First Dealings With Tikka T3......Very Unimpressed

Ive owned 3 tikkas.
2 were moa out of the box. 1 was not.
I own 0 tikkas now. Ive been dumped off a snowmobile Bison hunting, Winchester m70 fully caked in snow. Quick dusting and pulled the trigger... It went bang.
That was enough for my confidence.
Among what you have said, I found the mags not accepting some cartridges due to length the most annoying.
Some like em, some love em, some hate them. Like any brand I guess.
 
For the firing problem at -35, check if there is oil or grease in the firing pin assembly.
Maybe its not the problem but I would take a look there first.
If I remember well, its written in the user manual that librification on the firing pin assembly can cause FTF in cold weather.
So its best to avoid lubrification in those areas.


The bolts have all been disassembled and flushed vigorously with brakeclean.........definitely no lube in the bolts. My son is no stranger to hunting in extreme cold and I taught him about all this years ago......."remove all oil and grease from your action before you head out in -30 and below weather or you'll be very disappointed" He has hunted the high arctic in winter and knows the ins and outs. My guess is that the tolerances between the spring and firing pin are too tight and with the extreme cold and metal shrinking the springs are binding on the firing pin shaft. As Ganderite has suggested changing the spring will quite possibly solve the problem.
 
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I have 3 tikkas. I like the ejection port but none are in magnum calibres. All operate in minus 35. I shoot quite a bit in that weather and in fact the rifles that impress me as never failing in that weather are my t3s and my mark 5 . Maybe they all bought the same ammo.
 
I don't get all the hate, nor do I understand all the fan boys. The T3 is a great rifle, I think it is currently overprices, but it used to be great value for the money.

I have only ever used one T3, the one I currently own. I have owned and/ or currently own Savages (both budget and higher end), Remingtons, Weatherbys, Rugers and Voers along with a number of milsurp sporterized and non-sporterized Enfields, Mausers (98's, 96's and couple other more obscure ones) as well as one ex military Manlicher Schoenauer and I can confidently say that my Stainless Steel T3 in 300WSM is my most reliable and accurate gun.
 
Nobody that I have read on this thread is spouting hate................but I have observed and encountered some issues with this rifle that I thought I would share here. Like I said I approached this load session with no knowledge or preconceived biases towards or against the T3. I'm just stating what I encountered and observed with this rifle and what I consider to be flaws.......some are significant IMHO, such as a magazine that will not take SAAMI length cartridges...........YMMV.
 
Doug,

do not remember about James and his 300 win mag, but we took back two t3 in 338 win mag that didnt fired at -20 or around, i tested them too at the range with misc factory ammo for the same results, never heard back from stoeger gunsmith about it ...
 
Not James' rifle Phil, 4 buddies of his........he shoots 700 Rems like his old man and we don't have these kind of issues............;););)

So apparently this is not a new issue...........appreciate the update on this problem Phil. The fact you personally tried them and found them to be deficient and unreliable in cold temps is good enough for me.
 
Maybe they need to be CAS modified?
Polish the pizz out of the firing pin with some scotch pawt scrubbers
along with the rest of the bolt assembly.

Gaaaaad, I enjoy dem ol` mauser actions.
 
I have had issues with flyers etc in my buddy's T3s, my Rem 700 and Ruger produce more consistent results.

There's only 1 thing in this thread I don't understand...All my info states SAAMI C.O.A.L. for 338WM and 300WM is 3.340" But you're looking for 3.400"? I understand if you need too much jump or can't seat a bullet to the cannelure, but is 3.400" really the SAAMI length?
 
I am not a Tikka hater...... although I think the new ones are way overpriced.......

But I will concur with Douglas in that "why the small ejection port".......

It's just a recipe for BS IMOP.......... and I hate false short actions with bolt blocks..... but that's jmop........
 
wilbar said:
I have had issues with flyers etc in my buddy's T3s, my Rem 700 and Ruger produce more consistent results.

There's only 1 thing in this thread I don't understand...All my info states SAAMI C.O.A.L. for 338WM and 300WM is 3.340" But you're looking for 3.400"? I understand if you need too much jump or can't seat a bullet to the cannelure, but is 3.400" really the SAAMI length?
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Apparently I read the books wrong and you sir are 100% correct.........3.340" is the SAAMI coal for the 338 Win Mag, so I guess the magazine is not too short to accept SAAMI spec cartridges............I stand corrected.
 
c-fbmi said:
Apparently I read the books wrong and you sir are 100% correct.........3.340" is the SAAMI coal for the 338 Win Mag, so I guess the magazine is not too short to accept SAAMI spec cartridges............I stand corrected.
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so you like the Tikka now is what your saying..............
 
yodave said:
so you like the Tikka now is what your saying..............
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Well my tirade over the magazine length was obviously based on misread information on my part, it still doesn't negate the other issues I had with it. However I do apologize for incorrectly criticizing this rifle over the magazine length, my mistake entirely. Somehow I missed the second "3" in the 3.340" and read it as 3.400".............so I like Tikkas now? Well yodave I'm afraid the answer is still no, too many other issues besides my not being able to read correctly.
 
c-fbmi said:
Well my tirade over the magazine length was obviously based on misread information on my part, it still doesn't negate the other issues I had with it. However I do apologize for incorrectly criticizing this rifle over the magazine length, my mistake entirely. Somehow I missed the second "3" in the 3.340" and read it as 3.400".............so I like Tikkas now? Well yodave I'm afraid the answer is still no, too many other issues besides my not being able to read correctly.
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I wondered about that....

Take a big man to admit that!!!
 
c-fbmi said:
Well my tirade over the magazine length was obviously based on misread information on my part, it still doesn't negate the other issues I had with it. However I do apologize for incorrectly criticizing this rifle over the magazine length, my mistake entirely. Somehow I missed the second "3" in the 3.340" and read it as 3.400".............so I like Tikkas now? Well yodave I'm afraid the answer is still no, too many other issues besides my not being able to read correctly.
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take it out and shoot it, accept it for what it is and what it was intended for and then we'll talk. If you can find it in yourself to like one I'll send you one in .270 Win................
 
I've had several T3's but not in a LA magnum.
I have seen more than a couple at the range though and they kick something awful. I haven't seen one cut sub moa groups yet.
My 6.5x55 is a different story, I'm keeping this one :)
As for freezing up I'd be more looking at the trigger (dissimilar metals have a way about them). If the bolt is grease free everything is steel and wouldn't it contract/expand at the same rate?
I've played with motors and the clearances between aluminum and steel parts is uber important, I can't see why a trigger assembly on the tight side couldn't lock up...
 
yodave said:
take it out and shoot it, accept it for what it is and what it was intended for and then we'll talk.If you can find it in yourself to like one I'll send you one in .270 Win................
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Oh yodave you big tease.............really? My very own T3 in 270...........


Due to wind and rain, with a touch of snow later, we were unable to continue the testing of the Tikka yesterday. I have also made up a couple test loads for my 338 to try out at the same time, also using 225 ABs with IMR 4350 and RL 17. However we shall have to wait for the weather to improve some.
Time to start thinking about a shooting house again......with a permanent 2 chronograph set up and LED lighting and sound attenuation for the neighbors. Gonna try LED strip lighting over the shades for the chronograph screens and see how that works. It should give consistent results every time with no fluctuations in the light quality or intensity.
I shall mount all screens on the same rail and just stagger them so that I can run 2 sets of screens in 4.5 to 5 feet. Reducing the differences between chronographs and reducing the length needed for my shooting house.
 
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c-fbmi said:
Oh yodave you big tease.............really? My very own T3 in 270...........


Due to wind and rain, with a touch of snow later, we were unable to continue the testing of the Tikka yesterday. I have also made up a couple test loads for my 338 to try out at the same time, also using 225 ABs with IMR 4350 and RL 17. However we shall have to wait for the weather to improve some.
Time to start thinking about a shooting house again......with a permanent 2 chronograph set up and LED lighting and sound attenuation for the neighbors. Gonna try LED strip lighting over the shades for the chronograph screens and see how that works. It should give consistent results every time with no fluctuations in the light quality or intensity.
I shall mount all screens on the same rail and just stagger them so that I can run 2 sets of screens in 4.5 to 5 feet. Reducing the differences between chronographs and reducing the length needed for my shooting house.
Click to expand...

Edit - total brain fart. Nevermind. I was thinking indoor range not shooting house....
 
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