Had occasion to shoot for a brief time subject rifle/carbine and can state the rifle shot very well and has a good deal of desireable features.
Equipped with rail on top of receiver for mounting of about any sort of optics, etc. you would want and also has very handy five round drop free clip. Synthetic stock is adjustable fore and aft w/ spacers and has adj. comb as well. Both conventional and side mtd. sling attachments w/ rifle, take down tool, muzzle threaded for either flash hider or moderator/silencer w/ thread protector. (for the LE/MIL types.) Barrel is 20" long and would say medium in diameter and gives the rifle a slight bit of muzzle weight, but for me that is a good thing. Bore is 11 twist which works for lots of 308 bullet weights and really well for the 175 Sierra MK's. Trigger is adjustable and came from factory at 3lbs w/ slightest bit of creep. Easy trigger to use in the field.

As for function and performance, straight line feed of magazine worked fine either w/ slow use of the bolt or as in rapid fire w/ 10 aimed shots in in 60/70 seconds w/ magazine change. Bolt is as smooth in function as any I have found. The rifle would work very well indeed for Across the Course match use. Overall length of rifle is 40" and can be carried walking w/ muzzle down and no fear of bumping into the ground. Very useable and versatile firearm in 308 caliber. Tika also offers the rifle in 223 and did a smart thing in doing a twist of 8 instead of the usual 12/14 twist. The 69Mk's up through the 80 grain should really do well with this set up.

Tika claims 1 moa from the factory and this rifle delivered all five from bags at 100 yards w/ pretty much one ragged hold using LC Match ammo. Reloads produced same results. Enjoyed shooting the rifle and so much so bought one!!
For a "handy" all around field rilfe, believe Tika has a good one w/ the T3 Tactical.

PS Don't look at it much, just use it and keep saying that it is not ugly. You will get used to it in time.

Thanks for the post. It seems there are a couple of different models, one with a 24" barrel. Did you try that one for balance? Where did you get yours? It seems they are going for around $1200. Any better deals around? Do you have any experience with any of the AR style 308's? For that money one could get a DPMS in 308 with perhaps comparable accuracy (?).
Thanks, Peter.

Hello Peter,
Was not aware of a longer barrel tactical version of the Tika, but the 20" barrel is what seemed a good thing to me. Easy to carry with one hand while climbing/stalking either deep woods or thick brush here in West Virginia and the 308 is plenty of round for our so called big game i.e., deer or black bear. Plans call for some long shots on varmints rest of the summer to get the feel of the rifle before Fall huning season.
Shot M14's, M1A's for quite a while and the 20" barrel worked fine on the gas gun out to 600 yards and beyond so the bolt gun should do as well if not better??? Yes, have shot in matches the AR10's in 308 and they do fine, but find them a bit on the awkward/heavy side for hunting. Accuracy of the AR10's is quite good , easy 1/2 moa with the right loads, but again just a tad heavy.
I did some trading for my Tika, but the asking price was at 1300.00 and with some arm wrestling able to do a deal on it. Believe list is in the 1400 plus range. With the threaded barrel feature I am going to machine a "bloop tube" set up for my Anshutz globe sight and use a Lipski base for the Warner rear sight and use in some local XC matches. Believe the rifle will work well as a sporting rifle as well as occasional match work and liked that versatility. Dark black parkerized type finish on all metal parts and and the magazine change is quick and easy to do. Has a five round mag made of some space age plastic which I would guess to be durable??
Trigger guard/bottom is of same material which I do not care for, but it will not see the abuse of a service rifle and should be ok unless it really takes a hard hit and believe it would break if that were to happen. Bolt shroud is of same material as well and would have liked steel, but time will tell if it is OK. Comes with a tool of sorts to strip bolt, but have not figured out how to use it yet. Manual is quite complete with the rifle and have not completely read yet, but that might help. Manual stated there is included "simple tool" for adjusting the trigger but did not find such an item in the box?? Trigger is fine for my intended purposes at this time and plan on putting few hundred rounds through it over the 4th weekend. I keep a data book on all my rifles and plan on watching for copper after the break in period, but can say that bore looks as smooth and polished as any Krieger or Obermeyer barrel I have. Afterwards I will post the good, the bad and the ugly of the rifle.

I picked up a Tikka Tactical 308 with 24" barrel a couple weeks ago. It is a very well balanced rifle and is a shooter. Put 150 gr Coreloks & 168 gr Mk reloads in .5 MOA. Bolt cycles great from the shoulder, great trigger, and it does a number on hogs. The synthetic stock comes with a great recoil pad, with the weight of the rifle tames the recoil considerably. Will probably add a suppressor soon.

its too bad they don't offer these in more zippy calibers like 300 mag 7mag or even 264win, heck my t3 lite shoots .5 groups

There's some good deals on these right now, too.

Buds Gun Shop.com has the Super Varmint in .308 for $899, and the current CDNN catalogue has the 24" Tactical in .308 for $999.

LWD

Gentlemen, thanks for the advice and tips! D...you are correct, I believe. The DPMS guns seem to weigh about 11 pounds! Way too much to be much fun to lug around. I will check out Bud's and CDNN.
Thanks again, Peter.

What's the difference between the "Tactical" and the "Super Varmint" rifles? The SV has a SS barrel, but the stock etc. seem to be the same.
Peter.

Tikka calls the Tactical barrel "cold-hammer forged" for what it's worth, the barrel in 308 is 5/8" longer and the rifle weights a pound more.

There's not a lot of difference between them.

Tikka's website has the scoop. Fundamentally, they are the same action with the same trigger. Mostly just chrome-moly v. stainless, some stock features, and barrel length, though one or two of them come with Weaver rails rather than the standard Tikka rings.

LWD

Agreed LWD! The "tactical" has the adjustable comb and the picatinny rail. I am not sure what
the difference would be between the rail and the regular scope mounts, other than range of adjustment.
Peter.

I believe you will find the barrel on the tactical is somewhat heavier/diameter plus threaded for flash hider/moderator and included is a thread protector ring. Stock has multiple mounting points for sling, harness, etc. on both port and starboard sides. It is a picitanny style base which is removeable and beneath are the grooves in the reciever for the OEM Tika mounts. I do not know if the adj. comb is the same on the varmint version or not, but the tactical has a thumb knob to permit raising or lowering of comb. It can be switched to either side of the stock. Biggest difference I see between the two is the retail pricing structure for I would think either would perform the same as far as accuracy goes.

Agreed! The name "tactical" always adds about $300 to the price!
Peter.