Top feeding Tikkas

[heeple]

One for the Tikka owners.

I don't know exactly what the part is called so forgive the crappy explanation.

When you feed a round into a Tikka from the magazine the rear of the cartridge slides up the bolt face and under the little catch which holds it in place. The catch pushes in/out of the bolt a bit.

If you just drop a round in the action and close the bolt, not feeding it up from the magazine, the bolt will close and the force of closing it makes the round push the catch back to let it in, rather than sliding up without force beneath it.

Hopefully that makes sense...

Question is, is it ok to drop in rounds like this and close the bolt on them, or is it going to wear out something in the bolt but not feeding them up under the catch from the magazine?

Thanks.

[Chronos]

Yes. The catch you refer to is the extractor. Unlike Mauser type actions which are control feed the Tikja action is push feed meaning the bolt simply pushes the round forward into the chamber then closes behind it.

With the T3 auctioned tikka's you can just throw a round in the port and close the bolt. The only exception may be the .223 and .204 rifles where the round may sit too low for the chamber and won't push forward. Here you'll need to use your finger to push the rear of the case down to lift the billet top into the chamber. There are after market single loading blocks which help these small rounds feed better

Chronos

[RealNick]

You might get a few rubs marks on the extractor but the brass isn't going to wear it away or anything.

[Brute]

Yep, no worries.

A lot of guys have to hand feed their Tikkas on the bench because the perfect COAL is too long to fit in the Tikka magazines.

A couple of the guys I know who shoot them have 1 load worked up but two coals - 1 for hunting when magazine feed is needed and the other for bench shooting where they want every last bit of accuracy.

[boolia]

A lot of guys have to hand feed their Tikkas on the bench because the perfect COAL is too long to fit in the Tikka magazines.

Seems a pain that Tikka do that. A lot of people are obviously irritated that they have to use shorter cartridges than are ideal and sacrifice a little accuracy.

[twoforty]

If you look in the chamber while loading a round in a Tikka I think you'll a lot of the time it's just sliding forward freely and not in the bolt anyway.

They doesn't always slide up under the extractor in my experience anyway.

[heeple]

Got it, thanks guys.