Tikka Accuracy Issue

I had the exact same issue , drove me insane. Switched to Winchester Extreme Weather SS in 3006 and it all went away . I will never sell the Winchester. Feel your pain , it sucks . I have a Tikka in 223 that is very accurate . My final outcome after months of fkn around was either a bad barrel or the rifle was too light for that caliber . Tikka makes a great product, that particular one just didn’t work for me.
 
Personally if I were you I would have a reputable Smith or a competent enthusiast give it a look over could be something simple like a loose ring. If that doesn’t help you may have to buy different ammo until you find some your gun likes. On a personal note I always remove the contact point between the barrel and the stock a few inches ahead of action not sure if it helps or not but I don’t think it hurts. While you have the action out of the stock I would back that adjustable trigger off all the way. Be careful reinstalling the action in the stock you can cause issues by doing this wrong. But possibly this might be better off done by somebody who has done it several times before.
 
Somethings wrong with my Tikka Battue 308 as well.
Shoots 1-2 inch 100M groups off the bench at the range with Winchester SuperX ammo
But I missed a buck at 10M two weeks ago
 
My newest T3X Cerastrat ultralight in 7mm Remington Magnum shot .872 MOA 5 Shot group at 300 yards on rounds 15-20 down the barrel. I was using Nosler Trophy Grade 160 grain Accubond ammo. I had 100 rounds total, sorted by runout, from 3 different lots. I shot all the rounds with the most runout first to zero in the rifle and get some chrono readings. I'm saving the .001" runout rounds for hunting until I work up a load.

I'm more than satisfied with accuracy at this point and I'm confident things will only improve with load development and proper bedding. I found the trophy grade ammo to be somewhat poorly manufactured. I pulled some rounds and noticed powder charges were somewhat inconsistent, especially between lot numbers. They all seemed to be using the same powder, some ball powder with wildly varying granule sizes. That powder seems to be fairly slow, giving 2890 FPS out of a 24" barrel with 70.2 grains of powder, somewhat on par with Retumbo for burn speed. Cabela's had those on sale and it was cheaper to buy the loaded ammo than all the components for it, well using Nosler brass anyways.

That being said, I did notice some things out of the box that would affect accuracy:
- The action screws were too tight and were tightened down in a way that the barrel was very close to the stock. I loosened the screws and tightened them down to 40 in/lb making sure the action was perfectly seated in the stock. This resulted in more room between the barrel and the stock.
- The barrel channel is inconsistent and will contact with the barrel as you get near the action. Tikka also has some little tabs down the barrel channel meant to centre the barrel. With a pencil barrel I don't doubt they affect the harmonics. Over the winter I will open the channel to have a consistent gap the whole length of the barrel.
- The stock is clearly meant to be bedded with large hollow pockets around the action screws for bedding compound. Without bedding I'm sure those take away from the rigidity of the stock. There are bedding kits around but I ordered some 10mm OD / 8mm ID 304 stainless steel pipes from Amazon and will use those to make pillars. The T3X already comes with a steel recoil lug so no need for an upgrade there.
 
Thanks all - Definitely have to spend more time at the range and first will be to check all bolts, including action.

I was planning to lighten the trigger anyway, so now is a good time before I start sighting again.

The Leupold was BNIB in box from a great dealer, so I find it hard to think it's the scope. Also curious about ammo since Tikka recommends their 3 shot with their own ammo.

How to I check/confirm the barrel is fully free floated?
 
Slide a narrow piece of paper between the barrel and stock starting at the forend tip and work back towards receiver, for lots of clearance fold the paper double on it's self. I use heavy note pad paper for good clearance.
 
Don’t rule out that your scope might be causing your problems it happens even with Leopold maybe more often nowadays than years gone by. I’m just guessing but I’m pretty sure that manufacture makes more than one particular spec of ammo. That would be a pretty bold statement that they would say that it would shoot all of their own ammo well. I have owned guns in the same calibre one will shoot a particular round spectacularly the other spectacularly terrible.
 
PuckHunter said:
Anyone ever experience accuracy issues with a Tikka?

Shooting a T3 Stainless 30-06 topped with Sako rings/bases and a Vx3i, was getting only 2 shot half decent groups with Sako ammo... 3rd was a flier each time.

Went through a box before I got it hunt ready and back to the field.

A little disappointed, given the renowned stories about accuracy for these things.

Any thoughts where to start?
Click to expand...

You have not specifically stated what kind of accuracy you're getting or what you're expecting.
Ive owned 3 Tikkas and all shot very accurate. By that I mean MOA and under.
Try more ammo. Every rifle has its preferences.
There's nothing wrong with the caliber. My dads Winchester Model 70 30-06 shoots moa and under.
 
Have always heard from Tikka owners that they were getting good to excellent accuracy.
Finally have a lh T3 in 338 Federal. It is only shooting 1 1/2" groups with the Federal 200 gr Fusion ammo, while the previous owner showed me targets of 1/2" with the Federal 180 gr AccuBond ammo. Unfortunately I cannot find any of that at the moment. Still have to try the Federal 200 gr Uni-Cor ammo and the 210 gr Nosler Partition ammo I have on hand. Not worried about its accuracy yet, as I am not done with its testing. Then there will be load development to come up with its best load.
Point is, every rifle has a preference, and it just take some experimenting to find your rifle's preferred load.

Have you tried any other ammo yet?

A question I would also ask, is how long are you taking between shots in your testing? 2 minutes, or shooting the 3 shots as quickly as you can?
If quickly, then I would think that it is a bedding issue and your barrel is heating up and the barrel is touching the stock or some other pressure point as suggested above that is causing the third shots to consistently be out of the group.
If not this, then as others have stated above, there are a number of tests to try to help determine the problem.
 
thatmikeguy said:
You have not specifically stated what kind of accuracy you're getting or what you're expecting.
Ive owned 3 Tikkas and all shot very accurate. By that I mean MOA and under.
Try more ammo. Every rifle has its preferences.
There's nothing wrong with the caliber. My dads Winchester Model 70 30-06 shoots moa and under.
Click to expand...

I was getting close to MOA +/- on the first 2 and then the 3rd was out by at least 2-3".

I shot Federal blue box with fairly tight groups and Winchester whites with not as tight, but this was before I changed the scope. Went right to the Sakos as a hunting round with the new scope. Will definately have to pattern some other brands to ensure, but thought I would check here as it seemed odd for a Tikka.

I've read a bit about replacing the factory recoil lug, as they are aluminum and can dent and open tolerance over time... Coincidentally, it looks like Stoeger Canada sells a heavy duty replacement steel lug which they say is heavier duty.

Could this be an issue as well? How would I know if a recoil lug is damaged...? I know it seems unlikely, but for $25 it might be worth it to rule it out.
 
You can pull the action out of the stock and have a look at it, see if it’s bent or deformed.

Are you using a solid bench with a good front bag, and more importantly a good rear bag?
 
PuckHunter said:
I shot Federal blue box with fairly tight groups and Winchester whites with not as tight, but this was before I changed the scope. Went right to the Sakos as a hunting round
Click to expand...

I think you answered your own question. Try the old scope again.
 
I always found that if rounds seemed to wander as I was shooting it was either

1-the scope not being totally secure and tight
2-The rings not tight and secure with the receiver
3- the action was not tight to the stock
4-I bought the scope on amazon and well enough said

Steps
Remount your scope
use blue lock tight
Use a Torque wrench to specified tightness ~12-18lbs but could be totally different depending on rings, action and scope specs
 
I had a tikka 223 that did not like any factory ammo.

I have found with the last 2 new tikka, that they have had underwhelming accuracy until around the 100 round mark. The rounds may be smoothing out the bore.

When you check the barrel channel slide a $5 bill (or a $1 if you can find it!) and you will find the 2 pressure points near the end of the stock. Grid these away and check accuracy again. Just a tip, shooting off bags, some people put pressure on the rifle into the bags. Have a buddy check barrel profile clearance when you are in your shooting position. The Tupperware stocks don't require a lot to deflect and touch the barrel.
 
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