I went to our Ruffed Grouse Society banquet last week & happened onto a Tikka T3 .338 WM rifle at the auction & bought it because (1) it went very cheap ($445.) and (2) since it was so cheap, it seemed like a good rifle to take on my upcoming brown bear hunt in May - in the salt water if it ruins, so what - it's cheap. Today I took it to the range, and WOW !!! The darn thing puts all the shots in one hole at fifty yards (what my guide says will be my shooting distance) with Swift A-Frame bullets - not a ragged hole, a single bullet hole. My question: do all these Tikkas shoot this well ? If I thought they would, I would put together a group of them in various calibers for my go-to rifles. Your thoughts please ......

All I can say 'bout my Tikka T3 lite in .270 WSM is a tack driver....right outta the box as they say! $445.....that's a steal considering I bought my .270 WSM for $700 CDN last fall, and they are now retailing for over $800 CDN. Sometimes I really really don't like how this system works

No shit CoyoteKiller82, Bob in Guns at Cabela's had me wanting a T3 near the close of last year when they were $600, now they're over $800. Great guns though, this sounds like most of the reports I've heard.

I shopped EARLY purchased # 4 in different calibers a couple of years back now .

Got them out of TEXAS at very reasonable prices under $ 500.00 .

Not one has disappointed me yet .

I own a T3 Lite cal 270WSM; very accurate, light, smooth to cycle, light trigger......what else?

P.S. You, Americans and Canadians, should not complain about rifle prices; in Italy/France the T3 Hunter costs about 1320€ = 1700USD and the stainless even more.

I have two T-3 Lites - a .243 and a .300 Win Mag. The only thing I have done is put a Limbsaver recoil pad on the .300, as it is a very light rifle and it does jump a bit off the bench. The .243 shoots loads it likes into about a half-inch consistently. My favorite load is 40 gr of Varget, Rem case, Fed primer and a 75-gr V-Max. The .300 shoot swell under an inch with most loads. (These are all at 100 yards...)

Bud's has T-3 Lites for just over $500 shipped, I paid $516 for my Stainless 338 WinMag a little over a year ago, love it and as stated above, all I did was add a Limbsaver and adjust the trigger to 2¼lbs, Mounted a Nikon Omega in low Talley mounts, it's very accurate right out of the box with factory ammo.

http://www.budsgunshop.com/cat...dex.php/cPath/36_445

Mine looks like the gun just above, but it has a black barrel. Also, when I won the auction for mine last Friday night, I didn't even have to pay sales tax - just $445. (signs of the bad economy - nobody would bid). I think I'll pick up a couple more in different calibers; my local gunshop sells them for around $575.

Have a T3 hunter 270 WSM and it's a tack driver. My dad has the same rifle in 300 WSM and it's great as well. There not fancy but man they shoot great. I haven't read or heard a bad word yet ( but I'm sure there's always one guy).

I just ordered Tikka T3 Varmint, chambered in 308 winchester. Price is 1042€, this is around 1350USD. European prices are very high comparing to US.

My T3 .223 is a little fussy about loads but it shoots under 1/2" for five shots with it's favorite load.

You will love the T-3 308 varmit,I have one too and it sure does shoot.All the way out to 1000yds.Have shot several calibers in the tikka and all have been great shooters.I have a 25/06 and the 308 varmit and both out shoot me.The first group was at 100 yds the others were at 300 yds.I used a 100 gr hornady SP this past year and dropped a buck at 250 yds with it.It shot as good as the 110 accru-bond.
The groundhog I was testing some hornady 168 in my tikka (head of the ground hog ) and the body was with a savage F/TR in 308.The fellow calling the shots couldn't see the shots in the head while I was shooting but thought I was hitting near the ear so I kept turning the turret 1 click to the right and we don't really know which shot was which.
The body shots he could make them out so finally got the scope dialed in.Pretty good for both rifles shooting the same loads.Think the tika is going to do just as good as the savage when I get it dialed in.

Just make sure you replace the worthless aluminium rings they ship with the rifle with something made out of steel. My brother has the same rifle and had the experience of having both of them break as he shot a big bear. Luckily, his little brother was there to put an anchoring shot into it because his scope was laying on the ground!

quote:

Originally posted by Frank Beller:
I went to our Ruffed Grouse Society banquet last week & happened onto a Tikka T3 .338 WM rifle at the auction & bought it because (1) it went very cheap ($445.) and (2) since it was so cheap, it seemed like a good rifle to take on my upcoming brown bear hunt in May - in the salt water if it ruins, so what - it's cheap. Today I took it to the range, and WOW !!! The darn thing puts all the shots in one hole at fifty yards (what my guide says will be my shooting distance) with Swift A-Frame bullets - not a ragged hole, a single bullet hole. My question: do all these Tikkas shoot this well ? If I thought they would, I would put together a group of them in various calibers for my go-to rifles. Your thoughts please ......

Yes!

It is actually a bit of problem because we all wanted to hate the T3 because it is a "value engineered" rifle brought out by Beretta when they bought Sako group.

Unfortunately for the people queuing to pour scorn on them the bloody things shoot very well, have a good trigger which the owner can easily adjust and are cheap!

I have a master series and despite wanting to hate the T3 for having even more plastic in it than mine, I am unable to.

The master series just feel and look better in my opinion but in respect of the way they shoot, I am bound to admit that there are no flies on T3.

Regards,

GH

quote:

Originally posted by wildboar:
I own a T3 Lite cal 270WSM; very accurate, light, smooth to cycle, light trigger......what else?

P.S. You, Americans and Canadians, should not complain about rifle prices; in Italy/France the T3 Hunter costs about 1320€ = 1700USD and the stainless even more.

I guess the grass is always greener eh? That seems to be the way with a lot of things sold in Europe compared to the US and even in some instances, Canada!

quote:

Originally posted by patriot85:
I just ordered Tikka T3 Varmint, chambered in 308 winchester. Price is 1042€, this is around 1350USD. European prices are very high comparing to US.

Yes indeed, and I can see that there are some sensible differences in price, even in neighboring states; few weeks ago I phoned Beretta Italia, the importer of Tikka, asking for the suggested retail price/availability of a stainless T3 varmint cal 243W. The reply was 1520€/1960$ ; the employee said to buy it quickly, since prices were about to increase. I gave up!

I have one in 30-06 at 100 yards it shoots a ragged hole when I do my bit.

I was with my father last year when he was checking the zero on his Tikka Hunter in 25-06.
After the first shot the bolt stuck and I mean stuck. After nocking the bolt handle up I discovered that he had accidently chambered and fired a 7mm-08 round. The neck had blown out on the case, but the lead cleared the barrell.

After going against my advice he fired several more rounds of proper 25-06 and the zero was 1.5 at 125 yards.

He didnt take my advice again and took the Tikka with him a month later on a Antelope Hunt in New Mexico.
He harvested a 75 B&C Antelope at a 160 yards. This story a testament to Tikka quality and my father's hard headedness.

I bought a T3 in a 338 Win.Mag. The gun is WAY to light for that caliber to be shooting off a bench. While working up loads I believe I had two bullets go in exactly the same hole. But the gun reared up and the scope hit me between the eyes at least three times. It is a funny thing but, when you know something/someone is going to hit you right in the head ,no matter what you do, you just can't stay focused on what you are doing. It is like standing in front of Mike Tyson with your eyes open and saying go on "hit me".
Anyway my T3 Hunter is probably the smoothest feeding rifle I have ever handled. I am thinking about adding some lead shot to the stock and try to get the rifle up to around 8 pounds w/o scope. Also I am going to try and find some steel scope rings for it instead of the aluminum ones it came with. I would not recommend anyone to buy a T3 in any caliber over 30-06. They are fine rifles but just too damn light IMO.

I bought my son one in .308, the camo stocked version, for his first .30 caliber rifle to use on his first African hunt. He went on to 6 one shot kills on plains game with it last summer. I can't really say how accurate it is, but it showed great promise while sighting it in, with touching holes after I got it on. Since I was sighting in with his "African" bullets, 165 gr TBBCs, and only had a limited quantity on hand, once I had it "on", I quit. A fine rifle with a very smooth action.

quote:

Originally posted by Rae59:
I bought a T3 in a 338 Win.Mag. The gun is WAY to light for that caliber to be shooting off a bench.

The 338 Federal is a good caliber for the T3.

Glad everybody is happy- I searched and found some old threads that weren't so hot on the Tikka- I didn't buy based on that- but sounds like there are a lot of good ones out there...