Tikka t3 lite good bad and the ulgy

One of the guys I hunt with has a 7mm tikka ss hunter .I think that's the model. It does have some plastic on the rear of the bolt I think but a replacement metal piece can be bought. Accurate it surely is with a very nice trigger. It would be a #1 choice for me today but in a light stainless 6.5x55 today IF I could justify a new rifle. .

The good

There is a plastic bolt shroud. If it breaks who cares, you can buy a metal one if you like, or live without it. I've had a couple and my brother currently has 3. Very accurate rifles and the lightest rifle you will buy for under $1,000. Maybe the most accurate under $1,000. A Kimber is about a pound lighter, but much more expensive. Great triggers and a smooth action. One of the best factory synthetic stocks.

The bad.

Magazines are only 3+1 in most calibers. Magazines are more expensive than they should be and they used to be hard to find. That may be improving. Some people find they are too light, especially in harder kicking calibers. Anything 30-06 and under is tolerable. I'd strongly suggest a Limbsaver pad. The supplied scope mounts work just fine if you replace the screws. Mine were soft and allowed the hex wrench to slip. It cost me less than $3 at a hardware store to buy better screws and all was well.

The ugly.

Well they're ugly. Or at least very non-traditional looking. I really respected the ones I had and would have no problems recommending them to anyone. I had other more traditional looking rifles that I just liked better and mine became expendable. Not because I didn't like them. Just not room to keep everything and something had to go.

for $350, i would pulled the trigger too. what caliber, and what are your plans for it?

They are supposed to be very accurate! I'm using the action for a custom build because my gunsmith told me they are better than the Rem 700s being produced today. For $350 it should like an incredible buy!

I had bad experiences with a new 270WSM T3 Lite I purchased. Long story short the dealer took it back and my money was refunded. I wouldn't take another one if they gave me $350.

dubbleA, what were the issues with the 270wsm you had? any trips to the factory for service? i've always read pretty good reviews of them, expecially regarding their accuracy.

Hello there!
Welcome to the Finnish club!
Once you have carried a Tikka around all day, you will be hard pressed to find another rifle you want to lug around.
I have a Tikka T3 lite (blued synthetic) in .204 Ruger that has quickly become my go to coyote/varmint rifle.
The rifle holds 3 rounds(5 rounders are available for about 80 bucks Canadian) so I shoot three round groups at the range.
Using ANY factory ammo I have tried(32 gr v maxes, 39gr Blitz Kings, 40 gr Hornady soft points) the rifle shoots under an inch every time I do my part.
It points very nicely, is light as a feather, and is damn accurate to boot.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of spring ejectors, and I wish I could top load the magazine(you can top load single rounds and push them into battery, but not charge the magazine). The two position safety is a little less versatile than its older brother Sako's three position, but it is positive and solid.
If I have any complaints, it's about a problem I actually caused myself.
In a momentary lapse of brain function, I left my rifle in a damp hard case.
By the time I realized my folly, the factory bluing had succumbed to a fair bit of surface rust.
This was not the rifles fault, but I still feel that the factory matte bluing is a little lacking in the protection department. I own a couple old "polished" and deeply blued rifles that seem to shrug off water moisture nearly as easily as easily as stainless.
That said, my rifle was under 700 bucks and shoots out the lights.
A couple rattle cans later, my a Tikka was back in action and looking as good as ever.
All told, the only rifle that beats it in my gun safe is a Sako that cost nearly 2000 dollars.
Pretty tough to beat.
Lemme know how you like it once you've had a chance to shoot it.

Yes, well worth $350.

back40 said:

dubbleA, what were the issues with the 270wsm you had? any trips to the factory for service? i've always read pretty good reviews of them, expecially regarding their accuracy.

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The main issue was the accuracy. I tried 5 different factory loads as well as numerous handloads with 130-140 bullets and the best it would do is 2 1/2"-3" groups a 100yds. I started with the aluminum factory rings and a Zeiss 6.5x20x50 and it didn't do well . Changed to a Swarovski 6x18 and nothing, then went to Warne rings...nothing.

I attribute the shotgun patterning to the unconventional recoil lug design. Mine would fall out of the milled slot because its sloppy.



Lots of plastic too, one size action for everything, found several areas that were rusting and it's stainless, the hard butt pad has a lot to be desired etc etc.

I gave the tikka a shot as a hunting rifle and it failed.
The one thing I did like is that it had a decent trigger.

dubbleA, thanks fo rthe info. glad you were able to get a refund from your dealer.

horsemen61, I have the T3 Hunter Stainless in .308. I would suggest buying one of the aftermarket bolt shrouds straight up and not wait for yours to fail. It will fail. Mine started warping and wearing before i'd even put 200 rounds through it and I was very careful with the rifle. I am yet to have problems with the recoil lug but know that it's on the cards. Even though it is stainless treat it like one of your steel guns, stainless isn't perfect.

I got a limbsaver recoil pad (part # 10011) for working on my handloads and it was absolutely incredible for the recoil. I have since switched back to the factory pad because I wear a chest rig while hunting and that made the eye relief too far with that pad. The stock pad is fine for this purpose. I run a leopold VX1 3-9x40 with Warne Tikka T3 specific rings I have put other people on to these rings as they were having problems with other brands and the Warne rings fixed all their issues.

For handloads, I run Nosler partitions (150gr) and accubonds (125 and 150gr). The partitions are my favourite so far. I run Federal brass, CCI large rifle primers, 41gr of ADI Benchmark2 powder (with 150gr projectile), COAL of 2.810. The projectile is nowhere near the lands, but much larger and you have magazine trouble. I think I started having mag length trouble at around 2.820. For factory ammo, I had a lot of success with 130gr Federal hollow points, which were extremely close to matching the POI of my handloads. I had to bump the shoulders back after approximately 3 firings. My gun was sub-MOA @ 100M out of the box with the ammo mentioned above.



Those were with 39gr of Benchmark2 but it got even better at 41gr.



This has been my experience, I hope you also have some luck with yours.

I have a T3 in .30-'06. Great rifle; no complaints. Other are right about its weight - it is very light and your shoulder notices it. Obviously, that's good for walking around the woods, and not so good if you do a lot of bench shooting. Mine has been extremely accurate, especially for what is supposed to be a hunting rifle.

Several comments about weight and recoil. The 2 I owned were 308 and 30-06. The 30-06 got a limbsaver pad and the 308 would have if I'd kept it longer. Best $35 you'll spend. Will make the 30-06 kick like a 243.

I've owned five Tikka T3's, and every one of them was boringly accurate, crisp, light, and sublime. I still own two, and am looking for at least one more.

Mine has trouble keeping all the bullets from going into the same hole.

The only bad I can think of is that there's not much in the way of aftermarket accessories, the plastic magazines cost too much, and you can't load them while they're in the rifle.

If I didn't have money in it I would run mine thru the grinder at the junk yard and mail it back to Tikka.

Care to explain dinosaur

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His is the exception, not the rule........

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=721873

I noticed a reluctance to discuss whether you actually did send your T3 back to Tikka Dinosauur1. Did you ever do that? They don't all work perfectly right out of the box. I've bought used guns cheap and sent them back to the factory (on the factory's dime) and had them fixed for free. I came out with a great bargain on a great gun. I did that with my current carry piece, a SA XDm .40. It wouldn't feed or group but the people at SA assured me they would make it right and they did. I could have taken it back. i don't buy used without a trial period. But I knew SA was likely to fix me up and they did. I'd say Tikka would do that on your rifle if you gave them a chance. Maybe you did but I haven't seen any posts from you saying that you tried that.

Almost everyone I've ever seen write about their Tikka loved it. But nothing is perfect. Still you could give them a chance to fix it instead of grinding it up and sending it back.

My T3 has been the best rifle I have ever owned. I can literally drive tacks with it at 100 yds and flatten deer at whatever range I can see them, at 6.25lbs the T3 is a joy to carry in the field, I don't think I would want a lighter rifle in any real hunting caliber. Simply put it is the smoothest action in the business, not even my Rem 700s are as smooth, I have to look to see if it is cambering a round if I have my hearing protection on. The trigger is perfect by my standards, breaks clean as frozen glass at 2-4lbs. Field accuracy is exceptional, I have not only never missed but I have never been off my point of aim more then 2" on game. NOTE some people shoot better with creepy triggers as Field and Stream showed in their recent test, but I am used to crisp triggers and I feel I shoot better with them. If Tikka built a CRF action around 7.5-8lbs with a beefier recoil lug, a quality recoil pad, and a 24" tube it would be "perfect" rifle by my standards. That said the T3 is as good as any I have ever shot and I have shot A LOT of rifles.