My Tikka groups suck

[Bowfinn]

I'll do what I can to get more "space", and I am hesitant to tighten more and potentially break something. I just got some 140 ELDM factory to try with it. I hear you on the pins, and will see if I can get it (hesitation is the convo with UM that they were unnecessary on the lower recoil rifles with proper torque).

Replacement trigger guards are $12 on eBay if you have an action screw pull through. I tighten mine down to 60in lbs with a thread locking compound, and will continue to do so even if I had one pull through tonight.

Edit: disregard you got it tightened up properly

Tikka T3X polymer OEM trigger guard | eBay

For a detailed description of the part/s & component/s please refer to my title and pictures and for the type of firearm please refer to my item specifics.Genuine polymer (not metal) Tikka part. Prior to the brand new rifle being fired this was removed for an upgrade. Brand new.

www.ebay.com

 

[Dave Thomas]

Why are you switching between right and left hand while doing load development?

 

[philcox]

Why are you switching between right and left hand while doing load development?

Mostly because I seem to shoot just about the same. Also thought I’d get “less tired” swapping, but as was pointed out, I was injecting variability into the equation, so now will shoot one or the other during and entire session.


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[Rich M]

Those groups look fine.

If you are worried about your form. Sign up for a RS shooting class.

 

[Harvey_NW]

You may have gotten a bad rifle, YES Tikka makes a turd now and again

 

[JGRaider]

Blaming the rifle/equipment is the easy button. Change your powder and bullets first.

 

[philcox]

As a bit of a reminder of how this thread got started: I posted a bunch of groups on the “show me your Tikka 10 round groups” thread, and mentioned that my groups were nowhere near what people were showing on that thread. That’s when [mention]ResearchinStuff [/mention] suggested, I start another thread, and folks could try to help me dial in what was going on. So I started this thread, and it has been very helpful.

There were two specific items that I did wrong that this group pointed out, which had nothing to do with the actual load ( be a good or bad) I was evaluating:

1. My action was improperly set in my OEM stock. It was actually resting on top of the recoil lug, and not the recoil lug in the slot.

2. I was trying to do too much at one time, thinking that I was being efficient, where in reality I was becoming sloppy.

By adjusting, both of those, I had a marked improvement in the groups utilizing essentially the same rifle and load. Now I’m going to try to tweak the load a little bit to see if I can get the groups a little bit smaller.


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[ResearchinStuff]

rokslide in action. it definitely helped that you had rifles, rings, and scopes that are well known commodities. so often the guys who ask for help have some type of obvious weak link component, get emotional about the suggestions to upgrade, and resort to throwing rocks/names at everyone who is trying to help.

for your load tweaking - try a temperature stable, single base extruded powder. H4350 is the starting point for the creed. maybe benchmark or varget for the 223 unless you can luck into some 8208 xbr.

 

[philcox]

rokslide in action. it definitely helped that you had rifles, rings, and scopes that are well known commodities. so often the guys who ask for help have some type of obvious weak link component, get emotional about the suggestions to upgrade, and resort to throwing rocks/names at everyone who is trying to help.

for your load tweaking - try a temperature stable, single base extruded powder. H4350 is the starting point for the creed. maybe benchmark or varget for the 223 unless you can luck into some 8208 xbr.

LOL, now you get my “argumentative” side (really not argumentative, more just challenging my understanding and biases):

1. What’s the issue with Hunter? I have about 7.5 lbs of the stuff

2. Similar question as to why not Varget (was great in my 124Hammer)

3. I was under the impression that H4350 would be better in a bit longer barrel, and that Varget would be better because faster?

4. I am wondering if going from CCI 200 to GM 210 M would make any difference?

5. I may see how the 130 TMK performs out of the rifle as well. I looked at my stash, and I have 390 of those, where I only have 155 140 ELDM. If I was going to try the 130, Would Barr or Hunter be more preferable for those in your opinion?

The only problem with the TMK, is that I’m not sure how it shoots out of my rifles, since I’m not aware of a factory reload that I could test with, which I was similarly able to do with the 140 ELDM.

I need to get some rounds down that new 6.5 barrel anyway, so figured I could load up a number of rounds of 10 on that 130 TMK and see if they came close. Current thought is to do three 10 round loads with 45 grains of ramshot hunter, and 39 grains of Varget, 10 in Petersen with CCI 200, 10 in Petersen with 210 M, and 10 in the Lapua with CCI 400.


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[Claybuster]

LOL, now you get my “argumentative” side (really not argumentative, more just challenging my understanding and biases):

1. What’s the issue with Hunter? I have about 7.5 lbs of the stuff

2. Similar question as to why not Varget (was great in my 124Hammer)

3. I was under the impression that H4350 would be better in a bit longer barrel, and that Varget would be better because faster?

4. I am wondering if going from CCI 200 to GM 210 M would make any difference?

5. I may see how the 130 TMK performs out of the rifle as well. I looked at my stash, and I have 390 of those, where I only have 155 140 ELDM. If I was going to try the 130, Would Barr or Hunter be more preferable for those in your opinion?

The only problem with the TMK, is that I’m not sure how it shoots out of my rifles, since I’m not aware of a factory reload that I could test with, which I was similarly able to do with the 140 ELDM.

I need to get some rounds down that new 6.5 barrel anyway, so figured I could load up a number of rounds of 10 on that 130 TMK and see if they came close. Current thought is to do three 10 round loads with 45 grains of ramshot hunter, and 39 grains of Varget, 10 in Petersen with CCI 200, 10 in Petersen with 210 M, and 10 in the Lapua with CCI 400.


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I'm not sure how much you know about load development but cranking out 30 rounds of an unknown load is not the way to do it and probably a waste of time.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

1. I don't know anyone using hunter. It might be great, might not, might get you back in the doom loop with too many uncontrolled variables to know what to fix. In general, double based powders are not as accurate as single base.
2. Varget is probably fine, especially if you go to the 130 tmk, but case fill is going to be lower. Normally that's not a good thing for accuracy, but sometimes it doesn't matter.
3. Won't know until you try
4. If i were you, I'd load up as many identical shells as possible with a load that has shown a reasonable and acceptable level of accuracy. Since you know the 140 eld is working good, I would start there, and use those shells to really focus on your own shooting skills. That's the only way to really work on yourself. If you're changing loads and distantly tinkering, all your error gets blamed on a bad load. After you've reduced your error, i.e 10 shot group sizes are pretty consistent, you've gotten to the point where you can really evaluate a new load and say if it's good/ bad/ acceptable