accuracy troubleshooting help/or new barrel? (tikka, 7mm-08 twist rate, etc ?)

[sndmn11]

If it is pillar bedded torque that guy to 65inlbs

 

[Macintosh]

That's tight. Is there a danger of breaking the factory plastic bottom metal? I know there is a metal insert aorund the screws but I dont recall if its full thickness?

 

[ResearchinStuff]

I have my factory bottom metal, in a factory plastic stock, torqued to 65 in-lbs

 

[sndmn11]

That's tight. Is there a danger of breaking the factory plastic bottom metal? I know there is a metal insert aorund the screws but I dont recall if its full thickness?

Probably not

 

[BjornF16]

If it is pillar bedded torque that guy to 65inlbs

I would incrementally increase the torque from your current 35 in-lbs to 65 in-lbs max...see what shoots the best (after you clean your barrel).

 

[Macintosh]

Yeah, we'll see after cleaning barrel. I think tikka says 45inlb is the max recommended torque for plastic trigger guards, but for sure I'd work up to it rather than going for broke...after all, I'm gonna need that replacement bottom-metal $$ for all the Barne$ ammo I'll be shooting-in my squeaky-clean barrel with! (if I can even find it)

 

[Macintosh]

Scrubbed her squeaky clean with sweets and went to the range “heavily encumbered” with tools and what-if contingencies. Couple initial groups at 100 were all 2”, and it never settled in better than that, including with several different torques on the action screws, and with every variety of ammo I could reasonably get my hands on, cleaning between diff ammo as folks said the barnes might be finicky about being very clean. Shot several 1.25ish 3-round groups, but on every single group of 5 at least 2 would grow it to 2”. 200 yard groups are better, but still proportional to the 100 yd groups, ie 4.5” or so, and still pretty horizontally strung out.
In order to make sure that the scope isnt the issue, I ran a bunch of groups through my ctr for a baseline, then tore the scopes off both rifles and put my hunting rifle scope on the ctr—which I have now determined holds right around 1moa groups regardless of what ammo or scope I put on it. Even the cheapie american gunner ammo I iniially zeroed it with shoots into an inch 5 round groups. I was thinking maybe my eyes are just going and the groups would open up without a 29x scope, but I shot just fine with my 12x mil dot hunting scope, even holding between dots at 200 yards I can hold it right at 1moa so I cant blame the scope.

At this point Im convinced this barrel is simply a 1.5-2moa tube, and will be looking into what to replace it with, suggestions welcome on where to get barrel and especially on twist rate best for mono’s. And, it looks like my ctr is going antelope hunting this fall.

 

[Rstearns65]

I just saw this. I'm not sure if you solved your problem already. I have a Tikka T3X 7mm-08 and it shoots about 1 moa at 100yds it seems to like the Fiocchi 139 grain sp. Oddly better than the Hornady Whitetail, which is the same bullet cased by someone else. I haven't tried the Barnes yet. The gun was half MOA in the first ten shots with crappy CoreLocts. They can be fussy.

Now my wife has a Tikka T3X compact 243 that shot sub MOA with $16 (at the time) federal crap 80 grain and most anything else. I bought a box of Barnes 80gr TTSX for it for deer hunting. The gun was terrible with them. It took a box and half of nothing but the Barnes through it to properly season/foul the barrel before it shot them sub MOA like most everything else. That's when the Barnes were 35 bucks a box now they're 45 bucks a box. I haven't and won't clean that gun again now that it's properly fouled and shooting well. Needless to say we won't shoot anything else but Barnes through it now that it's finally shooting good.

Regular copper jackets are "gliding metal" and are made with various copper alloys. Barnes are pure copper and only "glide" well on pure copper. Stick only with the Barnes, stop cleaning your barrel and you'll be ok.

Also my 7mm-08 Tikka T3X shoots for crap on a bipod. It's too light and likes to jump around took much. I do better shooting off my benched elbows with my forearm steadied on a bag. This zeros the rifle closer to how it's used afield than a bipod. Believe it or the gun's zero is very different between being held and the bipod. And that's at a hundred yards.

I'm a big Tikka and Barnes fan so I HTH
Best of luck to you
Ron

 

[ResearchinStuff]

I just saw this. I'm not sure if you solved your problem already. I have a Tikka T3X 7mm-08 and it shoots about 1 moa at 100yds it seems to like the Fiocchi 139 grain sp. Oddly better than the Hornady Whitetail, which is the same bullet cased by someone else. I haven't tried the Barnes yet. The gun was half MOA in the first ten shots with crappy CoreLocts. They can be fussy.

Now my wife has a Tikka T3X compact 243 that shot sub MOA with $16 (at the time) federal crap 80 grain and most anything else. I bought a box of Barnes 80gr TTSX for it for deer hunting. The gun was terrible with them. It took a box and half of nothing but the Barnes through it to properly season/foul the barrel before it shot them sub MOA like most everything else. That's when the Barnes were 35 bucks a box now they're 45 bucks a box. I haven't and won't clean that gun again now that it's properly fouled and shooting well. Needless to say we won't shoot anything else but Barnes through it now that it's finally shooting good.

Regular copper jackets are "gliding metal" and are made with various copper alloys. Barnes are pure copper and only "glide" well on pure copper. Stick only with the Barnes, stop cleaning your barrel and you'll be ok.

Also my 7mm-08 Tikka T3X shoots for crap on a bipod. It's too light and likes to jump around took much. I do better shooting off my benched elbows with my forearm steadied on a bag. This zeros the rifle closer to how it's used afield than a bipod. Believe it or the gun's zero is very different between being held and the bipod. And that's at a hundred yards.

I'm a big Tikka and Barnes fan so I HTH
Best of luck to you
Ron

It's gilding material, not gliding material in typical bullets.

Try removing the barrel bumps and free floating the barrel to achieve consistent poi from various positions/support.

 

[Macintosh]

Thanks guys. At this point it’s future help for someone else, I eventually tried everything suggested and never could get it to shoot. I traded it in for a new t3x lite that easily held groups half the size or less I had been getting, even off a bipod. It seems every once in a while it IS the gun that either just doesnt shoot, or is so finicky with ammo or bore condition or whatever that its not worth chasing.

 

[Rstearns65]

It's gilding material, not gliding material in typical bullets.

Try removing the barrel bumps and free floating the barrel to achieve consistent poi from various positions/support.

Thank you for the gilding metal clarification. Not sure if I initially read it wrong (I'm dyslexic) or It's my memory. It's been a while since I dealt with this as you can tell by the price references. I'm certainly not an expert and may sound like an idiot but the experience and fix was legit.

I've since found others that had similar experiences with Barnes bullets. Even my 223 Howa Mini-action needs more fouling rounds with Barnes than normal bullets. So it seems that the seasoning/fouling with a similar metals can be important with the Barnes. Obviously not all guns will experience this to such degrees because every barrel is different but Her's did and it's fixed.

Again Her 243 that normally shoots most decent ammo MOA or better, initially shot the Barnes 3 and 4 MOA. It didn't drop below 2 MOA until it had at least 20 rounds down the pipe. It didn't shoot MOA or just sub MOA IIRC until shot 30. Each season for the last three years we check it for zero and that's it. Each year it's spot on.

This was an expensive learning experience. Because I wasted a box of Barnes at 3 to 4 MOA alternating groups of them with other bullet groups during testing. Once I stopped flip flopping between bullet types it finally came together after shooting a box and a half of Barnes straight. I can't afford to go through the process again. Her rifle is now dedicated to only Barnes bullets and deer.

Regardless of verbiage this is what actually worked for me a few years ago. I'm not sure if Barnes has changed anything since so ymmv. Take what you want from it.

Ron

 

[ResearchinStuff]

I and many others have also found that barnes hate being shot on top of gilding metal fouling, if i'm going to shoot them I will normally clean the copper out first.

Your positional zero change problem is probably completely fixable if you put in 30 minutes with a dremel or some 180 grit sandpaper, it's almost certainly due to inconsistent barrel-stock contact, and the best fix is to eliminate that contact all together.

 

[JustMe7]

Thanks guys. At this point it’s future help for someone else, I eventually tried everything suggested and never could get it to shoot. I traded it in for a new t3x lite that easily held groups half the size or less I had been getting, even off a bipod. It seems every once in a while it IS the gun that either just doesnt shoot, or is so finicky with ammo or bore condition or whatever that its not worth chasing.

I’ve tried several tikka t3 & t3x.
Typically they are really good shooters.
I love the Hunter models - but- I’ve found that pulling the wood stock and buying a cheap synthetic from eBay makes the Tikka rifles shoot better.
The Hunter stocks seem to have more recoil for caliber than the synthetic stock.
The tikka t3x 7mm-08 shoots amazing with 139 Hornady SST, 140 gr Nosler accubonds, -140 gr sierra game kings. 150 gr sierra game kings.
I hate Barnes bullets because I’ve never seen an accurate one.
I’ve tried the TSX in .308 , they are meh.
The ones I tried in 6.5 cm , I already blocked out of my mind because they shot everywhere.
Good luck in the future!