Tikka Not Grouping??

[swavescatter]

My Tikka 300WM would start sending flyers after about 2 shots, unless I waited a few minutes between each shot. Try that and make sure the barrel is cold.

If your groups tighten up you'll know you have to free float more...

 

[OKHunter84]

I have an A bolt medallion 300 WSM my dad gave me. I think it is around 9 pounds scoped if I remember right. It was the same way when I was first shooting it. It would rattle your teeth and the barrel would get hot fast. In hunting all that usually matters is your first cold bore shot. I wouldn't sit out there banging away ten shot groups and heating up your barrel red hot. I understand the science behind the cone of your barrel and all that. Get a brake on that sucker and it'll make it way more bearable.

 

[Rich M]

I've got a model 70 30-06 that kicks hard and breaks scopes. Some guns are beasts.

Fold up a beach towel and put that in between yer shoulder and the gun butt. Makes a diff. If anyone calls you a wuss offer to let them shoot it 6x in a row.

 

[Jack321]

OP, you didnt say if you had shot lighter-weight magnum rifles before. A 300 winmag in an 8 1/2lb unbraked rifle is punishing, and especially reading that your “fliers” are off horizontally my guess is that a good portion of what you are seeing is recoil management. You said you had other rifles you shoot better—do you have other lightweight heavy-recoiling rifles you shoot better? If no, that’d be my guess.

I had a 338 Win Mag that I just sold and I routinely shoot 20ga and 12ga slugs for deer since I'm in a slug only location.

 

[ElPollo]

I had a 338 Win Mag that I just sold and I routinely shoot 20ga and 12ga slugs for deer since I'm in a slug only location.

Does that mean you are flinch-resistant or pre-flinched?

OKhunter laughed at this post, but it wasn’t meant to be funny. Recoil affects us all more than we would like to think. If torquing and free-locating doesn’t fix it, and your optic is holding zero, the issue is likely to be recoil. I still like big guns. But I recognize that I don’t shoot them as well, I don’t enjoy shooting them as much, and if I pick the right bullets there isn’t much that I really need them to kill.

 

[Jack321]

Does that mean you are flinch-resistant or pre-flinched?

 

[OKHunter84]

You could try throwing that rifle in a lead sled.. Then you could confirm your zero and take out the human element. You would know if it's you or the gun then.

 

[ElPollo]

Add weight or add a high volume suppressor. Breaks reduce recoil more, but the blast often creates more accuracy problems and makes you less popular with your shooting buddies.

 

[bpctcb]

On a 300 mag I gotta ask..are you flinching on that third shot?

BP

 

[Fireflyfishing]

So I just checked the torque screws near the action to and tightened them to 42#s , the front one was almost at 42#s and the one near the trigger guard was a little more loose, not horrible, but I backed it off and retightenes it to 42#s.


Also checked the free float and was able to put a $1 bill all the way back as far as the picture shows.

Is that it? I'll be shooting it on Thursday....

Looks like you have some sanding to do.

 

[Outdoorsman12b]

If you’re shooting 14x dial it down to 8-10 mag. Shoot a bigger group with match ammo.

 

[ridgehopper]

That little tikka barrel is probably pretty warm after a couple. It shouldn’t walk but then again it’s a factory barrel. I’d try to shoot a real slow group. 2-3min per shot and see how it does. 300wim mag is a lot of cartridge for a t3x stock platform and it’s generally not going to hang with the smaller calibers unfortunately.

 

[pbroski]

I have a T3 Stainless Lite in .338wm. It won't shoot cup and core bullets very well. I tried Scirroco, Accubond and SST handloads. I got about 1.5 - 2 inches for 3 shots. I removed the pressure point in the barrel channel and it shot worse, so I put it back in.

With Barnes 210 and 225 TTSX, it will usually put 3 into less than 1 inch, and 5 at right around 1 inch.

There's a significant amount of recoil there, but it's manageable. I think a decent shooter should be able to shoot pretty well with a Tikka in .300wm from the bench. So there's a good chance it's the rifle and not the shooter.

 

[Jack321]

Sanded it down to get a free float and I can pull a sheet of paper almost all the way back to where the barrel meets the chamber. But not all the way, cuz the sides of the stock near the chamber are snug....is this an issue? Am I to sand off some of the side piece.....?

Also grabbed 2 other boxes: Hornady Interlock 180gr and some Federal Trophy Copper 180gr.....

They had other brands of ammo, but at $40-65/box I'm gonna take this REAL slow.....

 

[Jack321]

Ok boys. Just got home from the range. Needless to say I'm VERY happy.

To Recap:
Last Friday, I put Federal Blue Box 180s on paper and it shot 1.5'-2" groups. I then shot 5 rounds of 180gr CoreLoks and 5 rounds of 200 gr Terminal Ascent. Just hoping something would group. All three grouped 1.5-2 inches.

So Tuesday I picked up a box of Hornady 180 gr Interloks and a box 180 gr Federal Trophy Coppers.

This evening I was finally able to hit the range.

The Hornady shot just over an inch. Not horrible.

But it certainly likes Federal Trophy Copper 180s! Phew! And I didn't "baby" it either. I shot a normal 3 shot string. I did not wait 3-5 min to let the barrel cool. I did let it cool between the different boxes tho.

Since I only had 20 rounds, I shot the 3 shot group (see red/white paper pic). First two were touching, I could see in the scope they were touching, and as I was looking down the scope for the 3rd shot. I was just telling myself "Don't F*** it up, don't F*** it up, don't f*** it up." Bang! Right with the other 2 just a touch higher!

Success!

I clicked it left 4 clicks with the Nightforce SHV 4-16x, bang! Dead center, touching the tip of the diamond. (Sorry, no pic of that one.)

Then I went out to 200, 300 & 400 yds.

I only had 20 rounds so I just fired 2 at 200 to verify and they're an inch apart at 200! (See the red silhouette target. My thumb for reference.) I was aiming at the bolt.

So far, VERY happy. I didn't shoot a 3rd just because I wanted to see what 300 & 400 looked like

So I went to 300 & 400 and very good results. I but don't have pics of them, because of all the rain, there's water on the range and I can't get to 300 and 400. But thru my Spotter, I could easily tell that my 300 and 400 yd shots were also very close together and in line with the other ones!

So needless to say, I'm VERY happy.

For reference.

I did put on a Limbsaver Airtech Butt Pad and it def made a difference! I also sanded a contact point on the forearm that was hitting the barrel. I also tightened the action screws to 42 lbs.

So whether it was the sanding of the forearm, tightening the action screws or the ammo, or a combination of all three. I'm not sure, but whatever it was, it worked! And I'm much more pleased.

Now I just have to go buy more ammo....oh. and find some elk.

Appreciate the help everyone!

 

[199p]

Couple of things with Tikka
1 make you adjust the trigger
2 make sure the action is seated on the recoil lug properly an tq to spec
3 take the nubs off the factory stock or get a carbon stock
4 generally all shoot best with hornady ammo almost like they are made for each other.

 

[Pharmseller]

Make sure the ammo you buy is the same lot number.




P

 

[JGRaider]

Nice! Glad you got it sorted out.