Why I would never buy a Tikka

[go4thegusto]

This heated up on another thread about Bergara so I better justify my statement "not a tikka fan"

Here's my story to the best of my abilities. Very bummed we did not photo or video this incident but we were in triage mode.

Every November I host my brother and two nephews at my MN cabin for the annual boys deer hunt. All 3 of them shoot 270 Win. Tikka's.
My brother shot a deer and quickly cycled another round. Soon after I got a text that he was jammed and could I walk over. When I got there he handed me his rifle. The next round was jammed in an upward position. The base was under the bolt face and the nose of the round was jammed in the upper receiver just forward of the loading port. No big deal right? Nope. It was jammed so solidly that nothing could be manipulated by hand. Round could not be pulled out and bolt could not be moved.
I palmed the bolt hard downwards to no avail. Finally I picked up a 2 inch club stick off the ground and pounded on the bolt. It became apparent that I was going to snap off the bolt handle. We walked the mile and a half back to the truck where I had a Leatherman in the console. I pried the neck of the round until we could remove the round. Bullet was at a 45 degree angle in case. Case destroyed when it finally came out.

So fool me once Tikka. We had a deer down and truck nearby on this incident, but talked quite a bit that night in camp about being 5 miles in on an elk hunt and this happens. Worse yet if a follow up shot is required.

So I can hear the comments...anomaly, 1-off, short cycle, yada yada. Whatever, I won't own another Tikka. I am 66 years old and have been a rifleman all of my life. Owned and swapped dozens of rifles. Never had a failure like this one.

 

[wind gypsy]

So I can hear the comments...anomaly, 1-off, short cycle, yada yada. Whatever, I won't own another Tikka. I am 66 years old and have been a rifleman all of my life. Owned and swapped dozens of rifles. Never had a failure like this one.

Yes, they are coming.

 

[HandgunHTR]

This heated up on another thread about Bergara so I better justify my statement "not a tikka fan"

Here's my story to the best of my abilities. Very bummed we did not photo or video this incident but we were in triage mode.

Every November I host my brother and two nephews at my MN cabin for the annual boys deer hunt. All 3 of them shoot 270 Win. Tikka's.
My brother shot a deer and quickly cycled another round. Soon after I got a text that he was jammed and could I walk over. When I got there he handed me his rifle. The next round was jammed in an upward position. The base was under the bolt face and the nose of the round was jammed in the upper receiver just forward of the loading port. No big deal right? Nope. It was jammed so solidly that nothing could be manipulated by hand. Round could not be pulled out and bolt could not be moved.
I palmed the bolt hard downwards to no avail. Finally I picked up a 2 inch club stick off the ground and pounded on the bolt. It became apparent that I was going to snap off the bolt handle. We walked the mile and a half back to the truck where I had a Leatherman in the console. I pried the neck of the round until we could remove the round. Bullet was at a 45 degree angle in case. Case destroyed when it finally came out.

So fool me once Tikka. We had a deer down and truck nearby on this incident, but talked quite a bit that night in camp about being 5 miles in on an elk hunt and this happens. Worse yet if a follow up shot is required.

So I can hear the comments...anomaly, 1-off, short cycle, yada yada. Whatever, I won't own another Tikka. I am 66 years old and have been a rifleman all of my life. Owned and swapped dozens of rifles. Never had a failure like this one.

I assume you removed the magazine before trying to extract the round, correct?

If so, I am having a hard time envisioning how the round was stuck under the bolt.

 

[tnelson25]

Had something happen very similar to a friend's rifle. Maybe not quote that extreme but solid jam that took almost an hour to fix.

 

[go4thegusto]

I assume you removed the magazine before trying to extract the round, correct?

If so, I am having a hard time envisioning how the round was stuck under the bolt.

yes of course

 

[StupidLightweight]

Wow, that's an impressive jam. Congrats to your brother for making that happen. I would have loved to have seen it.

 

[pharmfisher]

But you are considering a Christensen instead?

 

[Marbles]

Why not pry the base of the round through the magazine well?

Did he cycle the bolt only once back and forward? Can you manually reproduce it? Was the base of the round bound on the side of the action? Or was the bind only caused buy the contact between bullet and action on top, case and action midwayish on bottom, and bolt on top of base? was the bolt bound only by the cartridge base, or by something else as well?

Sorry, I'm having a hard time visualizing what you describe in a way that mechanically makes sense to me.

It sounds like either a short stroke resulting in an only partially stripped round, a magazine that was not fully inserted resulting in a partially stripped round, or a round stripped but did not feed fully before the bolt was moved back and cycled again.

Sounds more like an argument against all PF actions and for CRF only.

Was the case from the first shot recovered? (Given it was during a hunt, I probably would not have recovered it). Is it possible the first round blew a primer, which contributed to the binding?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

But you are considering a Christensen instead?

OP is in for a RUDE awakening haha.

 

[2000gtacoma]

Have to admit that sounds a bit odd but not impossible. Did he just hammer the bolt out of excitement?

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Please manually reproduce and send photos. I’m trying to envision how this is possible mechanically speaking on how Tikkas function.

 

[199p]

Thats a solid effort man, i cant work out how you managed that and how it was so stuck,
just stick with a crf if your really worried but ill stick with the smooth tikka action over one everyday.

 

[JGRaider]

User error.

 

[JAC8504]

This is my story with Tikka...

2005 I bought a 300 WSM Tikka T3. Shot 3 boxes through it. The bolt was smooth, trigger was decent, felt very smooth for a factory rifle. I grouped it and my best factory 3 round group was .5 MOA. I loved it

fast forward to deer season. I shot a 8 pointer and it just took the round. I went to cycle another round and the round was jammed in the chamber. I couldnt lift the bolt, I couldnt do a thing. I was dead in the water. That was my first and last time I had a Tikka.

This was my first bolt action rifle, I was 18, I took the rifle back to the dealer and they said they would send it to Tikka - In which they did. I waited and waited and waited. I finally called them and they had no record of the rifle ever coming back. I went back to the dealer the dealer had the proof they sent it. I called the carrier and they said it was delivered. Tikka claimed over and over it was never delivered.

I was in college and the dealer said they would sell me another one for cost for all of the confusion.

I was O-V-E-R Tikka then. I will admit their bolt is very smooth, but man that was the most painful experience for a 18 year old buying their first bolt action rifle.

 

[JGRaider]

This is my story with Tikka...

2005 I bought a 300 WSM Tikka T3. Shot 3 boxes through it. The bolt was smooth, trigger was decent, felt very smooth for a factory rifle. I grouped it and my best factory 3 round group was .5 MOA. I loved it

fast forward to deer season. I shot a 8 pointer and it just took the round. I went to cycle another round and the round was jammed in the chamber. I couldnt lift the bolt, I couldnt do a thing. I was dead in the water. That was my first and last time I had a Tikka.

This was my first bolt action rifle, I was 18, I took the rifle back to the dealer and they said they would send it to Tikka - In which they did. I waited and waited and waited. I finally called them and they had no record of the rifle ever coming back. I went back to the dealer the dealer had the proof they sent it. I called the carrier and they said it was delivered. Tikka claimed over and over it was never delivered.

I was in college and the dealer said they would sell me another one for cost for all of the confusion.

I was O-V-E-R Tikka then. I will admit their bolt is very smooth, but man that was the most painful experience for a 18 year old buying their first bolt action rifle.

So the first round cycled as it should, and the 2nd one jammed?

 

[go4thegusto]

So the first round cycled as it should, and the 2nd one jammed?

He was in a treestand, First round was in the chamber with safety on. Follow-up jammed.

 

[ElPollo]

Yeah, with all due respect, I think there is more to that story that happened before you got there. I’m guessing your brother whacked magazine on the tree while getting into the stand which drove the magazine further upward into the action and caused the second round to misfeed. But it’s like with ARs. If you have a problem, bashing on the foreword assist just makes things worse. The only way I can see getting where your brother was is by trying to bash a round into the chamber after it misfed. It’s not my intent to say your brother did anything wrong. If he was taking a second shot at a deer, he likely got a little overzealous on problem that was already there.

 

[JAC8504]

So the first round cycled as it should, and the 2nd one jammed?

No. First round went bang...stuck in chamber. No ejection, couldn't move bolt, just plain stuck. Gunsmith said he didn't want to touch it and advised to take it back to the dealer to get it back to Tikka

 

[Jon_G]

I don't know much as much about rifles as many people on here. I do like my B-14 but I admit I haven't put more than 300 rds through it though. I know there will be many opinions, but could you buy a really nice rifle with $2000?
I wouldn't mind selling my Bergara if it's just a matter of time before it has issues.

What would suck for me if I'd have to sell my Bergara with the MDT HNT26 that I have on it now. I'm a sucker for a light rifle.

 

[JAC8504]

"18 year old first bolt action rifle."

....... I'm 39........

gunsmith was mid 50s?

gun dealer was in his upper 40s - young 50s in '05

don't with the age....


now go about trying to diagnose a stuck bolt, that won't extract, eject or budge? bad headspacing ? cause a pressure problem? explain the lost rifle once it arrived back to them? the list is much longer than "18 year old first bolt action" gtfo