I ordered one of the Europtic Tikka specials in 300 win mag. I have been reading about loads for this rifle and some are saying that a rifle like this may have difficulty stabilizing a heavy bullet in the 200-210gr range because of the 1-11 twist rate.

I guess my question is how can you tell if your rifle will stabilize a certain bullet? Can you just keep increasing the weight of the bullet and see when accuracy drops off? In order to determine this do you just work up a load and find an ES/SD at a velocity you are happy with and see if the bullet is accurate?

It's the length of the bullet that comes into play, not its weight. Bullets of the same weight can vary in length by enough to matter.

Use the Berger twist rate stability calculator on their website. You can pick a Berger bullet from a list, or enter your bullet’s info (weight, length, BC, caliber). Then plug in your twist rate, estimated velocity, atmospherics, etc.

^^ This. But the issue you will have with the Tikka is the short magazine box that the factory rifles use. Their mag box has a max length of about 3.350". This is a short length for many of the longer and heavier bullets.

I shoot a Hornady 225 grain BTHP in my 300 WM with an 11" twist. It does fine. But I seat it out to about 3.6", and push the speeds up around 2800 fps in a 29" barrel. You won't be able to do this with this bullet in that rifle. But you could run a 208 grain BTHP seated to about 3.340" and it work just fine with the right powder.

Twist rate calculator:

http://www.bergerbullets.com/twist-rate-calculator/

Another helpful link for bullet lengths is this: http://www.jbmballistics.com/ballistics/lengths/lengths.shtml

I use if often, and the measurements are very close to what I have seen.

^^Good info above.

The story I have is for a Tikka .300 Win Mag, a friend of mine owns. I have him loaded with 210 gr Berger VLD-Hunting. As Chad said, you will not get to the rifling, in a Tikka long action. There is too much free-bore. So I loaded to mag length, and found the correct charge of H-1000, and it works just fine.

And a 200-210+ grain bullet in a light weight 300 WM, ouch! That thing will be kickin'!!!

That's what brakes are for

Our long action AICS bottom metal will allow an OAL of 3.50 and will fit in factory stock or aftermarket stocks with factory inlet.

What's the distance of bolt face to the feed ramp?

Not sure off the top of my head so I’ll need to look.

You've got calipers at home. I know it!

Max length of opening on bottom of action is 3.625. Distance from bolt face is slightly less.

RedSnake, I was looking to replace the bottom metal and use AICS mags. I have heard of another company making a replacement bottom metal so I could use the AICS mags. I didn't realize you guys make one also.

You can use that one if you are willing have the trigger housing milled away. But they do make a quality part.

Here’s ours...

Man I want my T3 300wm to look like that. Maybe one of these days. I've got your website bookmarked!!