First Tikka

[Shootermick]

A bit late to the Tiikka party here, but….I bought my first Tikka yesterday.
I upgraded my Ruger Ranch 223 to the new Tikka Rancher 223, both with a 16” barrel, which will be my new thermal rifle.
Roughly twice the price of the Ruger, twice as good? Probably not.
But, a big step up. I really liked my Ruger, and it shot well, my biggest gripe was the rough binding bolt, a misfeed out of every 10, jamming the odd cartridge, and you really had to run the bolt hard, pretty frustrating with the thermal in the dark.
This Tikka is so much better in its feeding, and much nicer all round. The fluted bolt is smooth as.
I thought Tikka might be all hype, but after this I think they might live up to it.

[stihl88]

I have a Sako, beautiful machine and smooth as butter, the Tikka wont dissapoint.
Sounds like a combination of feed issues on the Ruger, bolt binding, mag hang ups, steep feed ramp and tight headspace?

[Oldbloke]

It makes my head hurt when I hear about feed issues. You would think manufacturers would be able to get it right after making BAs for what,,,140 years?

[Shootermick]

It makes my head hurt when I hear about feed issues. You would think manufacturers would be able to get it right after making BAs for what,,,140 years?

Yep, the Ruger shot well enough, which is why I put up with it for so long. But there was no getting around the rough action and the random jams, certainly can take the enjoyment out of things.

[bigrich]

every tikka i've owned has fed/ejected flawlessly and been very accurate . i've bought new sako 85's , remington 700, marlin levers, and recently a 101 lithgow , probably a few i forgot too . the long action sako 85's had ejection issues , the rem in 270 had a poor stock finish and a out of square chamber, marlin lever in 357 needed minor tweaks , was pretty good actually , marlin 44mag had a tight spot in the barrel from when they stamped it with the makers name (i kid you not) , and my recent lithgow in 22lr shot like a shotgun . i've bought four tikkas new and never had a issue

[Oldbloke]

The only feed issues I've had are:
45 years ago a winchester 22lr with a tube magazine. Sold it after abt 3 years.

My remlin x7 223, I had to sand, polish the inside of the magazine because occasionally the follower would stick. Fixed in about 45 minutes. Been a great rifle otherwise.

All the others, perfect. But I haven't turned over many over the years.

[Shootermick]

every tikka i've owned has fed/ejected flawlessly and been very accurate . i've bought new sako 85's , remington 700, marlin levers, and recently a 101 lithgow , probably a few i forgot too . the long action sako 85's had ejection issues , the rem in 270 had a poor stock finish and a out of square chamber, marlin lever in 357 needed minor tweaks , was pretty good actually , marlin 44mag had a tight spot in the barrel from when they stamped it with the makers name (i kid you not) , and my recent lithgow in 22lr shot like a shotgun . i've bought four tikkas new and never had a issue

I took it out today and put a few rounds through it. Just put a red dot on it that I had laying around as my thermal now needs higher rings than the mediums it was in on my old Ruger, I’ll pick some up later this week and mount it up.
Just mucked around and roughly sighted it in, but it performed extremely well,
I’ll probably get a 10 round mag as well, only came with a 3, any recommendations?
Grizzly are meant to be good, Mamba are half the price though if they’re any good.?

[bigrich]

every tikka i've owned has fed/ejected flawlessly and been very accurate . i've bought new sako 85's , remington 700, marlin levers, and recently a 101 lithgow , probably a few i forgot too . the long action sako 85's had ejection issues , the rem in 270 had a poor stock finish and a out of square chamber, marlin lever in 357 needed minor tweaks , was pretty good actually , marlin 44mag had a tight spot in the barrel from when they stamped it with the makers name (i kid you not) , and my recent lithgow in 22lr shot like a shotgun . i've bought four tikkas new and never had a issue

I took it out today and put a few rounds through it. Just put a red dot on it that I had laying around as my thermal now needs higher rings than the mediums it was in on my old Ruger, I’ll pick some up later this week and mount it up.
Just mucked around and roughly sighted it in, but it performed extremely well,
I’ll probably get a 10 round mag as well, only came with a 3, any recommendations?
Grizzly are meant to be good, Mamba are half the price though if they’re any good.?

dunno bout the aftermarket ones mate, never had one , i'm not keen on them cause they hang down a fair bit , could get hung up on stuff potentially . JMHO .
i use the factory mags, 6 or 3 shot , with loaded spares in my top pockets. pretty quick to change out when your onto a mob of pigs . i have a preference for internal mags like rem 700 , mausers and such. but the tikkas are quicker to swap out a mag than trying to thumb more rounds into a scoped mauser

[Shootermick]

every tikka i've owned has fed/ejected flawlessly and been very accurate . i've bought new sako 85's , remington 700, marlin levers, and recently a 101 lithgow , probably a few i forgot too . the long action sako 85's had ejection issues , the rem in 270 had a poor stock finish and a out of square chamber, marlin lever in 357 needed minor tweaks , was pretty good actually , marlin 44mag had a tight spot in the barrel from when they stamped it with the makers name (i kid you not) , and my recent lithgow in 22lr shot like a shotgun . i've bought four tikkas new and never had a issue

I took it out today and put a few rounds through it. Just put a red dot on it that I had laying around as my thermal now needs higher rings than the mediums it was in on my old Ruger, I’ll pick some up later this week and mount it up.
Just mucked around and roughly sighted it in, but it performed extremely well,
I’ll probably get a 10 round mag as well, only came with a 3, any recommendations?
Grizzly are meant to be good, Mamba are half the price though if they’re any good.?

dunno bout the aftermarket ones mate, never had one , i'm not keen on them cause they hang down a fair bit , could get hung up on stuff potentially . JMHO .
i use the factory mags, 6 or 3 shot , with loaded spares in my top pockets. pretty quick to change out when your onto a mob of pigs . i have a preference for internal mags like rem 700 , mausers and such. but the tikkas are quicker to swap out a mag than trying to thumb more rounds into a scoped mauser

Good points about the longer magazines, I just like a 10 round for my thermal shooting, mostly vehicle based.
But it’s not an absolute necessity.

[CBH Australia]

I like my Tikkas, I think you will be happy.

[Uyenner]

I reckon you'll find the Tikka a solid upgrade. Smooth bolt action makes a world of difference, especially when you're using a thermal scope in the dark.

[Shootermick]

I bought a 10 shot Grizzly mag for it last week.
Tight fit, and I had to sand a bit of material off the rear of the top of the mag where the bolt head would touch and the flutes would slightly rub.
Got it working well now, as smooth as the factory mag.

[bigrich]

I bought a 10 shot Grizzly mag for it last week.
Tight fit, and I had to sand a bit of material off the rear of the top of the mag where the bolt head would touch and the flutes would slightly rub.
Got it working well now, as smooth as the factory mag.

good to hear mate . i guess thermal shooting is a different kettle of fish to what i do . got onto a mob of pigs the other day and the quick change mag ability of the tikka was handy as opposed to internal mags .

i still love my 98 FN though

[Shootermick]

I bought a 10 shot Grizzly mag for it last week.
Tight fit, and I had to sand a bit of material off the rear of the top of the mag where the bolt head would touch and the flutes would slightly rub.
Got it working well now, as smooth as the factory mag.

good to hear mate . i guess thermal shooting is a different kettle of fish to what i do . got onto a mob of pigs the other day and the quick change mag ability of the tikka was handy as opposed to internal mags .

i still love my 98 FN though

Yeah, I just like the 10 rounds so that I’ve got plenty of shots without having to fiddle around in the dark with a magazine change.
The 4 round steel lipped factory mag works well too, good back up on the dash of the ute.

[Jorlcrin]

I bought a 10 shot Grizzly mag for it last week.
Tight fit, and I had to sand a bit of material off the rear of the top of the mag where the bolt head would touch and the flutes would slightly rub.
Got it working well now, as smooth as the factory mag.

About 3 years back, I bought a couple of the 6-round 'Waters Rifleman' alloy mags for my T3(7-08), and later on, I also bought a couple WR 10-round mags for my CTR .223.

I really like the WR mags; great build quality, and in the case of the CTR mags, cheaper than the heavy tin Tikka mag.
Havent had to file or sand anything off them to get them working properly; they fed properly straight out of the box.

Looking at pictures, I wondered if the Grizzly mags were WR mags when I saw them a while back; look very similar.
Years back, I did experiment with the 10-round Lucky13 mag for the T3, but found the huge banana mag would detach without much effort.
Also; freaking thing just made the rifle as cumbersome as anything.
I really liked the 3-round plastic factory mag; pretty much flush with the bottom of the stock, so makes for easy to shoot from a rest.

[Barbarian]

A bit late to the Tiikka party here, but….I bought my first Tikka yesterday.
I upgraded my Ruger Ranch 223 to the new Tikka Rancher 223, both with a 16” barrel, which will be my new thermal rifle.
Roughly twice the price of the Ruger, twice as good? Probably not.
But, a big step up. I really liked my Ruger, and it shot well, my biggest gripe was the rough binding bolt, a misfeed out of every 10, jamming the odd cartridge, and you really had to run the bolt hard, pretty frustrating with the thermal in the dark.
This Tikka is so much better in its feeding, and much nicer all round. The fluted bolt is smooth as.
I thought Tikka might be all hype, but after this I think they might live up to it.

They’re good shooters.

Factory recoil lug is a little soft but you can get aftermarket replacements. KRG include their toughened lug with any of their chassis.

Sterk shooting do awesome bolt knobs and shrouds.

I’m not a big fan of the factory tikka Tupperware but there are a growing number of options for aftermarket stuff. Also lefties can rejoice as changing the inlet for left hand can be done simply by cutting a channel for the bolt on the other side. Might not look the prettiest but it works.