Tikka 243

[Ratmanwan3 85]

I've just bought a tikka 595 in 243. Can anyone recommend a suitable round for it ? It's a 1 in 10 twist and will be used for fallow and muntjac.  I've heard they don't shoot 100 grain very well  ?

[Meece 1,957]

Every barrel is different and no recomendations of a good round will apply to every gun. You might be lucky and find an accurate round first hit. When one of the son in laws got his 223 he had about 5 different makes from Norma, Sako, Federal, Winchester and American Eagle. Out of all of them the A.E was the most accurate but out of my 223 they were all over the place. My acurate load has been hand loaded , worked up over a lot of testing and is a combination of a slow burnkng powder driving a 55grn Sierra bullet at 3400 fps. It's quite a hot load which drops stuff out at 300 paces quite well, but I rarely take shots at this long distance because I get them in closer for positive identification and use of fielcraft. In my 243 I use Speer 70 and 105 rn

[Deker 3,453]

2 hours ago, Ratmanwan3 said:

I've just bought a tikka 595 in 243. Can anyone recommend a suitable round for it ? It's a 1 in 10 twist and will be used for fallow and muntjac.  I've heard they don't shoot 100 grain very well  ?

It simply doesn't work like that, 2 guns off the production line next to each other may favour different ammo!  On top of which your quarry/distance/land/etc situation may well be different from other people.  The 595 is an older model, so who knows what condition or how well/badly the barrel has been treated either.

Buy the minimum quantity of what you can find in different weights and try. 

[delswal 3,817]

I remember buying a 595 new in .243 and it shot off the shelf ammo like it was home load, like Deker said two rifles are never the same, and the model you have is likely to be 20yrs old, try some cheap PPU there about 14 a box you might just get lucky and the rifle likes them, but at £14 a box there a good starting point.

[Meece 1,957]

Tikka is a quality make and I don't think that it is likely to have a barrel fault. I've seen guns that have been really, really abused and others of a very old age that have been shot a lot (thousands of rounds) and have still been very accurate. Lots of things come in to play such as the shooters ability  (some people can't shoot straight to save their lives). scope, mounts, bedding. The list is long but don't worry about all that stuff now. just get some lead and give it a go.

[David.evans 5,323]

Just a thought, how often would you lads give the barrel a pull thro ? 

[Deker 3,453]

12 hours ago, David.evans said:

Just a thought, how often would you lads give the barrel a pull thro ? 

Personally NEVER!

I always clean the barrel properly after every use.  

Hornets nest this one, others will tell you they never clean a barrel, perhaps that's why I buy NEW guns, I would never want to risk buying one of theirs!

Such is life.

[j316 119]

Rifled barrel full of leading eq smooth bore kak grouping