Tikka T3x TAC A1 Factory Muzzle Brake Installation - Orientation and Indexing Issue

pirate604 said:
Looks like MDT saves the day... again.
Glad it is sorted. I could feel my self getting frustrated with the Tikka brake just from reading your posts.
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Haha...thanks for empathizing. Yeah, it was pretty frustrating, especially when it is not hard whatsoever...the Tikka factory brake was just defective.

Finally took it to the range tonight. Was zeroing it in on the 50m bench. Got the windage adjustment down, but ran out of elevation - the elevation dial got to the end and wouldn't turn anymore (my shots were grouping a bit low, but it was a very nice tight group). Another range member said he has seen this before and either my scope rings need to be changed to a different height or I need another rail, or an angled rail. My scope is a Primary Arms SLX 3-18x50. My current rings are Vortex Pro 30mm high rings.

The MDT brake was fantastic. As you said MDT strikes again - previously on my other rifle, I switched to MDT AICS mags and they were fantastic. Very happy with MDT products.
 
thegazelle said:
Haha...thanks for empathizing. Yeah, it was pretty frustrating, especially when it is not hard whatsoever...the Tikka factory brake was just defective.

Finally took it to the range tonight. Was zeroing it in on the 50m bench. Got the windage adjustment down, but ran out of elevation - the elevation dial got to the end and wouldn't turn anymore (my shots were grouping a bit low, but it was a very nice tight group). Another range member said he has seen this before and either my scope rings need to be changed to a different height or I need another rail, or an angled rail. My scope is a Primary Arms SLX 3-18x50. My current rings are Vortex Pro 30mm high rings.

The MDT brake was fantastic. As you said MDT strikes again - previously on my other rifle, I switched to MDT AICS mags and they were fantastic. Very happy with MDT products.
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For your mdt muzzle brake, did you just hand tight the brake and the other nut?
 
andrew3081 said:
For your mdt muzzle brake, did you just hand tight the brake and the other nut?
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Correct - I like how the brake has two points of tightening - so it allows for some tolerance - so much better than the default Tikka one. For the MDT brake, if I remember correctly, one point was hand tightened - the other one I believe I used a wrench to tighten it against the other side, thus securing it nicely.
 
thegazelle said:
Haha...thanks for empathizing. Yeah, it was pretty frustrating, especially when it is not hard whatsoever...the Tikka factory brake was just defective.

Finally took it to the range tonight. Was zeroing it in on the 50m bench. Got the windage adjustment down, but ran out of elevation - the elevation dial got to the end and wouldn't turn anymore (my shots were grouping a bit low, but it was a very nice tight group). Another range member said he has seen this before and either my scope rings need to be changed to a different height or I need another rail, or an angled rail. My scope is a Primary Arms SLX 3-18x50. My current rings are Vortex Pro 30mm high rings.

The MDT brake was fantastic. As you said MDT strikes again - previously on my other rifle, I switched to MDT AICS mags and they were fantastic. Very happy with MDT products.
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Something wonky with your current scope setup. With the factory rail you should have lots of elevation for a 50 y zero. Changing ring height only helps if the scope bell is binding on the rifle (???). What does bore sighting indicate ?
 
cosmic said:
Something wonky with your current scope setup. With the factory rail you should have lots of elevation for a 50 y zero. Changing ring height only helps if the scope bell is binding on the rifle (???). What does bore sighting indicate ?
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I just realized that I didn't update this...

Yes you are correct - it ultimately was a scope set up issue and was easy to determine. A member suggested that I remove everything and try again. It was then that I discovered the issue.

So to make a long story short - this scope on the rings and mount were lifted directly from my other precision rifle where it was installed on the picatinny rail running along the top. I just literally lifted and shifted over to the Tikka, setting eye relief based on moving the whole scope on rings/mount as a whole (was partly lazy on my part, partly excited to get it on the Tikka).

However, I was not careful to where I lifted and shifted. Turns out that that Tikka is not one continuous rail piece on the top but actually two, and between them was a "gap" piece. Well, guess where one of my mounts ended up - on that gap piece that I thought was a rail piece. How I found this out was that when I took it off, I noticed that the mount didn't quite hug it right. I also realized in looking at other scope setups that my scope front mount was too far forward. I took everything off and mounted it slightly further back and then loosened the rings and adjusted eye relief.

At that point I ran the laser bore sight in this gun and noticed a significant difference and when I made the adjustment at home, it came down quite a bit.

Took it to the range to sight in and it was perfect. Lots of elevation left. After it was sighted in, I have been shooting that Tikka which have provided the best groupings of my life. Extremely happy with the gun and scope combo and learned a bit of a lesson about rushing things and not doing things properly.
 
I realize that this thread is old, but I got the same issue with my brand new tikka. Very frustrating. Going to try and reach out to tikka.
 
Raistlin77 said:
I realize that this thread is old, but I got the same issue with my brand new tikka. Very frustrating. Going to try and reach out to tikka.
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Hmm...I am going to do the same and probably should have done this instead of buying the MDT brake...so I don't have a defective brake just sitting in the box. I am going to reach out to Tikka to see if I can get an exchange on mine...
 
toogun said:
I would call Stoeger i Oshawa, they are the Tikka distributor. I had a problem with a shotgun and they actually replaced it and upgraded the model too.
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Thanks I will give them a try. I wanted to get mine up and going for the range quickly so I just bought an MDT brake, which works perfectly. But it never sat well with me that I have a $125 defective brake just sitting in the box...I will pursue this before the warranty period runs out.
 
Just wanted to update my own thread here, for anyone having similar problems.

The problem was indeed the muzzle brake - it was defective (they indicated the gap would not close when it was indexed and tightening attempted with that screw). I sent it back to Stoeger Canada and they put a new brake on which does not have his problem.

I am very pleased with Stoeger Canada's service from start to finish. Which is great because I also own Benellis and Franchis so good to know they stand behind their products.

The customer is responsible for getting the firearms to Stoeger (shipping or drop off) in Oshawa but Stoeger will cover the charges in shipping the firearm back to you.
 
thegazelle said:
Just wanted to update my own thread here, for anyone having similar problems.

The problem was indeed the muzzle brake - it was defective (they indicated the gap would not close when it was indexed and tightening attempted with that screw). I sent it back to Stoeger Canada and they put a new brake on which does not have his problem.

I am very pleased with Stoeger Canada's service from start to finish. Which is great because I also own Benellis and Franchis so good to know they stand behind their products.

The customer is responsible for getting the firearms to Stoeger (shipping or drop off) in Oshawa but Stoeger will cover the charges in shipping the firearm back to you.
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thegazelle glad it worked out for you. Stoeger is great to deal with.
 
I "timed" mine and tightened the set screw, done. I suppose I could add a drop of Loctite if I think it may move in use. I also could turn a shim on the lathe to set the timing so to speak. Hope this helps.
 
CDF said:
I "timed" mine and tightened the set screw, done. I suppose I could add a drop of Loctite if I think it may move in use. I also could turn a shim on the lathe to set the timing so to speak. Hope this helps.
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Yes I know how to install it.

Timing was not the issue nor was it technique. Stoeger gunsmiths confirmed the factory muzzle brake that came with mine is defective. No amount of playing around with it would have fixed the issue. They replaced it with a new one and it installs perfectly
 
laker415 said:
So you shipped the entire rifle back to them to have the muzzle brake dealt with?
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Correct, but I dropped it off locally, not shipping it. They insisted to get the rifle and brake back together, in order to inspect/test, which makes sense given the cost of a replacement brake, I certainly don't expect them to just take my word for it and just send me one (though if they said to me to send my brake back and they would then send a replacement I would have done that, though they said they wanted to see how the brake mates with the gun to determine the cultprit.

I did keep the bolt (since they didn't need that and I didn't want it to get lost - replacement bolts are $600), and removed my MDT brake on it, removed my bipod, and removed my optic. No magazine included and I kept all the other stuff like the manual and shims, tools and other doohickeys and what not. Just gave it to them bare bones in the original box which I am glad I kept. Included the defective brake and dropped the whole thing off to their service facility.
 
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