Around Christmas time last year, I sent my Tikka T3 action off for a facelift. After several months, I am happy to say Brown Box Santa delivered me another parcel of awesomeness.
Here is a before shot of what my rifle looked like with Lothar Walther barrel bead blasted in the white:
While not exactly terrible, I figured a two-tone FDE with Black would look better. I still have to get some FDE side panels from MDT to replace the black ones I painted with whatever Krylon tan I had in my shed.
Here is a brief photo synopsis of the Black Box transformation:
The barreled action matches perfectly with the MDT Skeleton V3.
The scope base holes came out very clean; a quick chase with the scope base screws cleaned up a tiny bit of buildup at the very edges of the holes. Jay is not kidding when he says tolerance stacking with cerakote is not really an issue. 6x48 screws aren't exactly a coarse thread / large fastener and I'm happy to say they thread in just as easy as the last time I installed them.
As you can see, Cerakote conforms very well to the various nooks and crannies of the action. This especially is true for the recoil lug area on the bottom as well as the bolt raceways. Even the threads for the muzzle and the crown came out looking immaculate. The only spot where the cerakote is thin is along the sharp edge of the rear tang of the action; sitting in the chassis hides this and even then edges like that are difficult to get finishes like cerakote or paint to adhere without flaking. Overall I am quite impressed with how she turned out.
I will echo some of the comments from other threads and say patience is a virtue. If you're getting antsy or just want an update, send an email to Ringo or Jay and they will help ya out. I even had a "Homer Simpson" moment and thought they didn't ship my thread protector; the guys at the shop looked for my part and Ringo even offered to sort out a replacement if need be. Luckily it just fell out of my parcel tube and was found later under the couch while vacuuming. Doh! Overall, a couple email will go a long way and even then it seems like their backlog is thinning rapidly.
I will be taking my stick out tomorrow with her new racing stripes to see how much I forgot about shooting at 1 km. I will try to update this thread with photos of the bolt raceways and the baffles of the muzzle brake to show what kind of durability the finish has.
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