I think the whole idea of a "crossover" rifle is dead. As much as we all want a nice walkabout rifle that also shoots comps, the it just doesn't work in the real world well enough. The purpose built comp rifles are now too far ahead. Maybe I'm wrong but it sure feels that way.
I think I'm going to disagree.
I think you always had to choose if you wanted it 70/30 hunting vs target shooting, or the other way around and NRL hunter has captured both of these approaches. Having a rifle that can me a 7lb mountain rifle and a 30lb competition rifle was never an achievable goal.
NRL hunter has effectively create a competition series designed for cross over rifles.
With just a barrel change (for most people) and going on a diet, many rifles PRS rifles will get under 16lb for NRL Heavy.
With a few extra weights many "modern" hunting rifles can be competitive in the light division.
How this relates to the T1x ACE (and T3x ACE Game) I think they've gone down the lightweight crossover path which is fine, for CF use you have the ACE Target if you want a heavy competition rifle.
Not having the equivalent heavy competition rifle in RF is the stupid part, and when people see my rifle and the pencil thin barrel, without exception people think it's dumb. I don't think you can say they don't understand the market, as the obviously know the NRL and PRS CF markets, I think they just made a RF version because it was easy.
I've sent my thoughts to our NZ Tikka distributor, will be interesting to see if they pass them on to Tikka or not, and what response they get.
