Tikka T3 Lite

Tikka T3 Video Review

Who hunts with a T3 Lite? Tikka has always made a pretty good product. Check out the video above. Let me know what you think of the rifle.

Savage rules

If I were to buy a factory rifle, it would be a Tikka. They are the most consistently accurate rifles out of the box. Sure there are other mfg that make an accurate rifle, but you often hear about some with accuracy issues. I have not found a factory Tikka yet that did not shoot sub moa out of the box with good ammo. Plus, they make a great platform to build a custom rifle from.

I find this funny. Most, not all, of the people who dislike the tikka have never owned one. They check them out in the store and find them lite or unsubstantial as another here has said. Well no crap. It's a T3 Lite. Meaning not heavy. Yes they sacrifice the stock to lower the weight. It is still far superior to savages entry level stock. If you want a heavier rifle check out the CTR or tactical version.

Here's a coworkers stock CTR in .260 at 300 yards. If you don't want to do the math that's around .2 moa.

Tikka > Savage

It's not even debateable to me.

You ever shot a Tikka?

I'm with wp. The rifle does seem light, which is the intent. I had a light 260 that I liked, but wanted a longer barrel. Rather than get a rebarrel, I went with the Tikka. I've hunted with it for a season or two now, and I only have one minor complaint. The way the action is built, there isn't quite enough room between the action and scope to carry it in my hand with the thumb in that space.

If I needed another rifle, I'd not hesitate to buy a Tikka. Like my Dad, I'm more and more liking light rifles that shoot great. That's what you get with Tikka.

I have not, although I'll readily admit to it having the smoothest action I felt in any sub-$1000 factory rifle. I couldn't justify spending $300 more than my Savage knowing full well I'd have to spend another $200-$500 immediateley to replace the horrendous Tikka stock.

I'll fully admit that it's possible Tikka makes the better rifle. But for me, Savage was a much better value.

More than anything, I was quoting BP's popcorn emoticon. Just nagging at you Tikka guys a bit. It does seem like they make a fantastic action with a very cheap stock. As Chad said - great base for a custom build for sure, but not the best value for all-around factory performance given the stock and price.

The out of box accuracy and action is what I was thinking about. The stock is something I will have to look into.

Like most things in life you get what u pay for. The action and barrel are the heart of the rifle, that's what matters most. Do the Tikka stocks suck...yes they do but that can easily be fixed with a $250 Bell and Carlson. You can't make that Savage as smooth as a Tikka for $250.

Agreed. As for not being able to make the Savage as smooth as a Tikka for $250, I wouldn't if I could. The whole point of Savage is the value IMHO. You don't put a Ferrari engine in a Corvette. You bought the Corvette because it's 90% of the car for 50% of the price.

To competition shooters or those who have a ton of money to spend on guns, that extra 10% makes a difference. As for me, I'd rather have half my money back.

Yes sir. Owned a 243 a few years ago, wasn't a Lite model. It was a god gun, didn't overly impress me and it found a new home about a year after purchase. My only regret in letting it go was that it had a very pretty wood stock.

That's cute

Stock Savage 308 Model 10T. I still have the target of you would like me to do the math.

LMAO!!!

We are going to need one of these decals:

I've yet to meet a rifle I don't like. We'll except for the remmy 700s but that's just because Remington waited 30 years to do a recall on a pretty widespread issue.

I have a T3 in .30-06 and got one in 7mm-08 Rem. for my wife. Fantastic shooters, changed out both factory stocks with B&C Hunter stocks. Best mod I've done with them, MUCH better than the factory stocks.

Browning X Bolt would be a good (albeit more expensive) choice as well. I have a White Gold Medallion in .270 Win. that's a tack driver.

I want to know where a smooth bolt factors into shooting?

And ill agree with chads pizz on that post, because its just a bunch of folks following what they prefer. I honestly don't think there is much difference.

To me that is not a good reason to not like remingtons. I have and love several of them.

I don't like the trigger mechanisms either. I think the design lends it self to failure. Too easy for dirt and debris to get stuck in there. I like the more "open" trigger design of the savages.

Shoot a 5 shot group in 60 seconds and you will see how a smooth action factors into shooting.

You do realize that all shooters are not equal but that's a great group nonetheless. I doubt I could shoot a group like that at 300 yards with a $5000 rifle.

Do that with a 5 shot group and I will be really impressed.

I'd like to have fired 5 shots but the training we were doing was 3 shots, run to next target distance, 3 shots, repeat the process until we have shot from the 25yd line to 500yd line and in no particular order.

I'm a good shot, not a great shot, and can't do that every time I go shoot. On that particular drill we started at 100 ran to 200 then to 25 then to 50 back to 500 and my group was ugly there but it was a long run, back to 300 then finished at 400. It was all timed so the pressure was on

Very nice. My hats off to your salvage.

I have no desire to shoot a 5 shot group in a tight time frame, although I doubt for me it would make much difference if I used a savage tikka Remington weatherby... you get the picture.

How come all savage guys always try and justify their crappy rifles ?

How come all guys who don't shoot savages want to pretend they are crappy rifles?

How come guys that shoot full customs put down people who shoot store bought rifles? You big bully. Trying to make up for what you lack in other departments?

I for one think savage is an exceptional rifle. Despite the previously posted group I do not think it on par with tikka. I would never want to be a naysayer but come on.

I bought my savage as a pure hunting rifle that I later decided to build into a "semi custom" rifle. I decided to stick with the savage over selling it and buying something else for a couple reasons. The savage action is more than capable of working equally as well as the tikka. The basic rifle to get that action costs as I recall about $200 less. They can be rebarreled and headspaced at home with pretty basic tools (huge plus for me). They have more options for aftermarket parts (though admittedly, I havnt shopped for aftermarket parts for tikkas).

If you are simply going to buy a rifle and take it out of the box and head to the range or deer camp, then the tikka may have an edge. But if you are that person, you probably aren't going to notice any performance difference anyways, and the savage is a fair bit cheaper. I'd gladly take a tikka, but I love my savages.

LOL

I have a Tikka T3. I love it. I chose it over my X-Bolt.

Well this was fun. We should do it again, maybe debate Store bought vs Full customs and which one is better

Meant ugly not crappy.

Never did understand the idea that savages are ugly. They really don't look all that different than any other modern rifle. And my model 99 is the prettiest gun I own.

How come no one ever brings up the fact that Tikka makes 1 size action? Every action they make is a long action so when you buy a short action they just put a plastic bolt stop in and that's it.

Am I the only one this bothers? This kept me from buying one.

Doesn't bother me one bit.

I never understood the whole ugly rifle thing. If it shoots well, who cares what it looks like? If I have a drag car with dents all over and 14 different shades of primer on the body, but it consistently performs better than a lot of the "Pretty" cars with shiny straight body work, then it is good at doing what it was designed to do... Perform well, regardless of looks.

All of the long range competitors in F-Class sure did laugh and roll their eyes when Darrell Buell showed up with his box-stock Savage 12 to compete against their full custom (Pretty) rigs...Until he won...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjtNWwLcZL4

Where's Team Tikka?

You win you win!

Pretty good video and they do make an awesome F class rifle. I'll stick with my tikkas.

I like that the T3's are a one-size action. For a .308, 7mm-08 or .243, swap out the bolt stop for a long action stop, get a long action magazine and now you can seat heavier, longer bullets out to the lands and still feed from the magazine. Easy swap, too.

I think the kit to switch the action length and the magazine is around $110. I was considering doing this on mine and going 280AI. I Went 7-08 for recoil reasons but then added a brake anyway.

We need to have a shoot off. Stock Tikka vs stock Savage. Same caliber and same scope. And both rifles shooting the same ammo, if possible. Have three good shooters that don't care about either brand to make things fair.

Call Hornady and ask them if they will warrenty their ammo if shot from a Savage.

I have a stock tikka in 7-08 with a VX-R 4-12 on it. Who gets to pick the ammo since you said same ammo?

http://precisionrifleblog.com/2013/12/30/best-rifle-action/

Savage didn't make the list here.

Different class of shooting. I bet Tikka doesn't make the list in F-Class either...

Exactly....there probably wasn't a Tikka entered in those just as there weren't any Savages entered in the others. It's hard to win something if you don't play the game. So it proves nothing.

What brake did you end up going with?

I can foolishly say I have no idea. I called Scott and told him to what I would be doing with the gun and what my expectations are then left it to him. The brake was an afterthought. I did tell him I would be shooting prone so no 360 brake.

Yeah, I'm still debating on what brake to put on the '06 T3.

It should be ready sometime in the next week. I'll get info then and pics with a report to follow on reduction in muzzle rise. I'm hoping to see my hits.

Heck yes, that'd be great!

Here is why I'm a tikka fan. My remington "mill-speck" cost about twice as much as my tikka. Is about twice as heavy. Has a HS Precision stock. Has a $200.00 Jewell trigger and a better scope. I shot a target with it and with the Tikka that has nothing done to it but cutting and threading the barrel and putting a better recoil pad on it. The high shot was a result of forgetting to put the suppressor on the Tikka for the first shot. After ringing my already deaf ears, I put the suppressor on and shot three more shots. I used the same ammo in both rifles, same shooter, same bipod, same rear bag, shot within 5 minutes of each other. The remington is a little over 3/4" and the light and handy Tikka is under 1/2"! Which would you want to hunt with?