UM Bolt Handle - Your Opinion/Experience

[gjw]

Hey all, I've been looking at some of posts here on the forum about this aftermarket Tikka bolt handle and they've been very helpful.

My question for you owners of this handle is

What are the pros and cons for a strictly hunting rifle using the short standard handle with the 1" ball?

Thanks for your patience with me!

Greg

 

[ElPollo]

It’s the best bolt handle design for the Tikka, hands down. Most are just decorative trash, but the UM short handle actually improves the gun. I always found the factory, swept-back, slick, pear-shaped knob to be a bit hard to operate quickly. The larger knob on the UM is definitely easier to grasp and hold on to, but unlike the others it doesn’t get in the way. With the Tikka, a little upward pressure on the bolt handle can result in light primer strikes or even going out of battery. Longer replacement bolt handles and big, weirdly-shaped knobs catch on everything and push the handle outward. My take is that the UM is the only replacement bolt handle for a tikka that doesn’t make that situation worse. That said, it’s definitely not a critical modification for a hunting gun and it’s not the first thing I would suggest spending your money on. It is a really nice, but subtle improvement, though. I have them on all my Tikkas.

 

[Wprinkle]

Hey all, I've been looking at some of posts here on the forum about this aftermarket Tikka bolt handle and they've been very helpful.

My question for you owners of this handle is

What are the pros and cons for a strictly hunting rifle using the short standard handle with the 1" ball?

Thanks for your patience with me!

Greg

The smooth ball makes running the bolt faster and smoother. (Key to this is how you crab claw the bolt and use wrist only action not arm action) Big bulky, grippy knobs almost make you use fingertips to run the bolt and that is not fast and will cause you to raise up out of the scope and are break position because you have to move more of your arm to rack the bolt. The short handle eliminates the knob being slightly raised and this will cause the tikka to not fire. It is a must have IMO for all tikka rifles.

 

[SloppyJ]

Pros: It's way better than the stock handle.

Cons: It hits the side of my stock just barely.