I've owned enough Tikka's to trust them to do what they are designed to do... provide depedable safe very accurate out of the box firearms at a reduced price from the parent product, SAKO, using SAKO barrels and designed on a CAD Unit, but without as much of the hand fitting as SAKO's have.
In Finland there is a saying about buying better than average quality stuff in consumer products, that was offered to me by the World Marketing Director of SAKO while we were sweating the frost out of our bones in a sauna, and goes ..."A poor man MUST buy 1st quality products to establish an Estate to hand down to his children, so they don't have to constantly replace cheaply made products, and become enamoured with the American idea of buying Kleenex type products, to be used a time or two and then thrown away", Esa Verho, World Sales Director, VP SAKO Oy, Nokia Inc.
Tikka Sporting Rifles were orginally built to generate revenue for the Government owned machine gun factory, and merged with the then Nokia owned SAKO Oy in 1984 or so. At the time I worked for Stoeger Industries, a wholly owned joint venture between SAKO and the Spanish Family that had owned Llama Handguns since they were created, among many other things like a thriving business in the lost wax investment casting of high tech airplane & computer parts. The US market had only seen the pre WW II designed cheap 1911 styled Llama handguns until 1984, when Stoeger began to sell a high grade DA double stack 45ACP & 9mm that was designed for the Spanish Government ...and was too heavy, bulky & expensive for the US market that Glock had just entered with their M17's & 19's.
My 1st Tikka was a M695 Hunter grade 270 I bought from Bass Pro and had been the display item at the Miami BP Store just inside the front door in large glass bubble case of Sporting Firearms that had been featured by their Mfg'er's in their catalongs and national advertising....and I bought on a BP closeout during the initial rollout of the T3's and has shipped to the DFW BP Store in Grapevine ... that a friend of mine, who had founded the SAKO Collectors ASSC with his buddy Jim Lutes, called not the same class rifle. No... T3's were not as well built as a 695 IMO.... but they were lots lighter and as dependaby accurate as the 695's and achieved the stated goal that the US Market Studies had showed was what was going to sell well, and hold longterm a sizeable market share that SAKO would never be able to reach. ** FWIW there is a 695 Deluxe Grade 30'06 for sale in the THF Classifieds right now that the pics will show you what I'm talking about.
I've owned a number of T3's, and own one right now & will continue to buy them as I see the need for a particular model and caliber, but I've also owned several older & current BACO M70's with 2 on hand right now, along with my 1st Howa built Weatherby Vanguard II in Stainless Steel...and have owned a couple dozen SAKO's over the years that never failed to perform as designed, just like the half dozen Tikka T3's that have graced my shooting bench.
Ruger is the only name brand I see being overlooked in this discussion and you might look at a M77 in a MK II or better still a current production Hawkeye, but remember my frozen friend from the suana's admonition as it apply's IMO to the Ruger American Series.
I owned a couple dozen Ruger 77's in the 60's & '70's and knew their foibles and how to live with them, but times have changed and the Hawkeye SS 300Wmg I bought last year from a guy in Michigan went down the road to it's 3rd owner in Boulder Colorado in a couple months, making 3 owners in 18 months, who shot it once and promptly pulled the barrel and turned it into a 257Wby with a custom trigger. Out of the box it needed help that I did not want to pay for but would have made a great 3/4 ton Diesel 4x4 pickup truck kinda dependable Rocky Mountain gun...and I got a BACO M70 270 CRF Sporter made in South Carolina in an even up trade for the Ruger.
Have fun looking and take your time looking for exactly what you want.
Ron
