For whatever it's worth, I bought my first Tikka in 1995 or 1996. I can't remember now. It was a 595, the heavy barreled 'continental' model in .223. It has killed a truckload of critters over the years and still gets shot every now and then, at least once a year. It was my first really accurate rifle and still shoots well. In its early years it probably got shot several hundred rounds every year then that dwindled to perhaps 20 rounds annually. The best groups it has ever shot were with Hornady's 55-grain flat-based vmax but now I use the 53 grain boattail version. I made my first 'long range' kill with that rifle, roughly 350 yards, which was a long shot in the pre-rangefinder days.
I bought a 658 once, a deluxe model, that was about the prettiest wood-stocked hunting rifle I have ever owned. I traded it off before I ever fired it. I sort of regret that.
When Tikka went to the T3 with its single length for all cartridges I sort of protested and stopped looking at them. But over the years they've stood the test of time, IMO better than other popular rifles, and the fact that you can buy prefits for them speaks volumes to me, so this summer I bought a compact threaded 20" 6.5cm for my kids. The oldest wants to try for an elk this year so their existing rifles were a little light (5.56 not legal in CO and .350 Legend sucks at distance) and I didn't want to saddle her with my very heavy .280ai that isn't suppressed. She shoots it very well, it's just too heavy to tote up a mountain.
Anyway, I bought the compact/threaded T3X. It came with the youth-length stock but that's too short for my oldest so we added the spacer. Both of us can shoot it now. I adjusted the trigger as light as it would go and believe that to be sufficient otherwise. I had to Dremel a bit of stock material to make the barrel truly float. I had plenty of RL16 powder on hand and grabbed some Peterson brass (LP since we have the potential to hunt in cold) and some 147eldms. I threw a cheap buttstock shellholder on it and slide a strip of foam under that to raise the comb a bit. I swapped the 'vertical' pistol grip adapter onto it. Harris 9-13" S bipod (I have several of these and have used Harris for 30+ years) and a YHM Resonator K .30 can. I bought a used Nightforce SHV 4-14 (heavy, but otherwise I'm pleased with it thus far) and put it in the sportsmatch rings. The 084 height fits the 50mm scope perfectly. If anything, I wish I could mount the front ring further forward, but I think they're OK as is.
It has the typical long throat that Tikkas are known for. The 147eldm will jam at about 2.97" so I loaded them to 2.91" (based on the theory that most guns will shoot fairly well for a fairly long time with most bullets at roughly 0.060" off the lands as explained here:
https://precisionrifleblog.com/2020/04/05/bullet-jump-load-development-data/). I'm not a bench shooter. Been there, done that, it bores me now and I'd rather find a load that shoots decently well with the speed I want and if I have to fiddle with seating depth to chase accuracy I'd rather have a different rifle. So, with the long throat, I had to go well beyond GRT's indicated charge weight to hit the speed I wanted. GRT indicated that at SAAMI max pressure with that bullet/powder/barrel (20") and COAL I should be getting right at 2650". I saw pressure signs at 2660' and backed off to 2610'ish and chrono'ed a few rounds all around 2590-2620' with a single shot going 2640'.
The worst 'group' I have fired (I haven't had time to do proper statistically valid testing and likely will not until January) thus far was less than 1/2moa vertical and 2.5" wide at 225 yards. That was 4 shots spaced out over a couple hours while I was doing other things, to get 4 cold-bore shots. Also, that was on steel with no clearly defined aiming point and the scope still needed some horizontal adjustment. I know my weaknesses as a shooter and suspect that I subconsciously 'chased' that group hitting to the right and made it worse. My daughter has now shot a few shots prone from 230 to 400 yards and everything she's done thus far has fell within a half-minute or so, if all the different ranges were superimposed on each other.
I'm pretty pleased with it thus far for what is essentially a stock configuration. Yeah, the factory stock is cheap, but it is 'good enough' and I hate to put another $700 into an AG Composite vertical grip stock as we're spending a ton of money elsewhere (camping gear) to take her hunting this fall.
I don't like the plastic magazine either but the one on my 595 is 30 years old and has never failed. The design is about as goof-proof as it gets.
