Tikka T3x Hunter Accuracy

[Bergeron96]

I have a Tikka T3x Hunter chambered in .243 that I bought new last year. I have tried about 10 different factory loadings and have put a total of around 300 rounds through it. My issue is that I have never been able to get a 5 shot group under 1.5 MOA. I would say the gun averages around 2 to 2.5 MOA. I have retorqued all of the scope rings and bottom screws to spec and have cleaned a few times with no improvement. Attached are pictures of the best groups I have gotten at 100 yards with my guns favorite ammo which seems to be Federal Fusion 95 grain. Am I being picky or is this considered reasonable accuracy for the Hunter model? I guess I am disappointed as this is my first Tikka and my cheap Ruger American easily out shoots it. Any opinions on how to improve the accuracy? I am not a hand loader. Thanks!

 

[Wyo_hntr]

I would suggest stop cleaning it and just shoot it. 1.5 moa is fine.

 

[Ucsdryder]

I would suggest stop cleaning it and just shoot it. 1.5 moa is fine.

No chance I’d be happy with a 1.5-2.5 moa gun and I don’t think not cleaning it is going to help. Did you go through all the normal trouble shooting?

Scope, rings?
Free float barrel?
Different torque settings?

Have you had anybody else shoot it?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

.Ensure that your barrel is not making contact with the stock anywhere.
.Ensure the action is fully seated properly into the recoil lug.
.Ensure your action screws are degreased and paint penned or loctited in with minimum 45” lbs. I use 65” lbs with aftermarket bottom metal.
.Ensure your ring base to action screws are are degreased and paint penned or loctited in. Torque properly. What brand are these?
.Ensure your ring cap top screws are degreased and paint penned in. Torque properly. What brand are these?
.Ensure your scope is solid and doesn’t have a wandering zero from minor impacts.
.Stop cleaning your barrel and get 100 rounds through the gun minimum before worrying about “groups”.

Properly zero the gun by confirming that 10 shots land at your POI at 100 yards. Within 2” is fine for this for now.

Once you’ve checked and eliminated all of those items, then we move to ammo selection.

In about 8 Sako and Tikka .243 rifles and close to 30 Sako and Tikka factory barrels, I’ve never seen one that didn’t shoot 95 grain SSTs more accurately than most shooters can legitimately shoot. Talking minimum 10 round groups at 100 yards.

 

[5MilesBack]

No chance I’d be happy with a 1.5-2.5 moa gun and I don’t think not cleaning it is going to help.

I don't know, I've got a Browning A-bolt 7mag that will shoot 2-3" groups at 100 after it's been completely cleaned, then takes about 40 rounds until they're stacking again. It hates a clean barrel. Which is why I only clean it when the accuracy starts to waiver a bit.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Forgot to put

.Ensure scope parallax isn’t causing issues. This is rare but I’ve seen this cause issues for shooters.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I don't know, I've got a Browning A-bolt 7mag that will shoot 2-3" groups at 100 after it's been completely cleaned, then takes about 40 rounds until they're stacking again. It hates a clean barrel. Which is why I only clean it when the accuracy starts to waiver a bit.

Sako and Tikka barrels generally shoot well out of the box. They do on average speed up and start to “tighten up” between 100ish to 200ish rounds in my experience.

 

[SDHNTR]

I have a Tikka T3x Hunter chambered in .243 that I bought new last year. I have tried about 10 different factory loadings and have put a total of around 300 rounds through it. My issue is that I have never been able to get a 5 shot group under 1.5 MOA. I would say the gun averages around 2 to 2.5 MOA. I have retorqued all of the scope rings and bottom screws to spec and have cleaned a few times with no improvement. Attached are pictures of the best groups I have gotten at 100 yards with my guns favorite ammo which seems to be Federal Fusion 95 grain. Am I being picky or is this considered reasonable accuracy for the Hunter model? I guess I am disappointed as this is my first Tikka and my cheap Ruger American easily out shoots it. Any opinions on how to improve the accuracy? I am not a hand loader. Thanks!

Those groups with the quarter look a hell of a lot better 2-2.5 moa! What am I missing here?

 

[Grassymike]

My Tikka T3x is a 7mm-08. I worked for quite a while playing with loads and can confirm that when I went to hornady bullets it began to shoot very well. I use 139 grain Interlocks with h4350 powder.

 

[Wyo_hntr]

No chance I’d be happy with a 1.5-2.5 moa gun and I don’t think not cleaning it is going to help.

Do you believe cleaning will improve accuracy? I certainly don't, especially if someone is trying to shoot groups directly after cleaning the bore.

Accuracy standards are certainly individual.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Do you believe cleaning will improve accuracy? I certainly don't, especially if someone is trying to shoot groups directly after cleaning the bore.

Accuracy standards are certainly individual.

I don’t think it matters one way or the other. Clean and foul or just shoot fouled barrel. I’ve talked to gunsmiths that’ll say to clean down to bare metal if you’re having issues and start over.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Those groups with the quarter look a hell of a lot better 2-2.5 moa! What am I missing here?

I read it as those were his best groups, around 1.5” but most are in the 2-2.5”.

 

[Bergeron96]

No chance I’d be happy with a 1.5-2.5 moa gun and I don’t think not cleaning it is going to help. Did you go through all the normal trouble shooting?

Scope, rings?
Free float barrel?
Different torque settings?

Have you had anybody else shoot it?

I have been experimenting with the torque settings with no results. I will recheck the free float on the barrel and have my brother shoot it. Thank you for the reply!

 

[Ucsdryder]

I have been experimenting with the torque settings with no results. I will recheck the free float on the barrel and have my brother shoot it. Thank you for the reply!

Dollar bill should slide almost to the action.

 

[Bergeron96]

.Ensure that your barrel is not making contact with the stock anywhere.
.Ensure the action is fully seated properly into the recoil lug.
.Ensure your action screws are degreased and paint penned or loctited in with minimum 45” lbs. I use 65” lbs with aftermarket bottom metal.
.Ensure your ring base to action screws are are degreased and paint penned or loctited in. Torque properly. What brand are these?
.Ensure your ring cap top screws are degreased and paint penned in. Torque properly. What brand are these?
.Ensure your scope is solid and doesn’t have a wandering zero from minor impacts.
.Stop cleaning your barrel and get 100 rounds through the gun minimum before worrying about “groups”.

Properly zero the gun by confirming that 10 shots land at your POI at 100 yards. Within 2” is fine for this for now.

Once you’ve checked and eliminated all of those items, then we move to ammo selection.

In about 8 Sako and Tikka .243 rifles and close to 30 Sako and Tikka factory barrels, I’ve never seen one that didn’t shoot 95 grain SSTs more accurately than most shooters can legitimately shoot. Talking minimum 10 round groups at 100 yards.

Thank you. Do you think the heat in the barrel from the first 3 shots could be opening up the groups? I have gotten a few sub moa 3 shot groups but my 5 shot groups are not good.

Dollar bill should slide almost to the action.

nimum 10 round groups at 100 yards.

Thank you. Do you think the heat in the barrel from the first 3 shots could be opening up the groups? I have gotten a few sub moa 3 shot groups but my 5 shot groups are usually 2+ moa.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Thank you. Do you think the heat in the barrel from the first 3 shots could be opening up the groups? I have gotten a few sub moa 3 shot groups but my 5 shot groups are not good.


Thank you. Do you think the heat in the barrel from the first 3 shots could be opening up the groups? I have gotten a few sub moa 3 shot groups but my 5 shot groups are usually 2+ moa.

In general Tikka and Sako barrels (due to being cold hammer forged and properly stress relieved) do not care much about temperature in my experience with them. Guys would freak out at how hot I let my barrels get when shooting. This hasn’t caused issues with accuracy or barrel life from what I’ve seen with their barrels.

As I mentioned above in that list, there are a lot of variables to consider and check out before I’d start worrying about barrel temp. 5 shots back to back on a Tikka barrel is absolutely no sweat for it.

No manufacturer is perfect. We’ve had guys check everything listed above and finally narrow it down to out of spec factory head spacing or just a bad barrel in general. This is of course, with Sako and Tikka, very rare.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Dollar bill should slide almost to the action.

Yes sir!

OP, fold a piece of standard printer paper in half to make it more rigid and make sure it slides easily and freely all the way back to right here…

 

[Bergeron96]

In general Tikka and Sako barrels (due to being cold hammer forged and properly stress relieved) do not care much about temperature in my experience with them. Guys would freak out at how hot I let my barrels get when shooting. This hasn’t caused issues with accuracy or barrel life from what I’ve seen with their barrels.

As I mentioned above in that list, there are a lot of variables to consider and check out before I’d start worrying about barrel temp. 5 shots back to back on a Tikka barrel is absolutely no sweat for it.

No manufacturer is perfect. We’ve had guys check everything listed above and finally narrow it down to out of spec factory head spacing or just a bad barrel in general. This is of course, with Sako and Tikka, very rare.

Thank you for your reply. I also noticed that after about a dozen shots the bolt was hard to open and close. I figured this was because the gun is hot? I took the bolt out after and noticed some brass shavings on the bolt face. Is this normal? I was shooting federal fusion and Hornady superformance.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Thank you for your reply. I also noticed that after about a dozen shots the bolt was hard to open and close. I figured this was because the gun is hot? I took the bolt out after and noticed some brass shavings on the bolt face. Is this normal? I was shooting federal fusion and Hornady superformance.

This has nothing to do with the gun being hot. Considering it’s happening with multiple factory loads you could indeed have a head spacing issue.

You could see this and the lack of accuracy both from a head spacing problem. However, lots of other things could also cause both of those issues as well.

 

[Bergeron96]

This has nothing to do with the gun being hot. Considering it’s happening with multiple factory loads you could indeed have a head spacing issue.

You could see this and the lack of accuracy both from a head spacing problem. However, lots of other things could also cause both of those issues as well.

Thank you for all your replies. Maybe I will have my gunsmith take a look at it.