Tikka .223 DIY McGowen build won’t group

[HighCascadeHunter]

Posting this hoping to get some help on a DIY tikka build I put together.
Specs: tikka action, 16.5” McGowan .223 lite profile barrel 1/7 twist.
Mountain tactical bottom metal on a bell and Carson stock.
UM rings, mark4hd 2-10

I took off the old 7 rem mag barrel, cleaned everything up, applied some anti seize to new barrel threads. Torqued to 100 ft lbs
That all went smooth.

Next I worked on the stock and sanded out a fair amount of barrel channel to ensure free floating, also drilled in two studs for a SRS arca rail.
Took a few attempts to get everything fitting right. But seemed to work out.
Then put it all together with the mountain tactical bottom metal and torqued action screws to 65 in lbs .

All in all the rifle is a blast to shoot. Everything works.
But I’ve been surprised at how “picky” the rifle is with ammo selections.
Only thing that shoots is the AAC 556 77OTM
10 rounds 1.5 inch group at 100 yards. Great! Happy with that.

But almost everything else is between 2-3 moa accuracy, including factory eldm, the AAC 77TMK ammo, and anything else I tried.

Even tried handloads, 75 ELDM, hornady brass, StaBall match powder. Still lousy groups.

I’m wondering where to start, bad barrel? Action screws torque specs? Barrel channel? Bedding?

Overall I’m very happy with 10 round 1.5 moa out of the 77OTM and I’m training in the field ringing 10” plates to 450 consistently. But I don’t love that bullet for hunting and would really like a tmk or eldm to shoot well.

I appreciate any feedback on this build or things to correct. My experience has been when a rifle shoots, it just shoots. No drama. Correct me if that’s wrong.
Thanks

 

[blacktailcentral]

Posting this hoping to get some help on a DIY tikka build I put together.
Specs: tikka action, 16.5” McGowan .223 lite profile barrel 1/7 twist.
Mountain tactical bottom metal on a bell and Carson stock.
UM rings, mark4hd 2-10

I took off the old 7 rem mag barrel, cleaned everything up, applied some anti seize to new barrel threads. Torqued to 100 ft lbs
That all went smooth.

Next I worked on the stock and sanded out a fair amount of barrel channel to ensure free floating, also drilled in two studs for a SRS arca rail.
Took a few attempts to get everything fitting right. But seemed to work out.
Then put it all together with the mountain tactical bottom metal and torqued action screws to 65 in lbs .

All in all the rifle is a blast to shoot. Everything works.
But I’ve been surprised at how “picky” the rifle is with ammo selections.
Only thing that shoots is the AAC 556 77OTM
10 rounds 1.5 inch group at 100 yards. Great! Happy with that.

But almost everything else is between 2-3 moa accuracy, including factory eldm, the AAC 77TMK ammo, and anything else I tried.

Even tried handloads, 75 ELDM, hornady brass, StaBall match powder. Still lousy groups.

I’m wondering where to start, bad barrel? Action screws torque specs? Barrel channel? Bedding?

Overall I’m very happy with 10 round 1.5 moa out of the 77OTM and I’m training in the field ringing 10” plates to 450 consistently. But I don’t love that bullet for hunting and would really like a tmk or eldm to shoot well.

I appreciate any feedback on this build or things to correct. My experience has been when a rifle shoots, it just shoots. No drama. Correct me if that’s wrong.
Thanks

Not sure if it would effect accuracy but your bolt face is the wrong size for the case head, you have a magnum bolt .532 inch and you need the 223 bolt face

 

[HighCascadeHunter]

Not sure if it would effect accuracy but your bolt face is the wrong size for the case head, you have a magnum bolt .532 inch and you need the 223 bolt face

Forgot to mention, I traded out the mag bolt for 223 bolt.

 

[blacktailcentral]

Forgot to mention, I traded out the mag bolt for 223 bolt.

Agh gotcha good good

 

[TxxAgg]

Seems unfair to say “Tikka” won’t shoot with all those changes.

 

[mtnbound]

Posting this hoping to get some help on a DIY tikka build I put together.
Specs: tikka action, 16.5” McGowan .223 lite profile barrel 1/7 twist.
Mountain tactical bottom metal on a bell and Carson stock.
UM rings, mark4hd 2-10

I took off the old 7 rem mag barrel, cleaned everything up, applied some anti seize to new barrel threads. Torqued to 100 ft lbs
That all went smooth.

Next I worked on the stock and sanded out a fair amount of barrel channel to ensure free floating, also drilled in two studs for a SRS arca rail.
Took a few attempts to get everything fitting right. But seemed to work out.
Then put it all together with the mountain tactical bottom metal and torqued action screws to 65 in lbs .

All in all the rifle is a blast to shoot. Everything works.
But I’ve been surprised at how “picky” the rifle is with ammo selections.
Only thing that shoots is the AAC 556 77OTM
10 rounds 1.5 inch group at 100 yards. Great! Happy with that.

But almost everything else is between 2-3 moa accuracy, including factory eldm, the AAC 77TMK ammo, and anything else I tried.

Even tried handloads, 75 ELDM, hornady brass, StaBall match powder. Still lousy groups.

I’m wondering where to start, bad barrel? Action screws torque specs? Barrel channel? Bedding?

Overall I’m very happy with 10 round 1.5 moa out of the 77OTM and I’m training in the field ringing 10” plates to 450 consistently. But I don’t love that bullet for hunting and would really like a tmk or eldm to shoot well.

I appreciate any feedback on this build or things to correct. My experience has been when a rifle shoots, it just shoots. No drama. Correct me if that’s wrong.
Thanks

I could not get the 75eldms to group until 2.4 coal, and using CFE223. The 73eldms grouped well, as did the 77tmks, and the Hornady 75bthps. They liked Varget, 8208, and Stabal Match.

 

[HighCascadeHunter]

I could not get the 75eldms to group until 2.4 coal, and using CFE223. The 73eldms grouped well, as did the 77tmks, and the Hornady 75bthps. They liked Varget, 8208, and Stabal Match.

Thanks for the info, I was at 2.39 if I recall correctly for the 75eldms I tried over staBALL match. I think 10 rounds was around 2.5 moa.

I’m unsure of how much work to do reloading if there is a problem with the rifle itself in how I put it together.

 

[Kaleb]

You have changed a lot no big deal but just more I’s to dot and T’s to cross.

I’m not a Tikka expert or any expert for that matter but I think something is in a bind or getting pressure in a spot that you don’t mean for it to. With all the changes it could be in a number of places but a bolt action rifle isn’t that complicated even though they’ve made anyone who’s honest or done much chase our tails before. Get the horse back infront of the cart and start there.

Is your action seating in without being in a bind?
Is your barrel trigger etc clear from the stock?
Is your scope a proven scope?

Not necessarily on a Tikka but I’ve spent a lot of rounds to find out I had a trigger making contact with the trigger guard or a screw was making contact with the stock. I’ve had base screws too long hitting the barrel but that’s not you’re problem here.

Have you measured your headspace from factory and fired cases? I doubt you’re unlucky enough to have a bad barrel but could have excessive headspace. I doubt that too but thinking out loud.

Make sure the action screws aren’t too long. I just think something is in a bind somewhere.

 

[Kaleb]

I’ll go measure one but I think you’re jumping them pretty far. 26.0-26.3 of Lever generally works. I can’t speak to the other powders.

 

[mtnbound]

Thanks for the info, I was at 2.39 if I recall correctly for the 75eldms I tried over staBALL match. I think 10 rounds was around 2.5 moa.

I’m unsure of how much work to do reloading if there is a problem with the rifle itself in how I put it together.

Even when they sort of grouped, I was not happy and finally just walked away from the 75eldms.

 

[Kaleb]

2.450 is my oal’ish with 75amax seconds

The case base to ogive is 1.890 for my older tikka. The COAL measurement will vary but that measurement doesn’t.

 

[Sadie]

Is the most accurate bullet shooter than the others? And are you sure it is a 7 twist. Things aren't always what they say they are.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Just another variable to consider that may not even matter but most torque specs I’ve seen for tikka prefits is 75-85lbs. Again that may matter or it may not.

The 75 eldms seem to be one of the hardest to get to shoot out of a standard Saami chamber due to mag restrictions, not sure if that favors in here. I would maybe spend some more time with the 73s or even 77s personally.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Just another variable to consider that may not even matter but most torque specs I’ve seen for tikka prefits is 75-85lbs. Again that may matter or it may not.

I can't say anything universal but PVA torques their non-magnum specs to 75 ft/lbs but I asked if I could torque to 100 in the future. PVA said that would be fine.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Posting this hoping to get some help on a DIY tikka build I put together.
Specs: tikka action, 16.5” McGowan .223 lite profile barrel 1/7 twist.
Mountain tactical bottom metal on a bell and Carson stock.
UM rings, mark4hd 2-10

I took off the old 7 rem mag barrel, cleaned everything up, applied some anti seize to new barrel threads. Torqued to 100 ft lbs
That all went smooth.

Next I worked on the stock and sanded out a fair amount of barrel channel to ensure free floating, also drilled in two studs for a SRS arca rail.
Took a few attempts to get everything fitting right. But seemed to work out.
Then put it all together with the mountain tactical bottom metal and torqued action screws to 65 in lbs .

All in all the rifle is a blast to shoot. Everything works.
But I’ve been surprised at how “picky” the rifle is with ammo selections.
Only thing that shoots is the AAC 556 77OTM
10 rounds 1.5 inch group at 100 yards. Great! Happy with that.

But almost everything else is between 2-3 moa accuracy, including factory eldm, the AAC 77TMK ammo, and anything else I tried.

Even tried handloads, 75 ELDM, hornady brass, StaBall match powder. Still lousy groups.

I’m wondering where to start, bad barrel? Action screws torque specs? Barrel channel? Bedding?

Overall I’m very happy with 10 round 1.5 moa out of the 77OTM and I’m training in the field ringing 10” plates to 450 consistently. But I don’t love that bullet for hunting and would really like a tmk or eldm to shoot well.

I appreciate any feedback on this build or things to correct. My experience has been when a rifle shoots, it just shoots. No drama. Correct me if that’s wrong.
Thanks

My stock Tikka is fairly picky (factory 1:10” twist barrel cut to 16.1”). I think there is a lot of variability in factory 5.56 and .223 offerings. If it shoots the cheap AAC stuff well, consider that a plus. You could also try out the ADI offerings (mine loves the 55- and 69- grain bullets) and the Frontier offerings (mine loves the 62-grain 5.56).

Edit - this is the pile of ammo I went through to find three that shot really well and a couple more that were respectable. I’m sure someone out there has a rifle that shoots some of these better than mine did.

And this is the best group I got:

And this is the worst pair of groups I got (disregard purple marks). My rifle hated the Winchester (green) and Compete (no marks) brands.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Seems unfair to say “Tikka” won’t shoot with all those changes.

Agreed. Once you change out the barrel, I’m not sure you can lay the blame on Tikka.

 

[sierracharlie338]

I can't say anything universal but PVA torques their non-magnum specs to 75 ft/lbs but I asked if I could torque to 100 in the future. PVA said that would be fine.

Just out of curiosity why 100?

 

[BRTreedogs]

It’s a prefit McGowan?
Contact them and send the rifle in.

Mine came back Rokslide ok but not what I expect for a semi custom rifle.

I will say Sam was super straight forward and had no problem warranting my barrel and had it back much quicker then expected.

But McGowan and Carbon 6 will never be on my buy list again.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Just out of curiosity why 100?

Paranoia about zero-shift if the barrel were to take a big impact.

Side note: OP, this isn't really a Tikka that won't group. It's not even a Tikka barrel and that's the most important part to how a rifle shoots.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Do you have a comparator and .223 modified case so you can measure how far from the lands your loads are?

If not, you should invest in one.

Trying one handload and calling it "not good" isn't really enough data to go on. If you want to shoot TMKs then get a bunch, and start loading up some different loads to test them out. I normally start with at least 3 different powders, keep the cases, primers, and bullets the same, and load everything to 0.020" off the lands. Once I find a load that the rifle likes, you can play with seating depth to "dial it in", if necessary.

I, personally, don't see much point in spending all the time and effort to create a semi-custom rifle and then feed it cheap, super mass produced ammo, especially when you have the capacity to create your own custom ammo.