SmallCaliberCentral

I know there are plenty of CZ and Cooper lovers on this bb...don't want to step on any toes. I own two CZ's now, would love to have a Cooper. My newest gun is a .204 Ruger CZ 527 Varmint, haven't even got to shoot it yet: hope to tomorrow if it don't rain. So far my favorite and most accurate centerfire is still my 223 Tikka 595 Master Continental. It just plain shoots like a house on fire and the trigger breaks like a stick of sugar candy. So my question is, are there any Tikka shooters out there who have them in .204 Ruger? If yes, lets hear about it. When did you get it? Are they still making them in 204? How well does it shoot? I'd put my Tikka(in 223) up against a Cooper of Remmy 700 any day. I know the 595 is not made anymore, only the T3, but I'd settle for one in varmint style with a heavy barrel. Closest I can find to it is the Sako 85, but they run about $1,800.

I just bought a Tikka T3 Lite about 2 weeks ago. A new Sightron Big Sky 6-24x42 Dot (man that dot's small) came yesterday and the DNZ Game Reaper is scheduled to arrive Monday. I'm ready to roll my own but I picked up a box of factory Hornady 32 gr V-Max with a blistering 4225 fps listed on the box. The range is closed Tuesday & Wednesday so I hope to try it out Thursday or so.

The T3 seems to have at least a semi-varmint barrel with a muzzle diameter of .634" - which is the biggest of any rifle in my cabinent next to my ML.

hi, i have a tikka t3 varmint.love the gun but the bullet it prefered was the 26grn v grenade so i had a 1 in 11 border varmint barrell put on and now it loves the 40 grn bullets and im happy with how it shoots.

I doubt anyone here has any issues with the rifles themselves, but the distribution is very spotty, when they are available at all. Tikka/Sako/Beretta just don't supply enough .204s to bother with here.
I talked to them at the NRA Convention in 2008, but they more or less blew me off. They weren't interested because they couldn't sell enough of them (because they didn't make them!? ) They make a run now and then, but not many, and a lot of those go to Australia, some DO get sold here, but not many.
Always plenty of "big game" Tikkas around, and at good prices, too...................

If they put their minds to it, they could probably sell more of them, if they wanted to. Not to me, they made me mad, and I won't buy one regardless.

The tikka T3 caught my attention when I saw a video of a guy making some pretty incredible shots on you tube with it. I posted the video in one of my threads but here it is again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiH1RhOdGWU

I don't think he includes any load data though unfortunately.



Chris

Bought a 204 Tikka T3 stainless laminate about a month ago. I have not spent much time with it, maybe 40 rounds and all factory ammo. I've learned two things, it will not hit the broad side of a barn with 40gr hornadys but 34gr winchester hollow points will shoot a dime at 100 yards. I plan on trying some 32 and 45 hornadys. Personally I think it is a very well built gun. I don't care for the long action but think I will get used to it. By the way the action is smooth as silk. It has a really nice factory trigger, wish it was a set trigger I just couldn't wait 9 months for it. My gun cabinet is full of mostly CZ and BRNO so this is a change for me. I still might buy a 204 ruger in a 527 but I'm real happy with my Tikka purchase so far. I'll try and update shooting results of the 32s and 45s.

Hi Rowlander,

Looking for a CZ 527 kevlar and others, so your post on the Tikka is appreciated. Thanks!

I own a CZ 453 Varmint fluted barrel in .17HMR. With a Bushnell 6-24X40mm AO. What do you have on your Tikka?

Plus one more Tikka fan

Sam

I have 3 Tikka T3 lites. The latest one I got is in 204. It is a tack driver with the Hornady 32gr VMax. It has the 22 inch barrel and they are running right at 4000fps. I love the Tikkas, I want to get a T3 varmint or the Super Varmint in 204 but Beretta isn't importing the 204 Tikkas now. Too bad because it is a great round.

I have a Bushnell Elite 6500 2.5 x 16 on my Tikka.

Thanks for all of your replies. Sorry for not writing back myself but I kept getting a message that I a had exceeded my attempts to log on even though it would only be the first try. So I re registered. If any of you hear of Tikkas becoming available in 204 in America please post it as I'd love to add one to my collection.

glenn asher wrote: They make a run now and then, but not many, and a lot of those go to Australia, some DO get sold here, but not many.

interesting that we would get preference to you guys on something for a change... perhaps its because t3 lites sell for around $1200-$1300 AUD (~$1300-$1400 USD atm) here and so they make a packet load more out of us.

if it werent so darn hard to have rifles exported out of the US all of us aussies would be buying up big atm, with the depressed greenback we could import them for half the price they retail for here!