Tika T3

[Roger]

Finally got out this afternoon and shot my new 243 Tikka T3. Wow what a sweet gun. After getting it sighted in was shooting, no lie, 1/2" groups. Topped it off with a Leupold 50mm scope. Great combination and what a difference over my old Model 70 carbine 243.

[Wenatcheejay]

 

7mm-08 and a 30-06 here, no complaints. Sounds like you have a real shooter, congrads

[palousemoose]

I bought a Tika T3 with a leupold VX 3 4.5-14x40 scope and there is no complaints from me.  Tight as can be...just the way it should be 

[birdwacker]

I have one in 338 federal and wouldn't mind adding a few more to my collection they all seem to shoot really well.

[BOWHUNTER45]

 25-06 Here and no complaints ...... your love it ...plus the .243 is bitter sweet !!!

[sebek556]

just got traded one today in a 300 short mag cant wait to try it out

[Biggerhammer]

I'm thinking of picking one up in a .300 WSM, several friends have them and they shoot very well. It's just hard for me to break my Rem700 addiction.

[Huntbear]

just got traded one today in a 300 short mag cant wait to try it out

Dang, that is the one I have been looking at.     

[sebek556]

have not made it out the range with the 300 wsm yet went fishing today instead with the kido's plan on a range day sometime this week have 3 new (1 new 2 new to me) rifles to check out the 300 wsm, then a 264 and a win model 100 308 ( hope this one works for the kido's for deer this year.)

[h2ofowlr]

I have one in .270 & .22-250 and love them both.

[RadSav]

I know the old Tikka shotguns wore out barrels really fast.  Any of you Tikka guys put a good number of rounds into the new rifles?  Sounds like they have improved greatly, but I have yet to talk to anyone who has put one through some abuse.  I'm going to tip my WY guide a new varmint rifle and want to make sure if I go Tikka he won't be disappointed in a few years and put me in a crappy blind.

[sticky]

I want one!  I just can't decide on what caliber...06, 270, 270 wsm, 300 wsm.  I need to win lotto.

Sent from my SCH-R880 using Tapatalk

[sebek556]

spent yesterday at the range and the tika did not kick anywhere near what i expected. I did put a limbsave recoil pad on it after watching people get rocked by the 300 wsm on the net. did first shot standing to get a idea of teh full on force and I think the savage 30-06 i have kicks worse.  Happy to report with winchester accubond 165 grain the rifle is holding 1/2 inch groups at 100yards. cant wait to do some home loads for it and see if cant get it down more(also that $55 a box is a bit spendy).  , the 264(pre 1964) I think I will trade off for a rifle for the boy(9yr old so it's too much for him) mainly cause I have a few rifles too simliar to it so it doesn't have a purpose. and the 308 model 100 semi, works great for the girl(with a limbsaver recoil pad on it as well kicked more than I expected it to) .

[TopOfTheFoodChain]

Bought one in .308 from a member last year. Shooting all hand loads. My 12 year old daughter shot a 1/2" group at 200 yards with it last year   Didn't get a shot at any mule deer but she had a Toutle doe tag and dropped one pretty easily. I love the gun. My daughter is very small and yet had no problem with the kick. Shooting 150 grain Nosler/Winchester CT partition, don't remember the powder without looking but muzzle velocity was just over 2,500 fps.

[TikkaT3-270Shortmag]

I'm a fan as u can see by my name lol. Sweet guns!!

[carpsniperg2]

biest

[thurman]

I just bought a .270 Tikka T3 stainless yesterday and a 3x9x50 Redfield scope with the accu range reticle. Cant wait to go shoot it. Just need to figure what bullets im gonna use.

[sticky]

Gnu guns give me a chubby. 

[BOWHUNTER45]

I just bought a .270 Tikka T3 stainless yesterday and a 3x9x50 Redfield scope with the accu range reticle. Cant wait to go shoot it. Just need to figure what bullets im gonna use.

  Whatever you buy ...go with 140 gr .....    If you are buying factory ammo try FUSION .. awesome groups and up end sheet !!

[3nails]

 My son with his first bear shot w/my T3 300 wsm. After the shot I asked my 85lb 12 yr old how the kick was and he flat out said "it didn't".  My favorite gun and I too am trying to come up with a reason to get another one. Sweet gun. The most accurate bullet I have found for it is the Barnes tsx in 180 gr.

[Elk4me]

I have had my Tikka T3 30-06 nearly five years. I took it to Montana the first year and shot four deer. The longest shot was 270 yds. I have taken two spike elk with it the last two seasons. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
In answer to RadSav's question on the barrels, they are the same barrels that Sako uses. The Tikka's are made in Finland in the same factory as Sako, just a gun designed for the low end market like most of us poor folks.

[hirshey]

EyeGuard had a Tikka T3 Lite SS 270 for about 3 years... it was a tack driver. The only negative thing I have to say about it... is if you put a lot of rounds through it (he target shot a ton and also used it for coyotes and deer) you have the chance of wearing out the barrels, which are pretty expensive to replace. He cleaned his gun religiously. One day he shot and didn't hit the paper... different brands of bullets were left, right, up, down... everywhere. We looked at a replacement Sako barrel and if he sold his gun for parts we determined he could get a new one for the price it would cost to fix it plus scrapping the gun. He contacted Sako about the gun roughly 10 times over the course of 3 months with no response, so we ended up scrapping it and getting a Sako A7 ST 270 (I upgraded him for his Christmas present). The one nice thing about upgrading to a Sako: they have a better customer service program for their "upper level" guns... if you have a question they have an answer within the business day. He's shooting 3/4 inch groups at 500 yards behind our house right now with his hand loads and A7.... but was putting 3 shots in the same hole at 100 yards with the Tikka. (never tried out to 500). Seeing as it is the same barrel, they certainly shoot comprably. Like I said, the only difference is the name to back your product when and if you ever need help. If you don't plan on putting that many rounds through it, I suppose you'll never had that issue though. Either way, he loved that gun.

[spookgus]

Sebek556

Before you trade your pre-64 .264WM, you might want to have someone who knows these guns take a look at it. If it is the M70 Westerner it might be worth more than you think.

[sebek556]

thanks for the tip, I was planning on taking it to my dad's friend this weekend to look at he is a huge 264 fan and has a few books on them. 

[saylean]

3nails...give your boy a pat on the back for me! Thats a nice bear and you can tell by the smile he thinks so too! 

Gots a .300 wsm tikka as well a few years back. I call it the mule. So far, anything shot with that gun has died. Its allowed me 3 bears and two deer (and one coyote... ).

Hope to add another bear to the gun this coming week or so!
Grats on the gun. I hope you like it!

[addicted]

EyeGuard had a Tikka T3 Lite SS 270 for about 3 years... it was a tack driver. The only negative thing I have to say about it... is if you put a lot of rounds through it (he target shot a ton and also used it for coyotes and deer) you have the chance of wearing out the barrels, which are pretty expensive to replace. He cleaned his gun religiously. One day he shot and didn't hit the paper... different brands of bullets were left, right, up, down... everywhere. We looked at a replacement Sako barrel and if he sold his gun for parts we determined he could get a new one for the price it would cost to fix it plus scrapping the gun. He contacted Sako about the gun roughly 10 times over the course of 3 months with no response, so we ended up scrapping it and getting a Sako A7 ST 270 (I upgraded him for his Christmas present). The one nice thing about upgrading to a Sako: they have a better customer service program for their "upper level" guns... if you have a question they have an answer within the business day. He's shooting 3/4 inch groups at 500 yards behind our house right now with his hand loads and A7.... but was putting 3 shots in the same hole at 100 yards with the Tikka. (never tried out to 500). Seeing as it is the same barrel, they certainly shoot comprably. Like I said, the only difference is the name to back your product when and if you ever need help. If you don't plan on putting that many rounds through it, I suppose you'll never had that issue though. Either way, he loved that gun.

About how many rounds a year do you think he was putting through it hirshey? dewey rod i'm assuming?

[hirshey]

EyeGuard had a Tikka T3 Lite SS 270 for about 3 years... it was a tack driver. The only negative thing I have to say about it... is if you put a lot of rounds through it (he target shot a ton and also used it for coyotes and deer) you have the chance of wearing out the barrels, which are pretty expensive to replace. He cleaned his gun religiously. One day he shot and didn't hit the paper... different brands of bullets were left, right, up, down... everywhere. We looked at a replacement Sako barrel and if he sold his gun for parts we determined he could get a new one for the price it would cost to fix it plus scrapping the gun. He contacted Sako about the gun roughly 10 times over the course of 3 months with no response, so we ended up scrapping it and getting a Sako A7 ST 270 (I upgraded him for his Christmas present). The one nice thing about upgrading to a Sako: they have a better customer service program for their "upper level" guns... if you have a question they have an answer within the business day. He's shooting 3/4 inch groups at 500 yards behind our house right now with his hand loads and A7.... but was putting 3 shots in the same hole at 100 yards with the Tikka. (never tried out to 500). Seeing as it is the same barrel, they certainly shoot comprably. Like I said, the only difference is the name to back your product when and if you ever need help. If you don't plan on putting that many rounds through it, I suppose you'll never had that issue though. Either way, he loved that gun.

About how many rounds a year do you think he was putting through it hirshey? dewey rod i'm assuming?

If you averaged it out annually over his busy season and slow season, he probably went shooting once every other week (not including hunting... this thing took a few great bucks and more than a few coyotes) and shot around 10 rounds per trip... That's 20 rounds per month, at 240 a year for the 3 years he had the gun, so we're talking roughly 720 rounds through it at the range, and counting missed animals, probably 100 shots in the field. That's less than 1000 rounds through a religiously cleaned rifle and it lost all accuracy. (different loads would group roughly 2 inches at 100 yards, but like I said FEET offcenter, right, left, up, down depending on the load). We also tried 3 different scopes on it just in case it was the scope... He never really heated the barrel up... we were both just scratching our heads trying to figure out what happened. In any case, he loved it while he had it... but it didn't last nearly as long as one might hope.

[Bofire]

I have several Tikkas with well over 1000 rounds thru them. no problems. 300WM, 300wsm and 308, 270, 30/06, 223, 22-250, 243. the 223, 243 and 22-250 are close to 5,000 rounds each, the 223 10,000. my BS meter is twitching.

Carl

[FALFire]

I have several Tikkas with well over 1000 rounds thru them. no problems. 300WM, 300wsm and 308, 270, 30/06, 223, 22-250, 243. the 223, 243 and 22-250 are close to 5,000 rounds each, the 223 10,000. my BS meter is twitching.

Carl

Copper fouling, definitely not a shot out barrel. Ya simply can't shoot the barrel out of a 270 in under a 1000 rounds, even if it was a machine gun.

[BOWHUNTER45]

My son with his first bear shot w/my T3 300 wsm. After the shot I asked my 85lb 12 yr old how the kick was and he flat out said "it didn't".  My favorite gun and I too am trying to come up with a reason to get another one. Sweet gun. The most accurate bullet I have found for it is the Barnes tsx in 180 gr.

Dang nails ...does the kid look like pop..?  :dunno:nice bear congrads. to little nails  I have a 300 WSM killed one bear with it when I first bought it but I keep going back to my .270 ...I used 180 gr. hornaday out of my 300 wsm and it spanked him hard 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Yeah I know a couple guys who shoot all the time who own TK3'S and they call BS on the barrel problem as well ... Never heard anyone mention maybe it was the scope ? I do work on guns too ...free floating and what have ya ...I also had guys tell me the same thing about the barrels being shot out and found out it was the scope .. But i have wore out a barrel on my rem 700 .243 but your talking over 35 yrs of serious shooting ... like a 100 rounds a week when I was a kid shooting groundhogs in P.A  Thats why I started reloading at the age of 12 with my dads supervision .. because he got tired of loading 100 's of rounds for me and my buddies who all 3 of use owned .243's...yeah that was the good ol days .....

[hirshey]

I have several Tikkas with well over 1000 rounds thru them. no problems. 300WM, 300wsm and 308, 270, 30/06, 223, 22-250, 243. the 223, 243 and 22-250 are close to 5,000 rounds each, the 223 10,000. my BS meter is twitching.

Carl

That's fine, I'm just telling you my experience. Religious cleaner, 3 scopes and under 1000 shots and each round would group but not on target. You could shoot same grain different brand and they would be feet apart. Had a gunsmith look at it and he said the barrel needed replacing.

[hirshey]

Yeah I know a couple guys who shoot all the time who own TK3'S and they call BS on the barrel problem as well ... Never heard anyone mention maybe it was the scope ? I do work on guns too ...free floating and what have ya ...I also had guys tell me the same thing about the barrels being shot out and found out it was the scope .. But i have wore out a barrel on my rem 700 .243 but your talking over 35 yrs of serious shooting ... like a 100 rounds a week when I was a kid shooting groundhogs in P.A  Thats why I started reloading at the age of 12 with my dads supervision .. because he got tired of loading 100 's of rounds for me and my buddies who all 3 of use owned .243's...yeah that was the good ol days .....

It wasn't the scope... we tried a Bushnell, his leupold, and a brand new out of the box Nikon Pro Staff. We had two different people look at it.. one gunsmith and one guy that makes precision parts for guns with several patents on aftermarket parts and both said it was toast. We sold it on gunbroker advertised with the issue at hand and the guy that bought it used it for parts because he also couldn't get it to shoot with any sort of accuracy. I have no idea what happened, but the gun was donezo and Sako wasn't concerned with our problem... after weeks of not receiving any response and looking for replacement barrels we decided to cut our losses so he could get back to shooting. His A7 is equally a tack-driver and response time from Sako with any questions is much expedited. Just one person's experience.

[hirshey]

But in general, this got way off topic of the main point I was trying to make... which is the lag time or lack or response in total from Beretta (Sako's US supplier)  for Tikka products and the ridiculous expense of replacement parts unless you're fortunate enough to know a distributer. IF you are lucky enough to even find a new stock barrel for this gun (apparantly they are infrequently imported), they were going for between $600 and $500 before shipping... I don't know about you guys but I paid $570 for a new Tikka T3 Stainless Synthetic .270 delivered to my door on gunbroker... therefore $500+ dollars did not sound like a steal for a new barrel. Here's a list of just some of the part's prices from one of the main distributors... the bolt alone is almost half the cost of a new rifle: http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=0/sid=907/schematicsdetail/Tikka_T3

His model of gun was purchased new, but was manufactured in 2005 which was supposedly after the 2004 recall:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156955


In any case, he obviously still has faith in the barrel and products made by Sako, because he went out and purchased an A7... same barrel. I was just trying to highlight a few of the potential hazards with this rifle... cost of replacement and poor customer service... the mode of damage to the barrel was not supposed to be the highlight.

[Miles]

How many times did he clean the rifle in under 1,000 rounds?  You seem to mention his "religious cleaning" very frequently and it has me wondering if something else might be the problem...

[hirshey]

How many times did he clean the rifle in under 1,000 rounds?  You seem to mention his "religious cleaning" very frequently and it has me wondering if something else might be the problem...

Again, this was not my main point so I'm not going to beat a dead horse here... but he cleaned his rifle almost after every visit to the range... he was performing ladder tests, etc so to keep all the variables as close to the same as possible he cleaned it... I make a point of saying he did so only because I had a friend recently ruin thier barrel because they had never cleaned it. 

[BOWHUNTER45]

I have several Tikkas with well over 1000 rounds thru them. no problems. 300WM, 300wsm and 308, 270, 30/06, 223, 22-250, 243. the 223, 243 and 22-250 are close to 5,000 rounds each, the 223 10,000. my BS meter is twitching.

Carl

That's fine, I'm just telling you my experience. Religious cleaner, 3 scopes and under 1000 shots and each round would group but not on target. You could shoot same grain different brand and they would be feet apart. Had a gunsmith look at it and he said the barrel needed replacing.

Hirshey ...not picking on you but you said QUOTE - (each bullet would group but not on target ) If the bullets are grouping but not hitting the bullseye then the barrel is fine ....I am confused 

[BOWHUNTER45]

On a better note glad ya got rid of it ...plus you made a good choice getting the TK3 in a .270 ...hope ya get something big this season 

[grizzlyadams]

Finally got out this afternoon and shot my new 243 Tikka T3. Wow what a sweet gun. After getting it sighted in was shooting, no lie, 1/2" groups. Topped it off with a Leupold 50mm scope. Great combination and what a difference over my old Model 70 carbine 243.

I hear ya Roger. I have a T3 Lite in 300 win mag. Enviromentslists should love them. Mine is a paper saver! I punch through with the first round and each round after that hits the same hole, even without cooling. Can't see ever needing a different hunting rifle.

[Wea300mag]

Does anyone else think the butt of the T3 synthetic is a little noisy when bumped or rubbed against a bush or limb? I have a .243 and a 7mm and love the guns but they could have filled the hollow butt with some light weight foam or something.

[hirshey]

I have several Tikkas with well over 1000 rounds thru them. no problems. 300WM, 300wsm and 308, 270, 30/06, 223, 22-250, 243. the 223, 243 and 22-250 are close to 5,000 rounds each, the 223 10,000. my BS meter is twitching.

Carl

That's fine, I'm just telling you my experience. Religious cleaner, 3 scopes and under 1000 shots and each round would group but not on target. You could shoot same grain different brand and they would be feet apart. Had a gunsmith look at it and he said the barrel needed replacing.

Hirshey ...not picking on you but you said QUOTE - (each bullet would group but not on target ) If the bullets are grouping but not hitting the bullseye then the barrel is fine ....I am confused 

Different brands would group, but right, left, up, down feet apart from other brands of bullets. Like I said, no idea what happened but perhaps there was a chip/imperfection that occured in the lands which affected the bullet's flight. In any case, it was a good learning experience trying to problem-solve this issue.. I learned a lot about Sako and even more about the process of trying to fix a rifle; I've shot one of my father's guns, an old Remington .270, since I was 7 with never any issues so I certainly had a crash-course in troubleshooting.

[hirshey]

Does anyone else think the butt of the T3 synthetic is a little noisy when bumped or rubbed against a bush or limb? I have a .243 and a 7mm and love the guns but they could have filled the hollow butt with some light weight foam or something.

I noticed that with EyeGuard's rifle also... I wish they would make the soft touch stock an option like the Finnlight and A7.

[FALFire]

Does anyone else think the butt of the T3 synthetic is a little noisy when bumped or rubbed against a bush or limb? I have a .243 and a 7mm and love the guns but they could have filled the hollow butt with some light weight foam or something.

I noticed that with EyeGuard's rifle also... I wish they would make the soft touch stock an option like the Finnlight and A7.

It might help to cover part of the stock using horse wrap from any tack supply shop, ie: Dells Farm Supply. It goes on and comes off with ease and will prevent the noise from branches and such. I use it all the time on my AR's and bolt guns it's great stuff, super cheap and gives a great feeling grip.

[nontypical176]

Only thing I don't like about my Tika T3 300WSM is the noise.  The stock as mentioned above and the darned clip rattles with bullets in it.  Bought an extra clip...same thing.

[BuckHunter23]

I bought the 270 T3 Lite in stainless a few years back.  Striaght out of the box was shooting less than 1" groups.  I had never hunted before this, so needless to say, I was extremely impressed with the rifle.  Most likely my next rifles will be Tika as well.