial any time.
Meanwhile, my muzzleloader gave me nothing but problems. I believe it's probably because I tightened Scope rings to 30 in-lbs (per the DNZ Game Reaper instructions) and Vortex says not to exceed 18 in lbs, and that causes problems with tracking and holding zero. I bought the scope used 3 years ago and have never any single time said I felt confident in it on any of the several rifles it's been on, so I sent it back to them for inspection just for peace of mind. I ought to get it back in plenty of time to sight in, IF I can get it to shoot straight. The last two years, with different scopes, this muzzleloader was sighted in less than 5 shots with sub-MOA grouping so I have got to trust the rifle in this case. Yesterday I shot and cleaned the thing over 20 times (several hours) and at the end I was farther from where I wanted to be than I was when I started! I got home and mailed the scope to Vortex immediately for peace of mind.
When I was packing up, I pulled the Tikka back out of the truck and fire it one last time. 2" centered above bullseye for my final shot of the day. A frustrating range day that I drove away from with a smile on my face.
Yeah it is a cost cutting gun as Chuck Hawk's famously discussed. The stock-embedded recoil lug is weird and aluminum. The stock is plastic. It has a plastic bolt shroud and bottom metal (actually going to upgrade this). It has a hard butt pad (going to replace this too actually - even in 7mm-08 it kind of walloped me yesterday). But I will trade any of that for a gun that shoots this consistently! I truly love shooting this rifle, much like my Marlin 22 I know a miss is my fault and not the gun.
