I picked up a hardly used Tikka T3 in .308 after hearing all the rave about them. Mounted my new Meopta Optika6 3-18x56 on it right before hunting season and went to the range. I ended up picking up some federal blue box 150's to play around with to get use to the gun. They actually shot pretty well. I was planning a trip to south west Texas where shots would and could be 400+. Well being here in Louisiana, our new range has a max of 100 so i was limited to that. The stock was only painted. I ended up removing the speed bumps as well as free floated it all the way back to the action. I also installed an Elay precision trigger spring, which by the way is very sweet, and went to the range. I also had a box of Hornady SST 165's form my Rem 700.
When I arrived at the range, i wanted to see how the SST's would do. They were actually all over the place. Shot like crap, 2.5 - 3" groups. I wanted to try these, because they shot around .5 moa out of my recently sold Rem 700. Figure the better ballistics of the SST would help out on some of the longer shots in Texas. Well that backfired. So i pulled out the Blue box 150's and to my surprise the shot really well, actually sub moa. I just don't know much of the ballistics on them for longer range shots. I don't reload nor do I have any reloading equipment however a buddy of mine worked up a few loads for my other rifle and could if I asked.
So, the Tikka does have the modified bolt stop and I do have both SA and LA mags in the event I do need to load some out a little longer. The bumps are removed and its free floated all the way back to the action with a good bit of room to spare as well as trigger spring. What if any factory ammo choices do you guys recommend? The main reason I ask is I'm looking for versatility, if thats even possible. I do make the Texas trip every year and have several other places I hunt with shots ranging from inside 100 to 400+.
When I arrived at the range, i wanted to see how the SST's would do. They were actually all over the place. Shot like crap, 2.5 - 3" groups. I wanted to try these, because they shot around .5 moa out of my recently sold Rem 700. Figure the better ballistics of the SST would help out on some of the longer shots in Texas. Well that backfired. So i pulled out the Blue box 150's and to my surprise the shot really well, actually sub moa. I just don't know much of the ballistics on them for longer range shots. I don't reload nor do I have any reloading equipment however a buddy of mine worked up a few loads for my other rifle and could if I asked.
So, the Tikka does have the modified bolt stop and I do have both SA and LA mags in the event I do need to load some out a little longer. The bumps are removed and its free floated all the way back to the action with a good bit of room to spare as well as trigger spring. What if any factory ammo choices do you guys recommend? The main reason I ask is I'm looking for versatility, if thats even possible. I do make the Texas trip every year and have several other places I hunt with shots ranging from inside 100 to 400+.
