NEW Tikka T3 in 6.5x55mm Swedish
Got my Tikka T3 finally in 6.5x55mm. The gun is an awesome shooter and very well made. Makes my Remington look baaaad!
The scope base is by EGW and is aluminum.
The bits and pieces are as follows: Tikka T3/6.5x55mm, EGW scope base, Mueller 4-16x50mm scope with mil-dots, Shooters Ridge Bi-Pod, and Warne steel medium height scope rings:
Close up of the bits and pieces put together:
When all is said and done she will shoot groups all day like this one at 100 yrds:
Here is a pic of the 6.5mm shell and Hornady 140 gr. A=MAX bullet to the far left compared to a .308 case and 168 gr bullets (various manufac.):
The story goes that i always LOVED the .308 Winchester (still do). But i have been in search of something that kicked lightly and had plenty punch to hunt with and more importantly, had ACCURACY APLENTY. So after a week of research, all things kept bringing me back to the 6.5mm cartridges. It was out of the .260 and the 6.5×55 so i went with the latter. Now the gun selection was another story cause only a few manufactures make a rifle in the 6.5x55mm cartridge. It came down to either the HOWA 1500 or the CZ or the TIKKA T3. I did some more research and decided on the TIKKA cause for one, i have heard for years nothing but Great things. So the Tikka it was. BEST CHOICE I’VE MADE YET BAR NONE!
I sighted the gun in at 100 yrds at my local range then proceeded to ring steel gongs out to 600 yrds with EASE. Only had 2 misses of the day and they both happend at 600 yrds on the same small steel pigs. But i had no misses at 200-300-400-500 yrds. The handload of choice was the Hornady 6.5/140 gr A-MAX at 2500 fps using Hodgdon H4831.
I later took the gun to the desert and set up a 5 gallon water filled bucket at a measured 521 yards and took it out on the very first shot….dead center! Here’s the video:
Don’t mean to cause any problems but, THE 6.5 BULLETS RULE….PERIOD! 😆
All Replies
Tofazfou,
So I got my first Cow Elk tag her in AZ last week. In honor of this special occasion I got out the Tikka whitetail tonight. It’s a 270 with and 3X9 Leopold scope and rings. I do love the detachable mag! Here she is boys…
As for the Grendel Build I’m using a Sun Devil Lower and Upper with an Alexander Arms Bolt carrier and Luther Walter 22 or 24 inch barrel. That is a hard choice. Do I want something short and light or a yard stick.
The extra bolt carries are for a 223 and my brothers 6.5 or maybe a 50 cal Beowulf. I love the Alexander Arms Naming scheme.
thanx all for the replies.
synopsys: she is well worth it and then some. stock gun, 1/3″ groups with first handload tested, rang steel all the way out to 600 yrds with first session, high bc bullet that gives the .308 winchester and the 300 win mag a run for their money at 1000 yrds, half the recoil and VOILA, i too was sold. 😆
cygnus: good luck on getting it. have always heard good things about the tikkas but i for some reason was stuck on the REMINGTON 700’s. Remys are good but i got what i paid for when i got mine. i had the REMINGTON 700 SPS which had the synthetic stock. Gun was ultra light…maybe too light, cause she had some kick to her. There is no comparing the remy and the tikka, tikka is way better.
chimp: cant wait to see your grendel. just saw a show about the grendel on the military channel. they had the grendel up again the .223 and the 7.62x39mm. No comparison to tell the truth. keep us posted for sure.
riffraff: you lucky DOG you. i will also keep the light bullet thing in mind when i crank out some more reloads. thinking about the 95 grain a-max. what ever gives me the best accuracy is gonna go straight into a yotes as when all this testing is done (hopefully never..hehe)
I was just thinking of that discussion a ways back and the 6.5 round.
I’m sold! 😯
😯 Great shot Tofaz. Thanks for posting that 😆
real nice….Tikke T3 is high on my whish list, right next to the aa410 carbine i want….
6.5mm is what most of my european buddies are recoomending, now i see why 🙂
SweetX3!!! 😀
Mike
Tofazfou,
Great choice in rifles. I really like the Tikka’s. Right off the shelf they shoot awesome and action is real smooth. Just do not use the stock scope rings. Nine had a tendency of walking around, I fixed it with a set of Leopold rings , but your set-up is way better!
I got the predecessor to the T3’s – Tikka Whitetail Hunter in 270 – It’s a good all-around cartridge but the 6.5’s do shine with the high BC.
I have a 6.5 Grendel build under way but the availability of AR parts and brass have stalled things a bit.
I’ll post pic or the Grendel when it’s done. I hope the Grendel lives up to all the rage.
Regards,
Chimp
I just typed out a long response, and PC crashed…
Anyway I would bet your going to get good accuracy with just about any weight bullet you try.
Many shooters find quick twists do not necessarily mean bad accuracy with light bullets.
What action do I want to use? Probably a Rem700 to keep it on the cheap side. I already own several that perform quite well and wouldnt mind being rebarreled.
Ive been toying with converting my Ruger #1, I love that thing and follow-up shots are not my biggest priority. This gun will be varmint first, deer second.
I have a lifetime invitation to several prairie dog towns in Montana, one of which only the rancher and his family shoot on. I went in 2002 and ran out of ammo before the week was out. I only took 400 rounds, big stupid me. I had only shot 5 rounds to paper to guarantee my zero was on due to elevation change, all the rest went thru or very near varmint. My 22-250 got quite a few, I stopped counting after 100 😀
RIFFRAFF, i can’t wait to try out the hornady 129 gr SST’s that i just bought to reload. I think the 129’s are about the lightest that i will see excellent accuracy with…….I THINK. cause my tikka has 1-8″ rifling.
Anyway, that .264 and 6.5 ought-six sound like a winner for sure. what action you gonna use for the 6.5 ought-six?
Theres not much to not like about that rifle. Nice clean classic look, and my favorite caliber is the 6.5mm. Seems to outshoot even my 7mms.
I have a Rem700classic in .264WinMag, back when they were only making one caliber a year in them. Right after I bought it, I found a gun shop that had a bunch of the old-style Nosler Partitions in 125grain. Those things are still the most accurate bullet Ive ever shot. I once shot a full box (20 rounds) at 200 yards into a cluster smaller than a quarter. We didnt measure the group, just layed the coin over it. Took all day to shoot it, we let the gun cool between each shot. Big grins all around.
Killed a few deer and lots of antelope with it in Montana. Never worried much about trajectory. Havent shot it much since I moved out here.
Been wanting to build a 6.5/06 for quite some time now, just havent decided on the platform.
lama, i 100% agree with you. my 1 harris bipod has just a slight stouter feel to it.
the bolt is stock and yes the barrel is free floating. i checked it when i got home with her the day of purchase and ran a thick card between barrel and forend and she is free floating all the way up to were the barrel screws into the receiver. SAKO/TIKKA did one hell of a job.
the barrel is standard 22′ long but its bigger than a sporter barrel but not quite as big as a varmint or target barrel….uuuuummmm…let me go measure it real quick……i’ll be back…………………………………………………………………………………………………..ok..i’m back. at the muzzle it measures .635″ then at the end of the forend it measures .715″ so its tapered.
I have all shooter’s ridge except on my blaser. The shooters ridge are almost exactly the same, but the harris has a slightly more stable feel to me.
But I guess if it’s group like that it’s working fine. 😀
Just curious, is the barrel a heavy varmint barrel and is it free floating? Also is that bolt knob stock, looks fancy. 😀
Butcher: that Hornady has a BC of .550 (Hornady reloading manual). The Lapuas that i shot at the steel gongs has one of .615. And yes, i plan on getting a yote this year. Just don’t know what gun i wanna do it with, Air or Powder.
Stower: ….lol…..thats too funny
Sawtime: that was just outside of Vegas. We went there to hunt some Jacks but we only saw 1 and he ran like hell…so much for the camo.lol….but seriously, i thought vegas has tons of jacks…we only saw one. but i normally go to either Mojave or Palmdale for Jacks.
Lama: all my guns (AIR AND POWDER BURNERS) have the shooters ridge bipods. they are clones of the harris. As everyone knows by now, Harris’ patent ran out a couple years ago so shooters ridge is cloning them. i do have 1 harris bipod and the shooters ridges that i have….well….lets just say…they do well for me for half the price. AND OHHH YEAH…THAT GROUP WAS SHOT USING JUST THAT SHOOTERS RIDGE BIPOD BY THE WAY. I laughed when guys at the range tell me i need to get a good bench rest. I have one…lol
Rob: you got some desert pics coming to you soon via email.
YN: thanx man
Wicked.
Get yourself a jackrabbit in distress call, and take that thing coyote hunting! The pelts are starting to get poor this time of year anyways, so no need to be fur friendly.
That long-ass bullet has GOT to have one hell of a high ballistic co-efficient!
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I like the Mueller scope. 😀 I own two and love my Mueller APV.