The way I understand these Tikka T3 lites is they are all the same action they just put stops in the magazines. When I seat the longer bullets near the lands of my 7-08 I exceed the 7-08 magazine. At first glance it seems like switching to the 30-06 magazine would cure the problem . That is unless the bolt movement has a stop like the magazines do.

You would have to change or modify the boltstop to.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael b Freeman:
The way I understand these Tikka T3 lites is they are all the same action they just put stops in the magazines. When I seat the longer bullets near the lands of my 7-08 I exceed the 7-08 magazine. At first glance it seems like switching to the 30-06 magazine would cure the problem . That is unless the bolt movement has a stop like the magazines do.

I would stick to shorter bullets in monometals (like Barnes TTSX). They hold their bullet weight, so a 130/140 grain bullet packs a punch and penetrates like a 150/160 grain lead core.

The Tikka is probably a contender for the best bang for buck out there in a super-light, easy-carrying, accurate model, around $700.
Enjoy your hunting.

If you want heavier than 130-140 grain bullets, you can always go to a more powerful calibre. check out what happens to Tikka rings on the 338 WM (just posted on 'medium bores'). Even a 300 WSM or 300 WM should probably use steel rings with heavier bullets.

Tikka is a fantastic design, nice weight, super trigger, and more accurate than most if not all other "standard" boxed rifles.

Only issue is like above, the supplied scope rings are crap. I use Warne's and they work perfectly. Not sure why they dovetailed it as well as tapped the reciever. With the Warne rings, they have the integral recoil pin, and they will hold up to more than any cartridge chambered in it, without the need for bases or screws.

I own two T3s and while they are not my favorites by any means, they are descent cheap rifles. Yes, you can go to the 06 mag, but as mentioned you must change the bolt stop as well. I changed the bolt stop and mag on a T3 in 338 Fed to give room for tipped bullets such as the 200grn NBT.

Have a good one,

Reloader

I have both a .243 and a 30-06. The magazine swap is simple, just buy a longer one.

The bolt stop is built into the bolt release lever. It would take quite a bit of careful grinding, or you could just order a different one for a longer cartridge and swap it out.

Here is a link with a forum topic with pics of both releases as well as part numbers.
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/.../Tikka_T3_Bolt_throw

It looks like if you ground down the long one, you would hit a hollow spot and run into trouble.