Tikka T3X - Best scope mounting option??

If you are bound and determined to use a one piece aluminum ring/base, the Leupold Backcountry are much beefier.
I use Leupold dual dovetail bases and Burris Signature rings on everything now.
I’ve had 3 sets of Talleys fail personally, and seen a few others crack on friends rifles. Now it’s the first question I ask when I get a call that a previously good shooting rifle has groups open up inexplicably.

To be fair, one set that broke was when I was taking the top cap off to replace them and loosened the first screw so it technically didn’t lose zero I suppose.

Last set I saw break I actually heard, when a buddy put his rifle down on the ground on Day 1 of a stone sheep hunt and three seconds later there was a loud PING. He sure was happy he saved 2oz on his sheep rifle just so he could leave it at the tent…..
 
I have the same Burris Veracity scope mounted on all 4 of my Tikka's and I just use the Burris Tikka T3 420136 Medium 30mm scope rings.
 
savagelh said:
I broke my last 2 sets of talley lightweight rings. That was my favorite for a while. Now I use either sportsmatch t084 or unknown munitions tikka specific rings. Both are rings that clamp onto the factory tikka dovetail on the top of the action.
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Where did you get the UM rings from? Id love to get a set.
 
I've been using the Warne Tikka rings. They are made for the factory dovetail and have a recoil pin that sits in the milled in hole. I get a secure low mount without and additional interface. Held perfectly right up to 338 WM. Cheers,
 
When I am scoping a rifle that has integral bases, like a Tikka, Sako or Ruger...I want to use those bases, rather than screw on some Mickey Mouse contraption on top of them. If I were using a Tikka as a primary hunting rifle, that would be likely to go on important hunts to faraway places, I would go with one of the wonderful MASI one-piece mounts that attaches to the integral dovetail and removes/re-installs with virtually no loss of zero. Two scopes in two mounts like that is a wonderful insurance policy when going on a hunt.

But...I currently only have one Tikka centerfire and likely would not choose it for a hunt any further than I can walk to out my back door. On that gun I use a set of the Talley lightweights; inexpensive, lightweight, and have had no issues with them in the past.

I think that breaking a Talley would be very unlucky and unlikely; breaking two of them (!) sounds more like a torque-wrench problem than a scope-ring problem.
 
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On my last T3 I used Burris two pc steel, weaver style bases with good rings.

Sold the rifle, kept the bases. I'd go that route again.
 
Leopold make a two piece direct mount that is awesome . Can't remember the exact model of it at the moment, but I've used them a few times now and they are as well built as the DNZ offering.
 
KodiakHntr said:
If you are bound and determined to use a one piece aluminum ring/base, the Leupold Backcountry are much beefier.
I use Leupold dual dovetail bases and Burris Signature rings on everything now.
I’ve had 3 sets of Talleys fail personally, and seen a few others crack on friends rifles. Now it’s the first question I ask when I get a call that a previously good shooting rifle has groups open up inexplicably.

To be fair, one set that broke was when I was taking the top cap off to replace them and loosened the first screw so it technically didn’t lose zero I suppose.

Last set I saw break I actually heard, when a buddy put his rifle down on the ground on Day 1 of a stone sheep hunt and three seconds later there was a loud PING. He sure was happy he saved 2oz on his sheep rifle just so he could leave it at the tent…..
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Not a direct response to you KH...but kind of...

Talley once piece ring mounts, with the curved bottom (think Rem 700) have a vital design flaw. When this flaw is combined with exuberant or ambitious screw torque, generous tolerances, as well as any slight inclusion in the alloy, they are very prone to failure.
The other failures, most often a corner cracking or breaking at the ring screw, are attributed to over torque, and possibly alloy inclusions.
The flaw is having the screw hole at the apex of the arc. When the screw is tightened, it wants the flatten the arc, and tries to turn the base into a spring. Couple this with sloppy tolerances between the base and the action, it causes failure. The tolerances are on the action, not on the ring, btw...
This can be mitigated by bedding the ring to the action in order to eliminate any gap, and reduce the amount of force applied to the apex of the curve by the screw.
There have been very few, if any, Talley ring mount failures on flat, or flatter topped actions. There have been over a dozen sets mounted here, on various rifles, mostly with flatter action tops, and never a failure encountered. The sets that have been mounted to more curved actions have been bedded, and no failures encountered either.

Really hopes this dispels a lot of the guessing as to why the failures occur...Talley ring mounts are far from junk. Like most things, they work really well with a bit of understanding.

R.
 
Personally, I’m not much into bedding a base to an action, nor a scope to a ring. Some guys do, and have great luck.
But if I bought a new truck I probably wouldn’t be tickled to be told to wrap a ratchet strap around my chest and the seat in case I have a fender bender and the seatbelt snaps…”These belts work great, as long as you also do this work around, just in case you don’t know how to snug up your belt properly, or if the weather changes, or in case you pull it too tight….”


But I am pretty good at following torque specs, and there are a lot of products out there that aren’t a concession in durability nor do they require any trick moves to be serviceable.
I’ve only seen Talleys crack on a RMR Thinhorn, Kimber Montana’s, Rem 700, and a Browning Ti. Some mounted by me, some done professionally on other peoples rifles. For me, there are better options that I don’t have to worry about during hard use (like the set that cracked on a Montana 223 as it was riding on the back seat of my truck, or the set on a Montana 7wsm that cracked while sitting in the safe over winter)…

On the other hand, I do have a set on a M700 300Ultra that has gone over 17 years without a bobble, although now that I think about it, the last time that rifle had a round through it was 2013….


However, all that said, I don’t care what anyone else uses on their own rigging. But when someone says “hey what about these?” I will tell them about MY real life experiences with that exact product, across several samples. What anyone does with that information is up to them. If it were me though, and several people said “I had them break and let me down” I would probably take that info into consideration and apply it against my own use expectations to make an informed decision.
 
KodiakHntr said:
Personally, I’m not much into bedding a base to an action, nor a scope to a ring. Some guys do, and have great luck.
But if I bought a new truck I probably wouldn’t be tickled to be told to wrap a ratchet strap around my chest and the seat in case I have a fender bender and the seatbelt snaps…”These belts work great, as long as you also do this work around, just in case you don’t know how to snug up your belt properly, or if the weather changes, or in case you pull it too tight….”


But I am pretty good at following torque specs, and there are a lot of products out there that aren’t a concession in durability nor do they require any trick moves to be serviceable.
I’ve only seen Talleys crack on a RMR Thinhorn, Kimber Montana’s, Rem 700, and a Browning Ti. Some mounted by me, some done professionally on other peoples rifles. For me, there are better options that I don’t have to worry about during hard use (like the set that cracked on a Montana 223 as it was riding on the back seat of my truck, or the set on a Montana 7wsm that cracked while sitting in the safe over winter)…

On the other hand, I do have a set on a M700 300Ultra that has gone over 17 years without a bobble, although now that I think about it, the last time that rifle had a round through it was 2013….


However, all that said, I don’t care what anyone else uses on their own rigging. But when someone says “hey what about these?” I will tell them about MY real life experiences with that exact product, across several samples. What anyone does with that information is up to them. If it were me though, and several people said “I had them break and let me down” I would probably take that info into consideration and apply it against my own use expectations to make an informed decision.
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100%
Was only tying to provide insight as to the potential flaws.
R.
 
Both the Tikka's I had I used the Opi-locks rings never had a problem with them - scope held zero always. Sure they are not cheap but they are worth every cent. If you use anything else you might as well put those tasco scope rings
 
love height of talley x-low but to equal it in my latest with more robust option I went area 419 rail with recoil pin, had it shaved to 0 moa as they only come in 20 moa (silly), then for 1" low rings the old school weaver 1" low detach top mounts are the jam, for 30mm go henneberger 3.5's which will get you bottom of scope same as the previous two mentions but of course a 30mm tube then means center of eye box will be another 2.3mm higher than a 1" option, so for regular sporter stock that's what I have done, also had to file the front and rear of the rail lugs to clear objectives from 3-9x40 accupoint and eye boxes from long eye relief leupolds, a little sharpie and good to go, too bad the sports match and um clamp style don't make anything low enough to equal talley x-low as that would be much easier button to get low and still be robust...you must fack around and find out to get it dialled in imo

integral picatinny on my sako 90 peak is awesome, already so low to start so you can actually go lower than useable which is unheard of, so much less 'finding out' lol...good thing you get a lot of other similar gains in feature/function with that expensive price tag ;)

I'd post pics but no idea how old guy clears his cache here...guess I'm full up
 
I've gone through a number of Talley LWs and now have seen the light where either breaks or zero shifts have lead me to removing all of mine. As a hunter, I'm not really interested in breaking a ring or losing zero on a hunt and try to minimalize those chances. I really like the Tikka direct mount options and have a number of Sportsmatch TO84s mounted up. They are excellent. I had also ordered a set of the Uknown Munitions Tikka Rings to try. If a ring/rail combo is more you're cup of tea, the Salmon River Solutions Tikka rail looks like a fantastic options, but I have no personal experience with it.

As a note, I've had scopes shift in the rings of Talleys both at the spec'd torque provided by Talley, as well as going above spec. I also degrease entirely and ensure the mounts are properly aligned.
 
Talley LW one piece if the scope is gonna stay there forever. if your like me and always switching #### around i like the area 419 rail. super light, low profile, well machined no cheese grater corners. and the heavy steel pin inspires a little more confidence that it will hold up to a heavy scope on a heavy recoiling rifle.
 
IF Talley goes 7075 alum, deeper threads and more meat on the top clamps, and, steel options, plus recoil pin, and that would be interesting.

Dnz has a 1” low that gets down but why no recoil pin?

Tikka, just do what sako did with the integral picatinny mulled into that flat top and be done with it. If guys want moa they can bug the ring makers to give it to them. Those guys run hubbels anyway so lots of height to play with. It’s the hunters who find scope mount for a pain to line up on the top seller t3x lite. Doh
 
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