Leaky Waders
Member
Hi,
So a week or two ago I got the spousal approval for another reloading/shooting project and purchased a Tikka T3 Varmint Rifle in 22-250. The selection of 22-250's within our area was limited...and I had narrowed the final two to a thumbholed stainless Savage (that looks really sweet) and the tonka toy Tikka.
At the time, another customer was talking to me about his Tikka's and how he was very satisfied with his...so after a little metal debate...I chose a blued plastic stocked rifle over the nice stainless wood laminate Savage. (I still cannot believe I did it...)
In the interim I purchased a VX-II 3x9 x 40 leupold with a dot reticle and used the 22-like tip off rings that came with the rifle to mount it.
Today, my brother and law were at the range looking down the breech end of the barrel, bore sighting on the 50 yard line. A few minutes later the shooting began.
It only took a few rounds to get decent groups on the 50 yard target. Then we started on the 100 yard target and readjusted the scope again. Next, we went to 200 yards.
We were shooting winchester white box 22-250 45 gr. jhp varmint 4000 fps value packs and later some winchester 55 gr pointed soft points.
Our final groups at the 200 yard mark were amazing to me. My brother in law shot a dime sized 3 shot group (he's a better shot than me...) and I shot a quarter sized group (a nickel would almost cover the group, but not quite). Of course we were using the attached harris bipod and sandbags at the range, but still I thought this was very good shooting. Our target was a life sized paper prairie dog target that would definately be outlined in chalk on some praire dog law and order video if he were alive at the start.
The range master took interest in our shooting and commented that the Tikka was a good purchase and he shot one at really long ranges in 308 at clays. (The clays were his stationary reaction target...not thrown clays...)
So even though I hate the plastic stock, hate the plastic magazines (it came with a 5 round magazine and I purchased a flush mount 3 round one too)...I really like this rifle "warts and all". The trigger is light and crisp and even can be adjusted by the owner. The rifle shoots very well! It has modest recoil and is lighter than the comparable rifles (probably due to all the plastic) despite having a bull barrel. The rounds can be chucked in front of the bolt and push fed singly without difficulty and caught when ejected. The ejected shells in the factory loadings weren't too hot to handle. Or the rifle could be loaded with the factory magazines. A mauser style safety would be nice, the Tikka's is just on and off, but I won't lose any sleep over that. The bull barrel did not heat up significantly with the 60 rounds total that we fired, but we weren't shooting non-stop either, we spent a lot of time at looking at targets and giggling about how good we were.
All in all it's a very fine rifle.
So now I'm wondering...since I have a rifle that can shoot really well, would it improve anymore by adding a scope with a first focal plane reticle and a little more magnification...like 4-12? We were shooting with the scope on 9 and holding good groups. On my other rifles I usually shoot at 4 or 6, rarely at higher powers?
L.W.
So a week or two ago I got the spousal approval for another reloading/shooting project and purchased a Tikka T3 Varmint Rifle in 22-250. The selection of 22-250's within our area was limited...and I had narrowed the final two to a thumbholed stainless Savage (that looks really sweet) and the tonka toy Tikka.
At the time, another customer was talking to me about his Tikka's and how he was very satisfied with his...so after a little metal debate...I chose a blued plastic stocked rifle over the nice stainless wood laminate Savage. (I still cannot believe I did it...)
In the interim I purchased a VX-II 3x9 x 40 leupold with a dot reticle and used the 22-like tip off rings that came with the rifle to mount it.
Today, my brother and law were at the range looking down the breech end of the barrel, bore sighting on the 50 yard line. A few minutes later the shooting began.
It only took a few rounds to get decent groups on the 50 yard target. Then we started on the 100 yard target and readjusted the scope again. Next, we went to 200 yards.
We were shooting winchester white box 22-250 45 gr. jhp varmint 4000 fps value packs and later some winchester 55 gr pointed soft points.
Our final groups at the 200 yard mark were amazing to me. My brother in law shot a dime sized 3 shot group (he's a better shot than me...) and I shot a quarter sized group (a nickel would almost cover the group, but not quite). Of course we were using the attached harris bipod and sandbags at the range, but still I thought this was very good shooting. Our target was a life sized paper prairie dog target that would definately be outlined in chalk on some praire dog law and order video if he were alive at the start.
The range master took interest in our shooting and commented that the Tikka was a good purchase and he shot one at really long ranges in 308 at clays. (The clays were his stationary reaction target...not thrown clays...)
So even though I hate the plastic stock, hate the plastic magazines (it came with a 5 round magazine and I purchased a flush mount 3 round one too)...I really like this rifle "warts and all". The trigger is light and crisp and even can be adjusted by the owner. The rifle shoots very well! It has modest recoil and is lighter than the comparable rifles (probably due to all the plastic) despite having a bull barrel. The rounds can be chucked in front of the bolt and push fed singly without difficulty and caught when ejected. The ejected shells in the factory loadings weren't too hot to handle. Or the rifle could be loaded with the factory magazines. A mauser style safety would be nice, the Tikka's is just on and off, but I won't lose any sleep over that. The bull barrel did not heat up significantly with the 60 rounds total that we fired, but we weren't shooting non-stop either, we spent a lot of time at looking at targets and giggling about how good we were.
All in all it's a very fine rifle.
So now I'm wondering...since I have a rifle that can shoot really well, would it improve anymore by adding a scope with a first focal plane reticle and a little more magnification...like 4-12? We were shooting with the scope on 9 and holding good groups. On my other rifles I usually shoot at 4 or 6, rarely at higher powers?
L.W.
