I haven’t had any FTE issues that I recall.
- Thread starter jbell
- Start date
I finally got my rifle back to its old self after cleaning. It took about 200 rounds. Lesson here is pull a bore snake through my rifle after every range trip and avoid cleaning until absolutely necessary. Also for anyone who hasn’t tried it try some of the Eley Contact. There is something with that 42 grain bullet and the little higher velocity that our rifles just loves. The 50 and 100 yard groups we were getting out of both our rifles were amazing. It shot better than any other ammo I have tried inside 100. I didn’t shoot any groups beyond 100 but I could consistently hit a 1 1/2” spinner at 150, 3” steel at 200 and a 6” steel at 300 with it which is good enough for me.
Eley Contact - interesting. I see it for $30 for 300 rounds so that's not a bad price at all. $5 a box of 50 is cheaper than their lowest line - Target that I've been using.
I bought a bunch of Eley Match Pistol until I realized that Pistol is a bit slower and falls apart > 50m... I should've just bought Eley Match normal. Now I'm trying to find someone to trade ammo with.
I have acquired a 3rd T1x, "I know, I'm crazy". I got it in a Rock Island Auction a couple of weeks ago. I just wanted to say that I had ejection issues with this one too. Bent the spring several different times and ways and finally got it to where it wouldn't shave lead when feeding and will eject 100% now, based on shooting 450 rounds today.
I also just bought a Mountain Tactical bolt handle/knob. I still think Sterk is best but I like to try different things sometimes. For the guy who wanted to know about bolt handles, here are Sterk and DIP.
I also just bought a Mountain Tactical bolt handle/knob. I still think Sterk is best but I like to try different things sometimes. For the guy who wanted to know about bolt handles, here are Sterk and DIP.
Good on ya! Both are looking good! 
I'm sure that my own arm could be twisted into a 2nd Tikka for Sporter Class 22 Bench Rest. Can't shoot sporter class in bench rest with the action in my XLR - would if I could - could go limited though...
As for bolt handles, I'm on the list for a Sterk and I currently have the DIP. The DIP MUCH better leverage than the original/stock bolt handle. I'm "guessing" that with my hand size the swept Sterk could fit me a bit better, but the DIP is a solid choice over the stock bolt handle.
John
I'm sure that my own arm could be twisted into a 2nd Tikka for Sporter Class 22 Bench Rest. Can't shoot sporter class in bench rest with the action in my XLR - would if I could - could go limited though...
As for bolt handles, I'm on the list for a Sterk and I currently have the DIP. The DIP MUCH better leverage than the original/stock bolt handle. I'm "guessing" that with my hand size the swept Sterk could fit me a bit better, but the DIP is a solid choice over the stock bolt handle.
John
I shot some of the more expensive Eley but the performance just wasn’t there to justify the price. Up until now I have been using Edge but the Contact Actually shoots better. It also shoots flatter and better in the wind. I was dialing 13.4 mils at 300 yards with the edge and am dialing 12.5 mils with the Contact. This is with a 50 yd zero. The difference in wind isn’t quite so dramatic but still better.
The really crazy thing is the 10/22 I just built for my son absolutely loves the cheap Eley Force. It shoots freakishly well. Every time I shoot it I figure I just got lucky and then shoot another group smaller. It shoots well enough that I can hit the 1/4” spinner on a KYL 10 out of 10 times at 50 yards almost every time. I don’t know what I did right building that rifle but all the stars seemed to align and I’ll probably never be able to do it again.
Last edited:
On my fiance's new 10/22 competition, it seems to love CCI SV. I regularly shoot 1" groups out of it @ 100. My Tikka generally shoots like 1.3-1.5" groups with CCI SV. So I'm hoping that if her rifle loves CCI SV then it should love Green Tag and might push a bit more... but again, the only thing you need to hit at 100 in NRL22 is like a 2-3" target. CCI SV will do 1moa at 25/50.
I just spent $125 on Eley Match Pistol, so I'm trying to trade it locally for some Eley Contact...
Im not going to say how well his rifle shoots until I can shoot a 6x5 with it. After seeing how well it shot last week I’m still having a hard time believing it wasn’t just luck. I plan to take it back to the range this week and shoot some real groups with it and make sure it will consistently shoot as well as what I saw last week. If it does he has a real treasure on his hands and I’m going to buy all of that ammo lot I can get my hands on. Of course the rifle is actually mine and I just let him shoot it ?
This is a 100yd group I shot yesterday. 96 was the temp and the barrel was quite warm. This was with SK+ I have 2500rds left of.
Additional results from yesterday with SK+. Shot some Eley contact but wasn’t impressed with it in my rifle.
Note: these groups significantly tightened up after torquing my action into the KRG at 30in lbs compared to 65in lbs.
Within the first 100rds.
Top left is the first 10rds after getting it back from Beretta.
Bottom group is right after walking steel from 210 to 130yds.
Note: these groups significantly tightened up after torquing my action into the KRG at 30in lbs compared to 65in lbs.
Within the first 100rds.
Top left is the first 10rds after getting it back from Beretta.
Bottom group is right after walking steel from 210 to 130yds.
... I'm going to go home and untighten my Bravo down to 30in lbs from the 65 Maybe that'll fix my groups
Maybe that'll fix my groups Sub moa at 100, but > 1 moa at 50?
That sub MOA at 100 was just one group. I don’t expect that to be consistent. I expect it to shoot 1.3 or so at 100 on a consistent basis with this cheap ammo
I wish I had a 50 yard range to play with... only 25 and 100. I did 6x5's at 1.1" for SK+ for months. .75" with Eley Tenex.
Then my 25 yard 6x5's groups are 1/2 moa.
No 50
Then my 25 yard 6x5's groups are 1/2 moa.
No 50
... I'm going to go home and untighten my Bravo down to 30in lbs from the 65
There is a video out there of action screw torque tests. Utah Shooter perhaps?
They went from 5 in/lb to 40 in/lb (I think). I haven’t ran any tests to see where my gun shoots best with the Tikka in the XLR, but I’m currently using 40 in/lb.
In the original Tupperware stock, I tried 25, 30 & 35. My rifle shot best at 30 in/lb. Never went any further with the plastic stock as I knew I was going to the XLR Element.
If time allows, I’ll test it like they did in the video, but right now she shoots great.
John
Federal Bulk
I have my MDT at 50. I think they recommend 60, but my torque wrench only goes to 50 ?. Shoots fantastic though.
Start with a couple different lot #s of Lapua Center X. Work down from there.
I retorqued my Bravo to around 35 inch/lbs. I have a bike torque rench in nm, so I did it around ~4nm. I went out in a rainy day to check everything. Zero was exactly the same... but I had groups all around 1" with CCI SV and Eley Target. It shot really great at 100 yards, and no erroneous flyers. I didn't do an official 6x5 as it's was rainy and miserable and I didn't want to hang up targets. Someone left a shoot n see target so I was able to shoot little groups all over it.
CCI SV grouped really well for me. It feeds kind of rough, I guess the lube is a lot dryer than SK/Eley ammo, so it felt rougher feeding. I had one FTE in like 50 rounds where the casing spun and got stuck. 0 failures on feeding.
CCI SV has a .3mil lower POI, but once i figured that out at 25, everything else was spot on compared to my ruger. My range also isn't quite 100 yards/200yards. It's 99 yards, and 202 yards. Which makes a teensy difference.
Eley Target Dope (25 yard zero)
1.9mil @ 99
7.2 @ 202
CCI SV
2.2mil @ 99
8.2 @ 200
At this point I might just go CCI SV all the time and not spend $10 a box on ammo anymore...
This is a follow up for my Tikka T1x #3 as mentioned above. A couple of days ago I shot this LNIB rifle and had a lot of FTE, probably 50 to 60%. This was the worst of the 3 I have. I started adjusting the ejector to where it would eject but then started shaving lead on feeding and this was a battle so I stopped shooting on that day to fix. I got four ammo types tested before quitting for the day. After messing with the ejector through trial and error, I finally got the Tikka feeding with no bullet shaving and smooth as glass feeding. As you know "or maybe not" live rounds eject pretty good and is not an indicator of how empties will eject, fortunately for me the ejection rate so far has been 100%.
I did put the new Tikka in my KRG Bravo stock because I wanted it to be the best it could be. I start all my rimfires out with a torque setting at 20 in/lbs no matter if the stock is wood, aluminum, plastic or something else. Scope was at 18 power. No photos of the rifle this time as there is really nothing different to show that anyone hasn't already seen.
So, here are the accuracy results showing the capability for this T1x. Top to bottom are rated best to worst for each day. All groups were shot suppressed with my Silencerco Sparrow. So far I would rate the accuracy equal to my T1x #2. I'll be putting the Tikka #1 up for sale soon. At some point I'll be putting it on Gunbroker.
Lapua Pistol King was fantastic. Had one bad group that was probably me.
I only had 25 rounds each of the Eley Club and Match. I think it's a good comparison between a $7 box and $12 box ammo for the same maker.
At some point I'll reshoot the RWS R50. I believe it can do better.
All below were shot today on 9/9/19. Also to clarify the CCI SV 1st group was the first 50 shots tested and the CCI SV 2nd group was the last 50 shots tested. I really thought the Tenex Pistol would have done better. The Aguila just proves you can't take chicken shit and make vanilla ice cream out of it. Chicken shit being the Aguila and Vanilla ice cream being the Lapua Pistol King. The Tikka being the mixer. That's my thoughts anyway. Aguila is "ok" for 25 yard pistol but that's about it for precision work.
I did put the new Tikka in my KRG Bravo stock because I wanted it to be the best it could be. I start all my rimfires out with a torque setting at 20 in/lbs no matter if the stock is wood, aluminum, plastic or something else. Scope was at 18 power. No photos of the rifle this time as there is really nothing different to show that anyone hasn't already seen.
So, here are the accuracy results showing the capability for this T1x. Top to bottom are rated best to worst for each day. All groups were shot suppressed with my Silencerco Sparrow. So far I would rate the accuracy equal to my T1x #2. I'll be putting the Tikka #1 up for sale soon. At some point I'll be putting it on Gunbroker.
Lapua Pistol King was fantastic. Had one bad group that was probably me.
I only had 25 rounds each of the Eley Club and Match. I think it's a good comparison between a $7 box and $12 box ammo for the same maker.
At some point I'll reshoot the RWS R50. I believe it can do better.
All below were shot today on 9/9/19. Also to clarify the CCI SV 1st group was the first 50 shots tested and the CCI SV 2nd group was the last 50 shots tested. I really thought the Tenex Pistol would have done better. The Aguila just proves you can't take chicken shit and make vanilla ice cream out of it. Chicken shit being the Aguila and Vanilla ice cream being the Lapua Pistol King. The Tikka being the mixer. That's my thoughts anyway. Aguila is "ok" for 25 yard pistol but that's about it for precision work.
Had about 40 min to go to the range today so I didn't have too much to try things out. Learned a few things... fouling makes a pretty big difference... it takes about 15-20 rounds to tighten up my groups. Unfortunately I didn't have that much time...
My rifle had been shooting CCI SV during the last session about 35 rounds so I ran 5x5 with it. First group was great, then it'd open up, overall maybe not the most consistent ammo in the rifle, possible if I try out a batch of green tag it might be more consistent.
I then switched over to Eley Club. 5 rounds at the 25 yard range to verify zero (0.2 mil low POI), so accounted for that and adjusted 2mil for my 100 yard target.
Groups had random flyers, but then tightened up after another 10 shots or so.. But still my rifle is not liking Eley Club, which is odd.
Then I switched back to my old lot of Eley Target. Last box Very first shot, went like 2 inches low and right. But after that, it grouped perfectly fine. I did 3 groups with this lot of Eley Target. I'm going to miss this lot. It's the 3 lots on the left. 0.7" avg.
I then switched to a new lot of Eley Target. The coating on the bullets were different, and bullets were a lot darker too. First two groups were pretty atrocious. I am guessing new lot of ammo, possibly different coatings, need to be refouled? After 10 rounds, my last 2 groups were acceptable. In my last few box to box comparisons Eley Target is performing better than Club.
Next up will be some green tag and eley contact once I order in some contact.
My rifle had been shooting CCI SV during the last session about 35 rounds so I ran 5x5 with it. First group was great, then it'd open up, overall maybe not the most consistent ammo in the rifle, possible if I try out a batch of green tag it might be more consistent.
I then switched over to Eley Club. 5 rounds at the 25 yard range to verify zero (0.2 mil low POI), so accounted for that and adjusted 2mil for my 100 yard target.
Groups had random flyers, but then tightened up after another 10 shots or so.. But still my rifle is not liking Eley Club, which is odd.
Then I switched back to my old lot of Eley Target. Last box
Very first shot, went like 2 inches low and right. But after that, it grouped perfectly fine. I did 3 groups with this lot of Eley Target. I'm going to miss this lot. It's the 3 lots on the left. 0.7" avg.I then switched to a new lot of Eley Target. The coating on the bullets were different, and bullets were a lot darker too. First two groups were pretty atrocious. I am guessing new lot of ammo, possibly different coatings, need to be refouled? After 10 rounds, my last 2 groups were acceptable. In my last few box to box comparisons Eley Target is performing better than Club.
Next up will be some green tag and eley contact once I order in some contact.
Last edited:
@Just Chuck Out of about 200rds I had 3 FTF with SK+. I had 0 FTF with Eley Contact and Gemtec.
This is impressive shooting!! I have a Bravo KRG that's been shipped, should be here Friday. Interesting to hear about your lower torque on the action. Good to know, is this a thing? Or did you just test out lower torque to see how it performs?
That doesn't surprise me, I keep mine at 20 in/lbs. I have never went above 40 on anything.
I did not do perform any testing on action torqued.
Woooah your rifle or lot of SK+ did not go well together. My last 1000 rounds of SK+ shot about 1.1" at 100 yards.
Yeah, I may have gotten a bad lot number. But, I have too many other choices to ever give SK Std + another shot.
Just got off email from International Barrels Inc and they're just about ready to sell in the US. They asked me what I wanted... which I have no idea since I've never bought barrels before.
If I had bought a Vudoo, people talk about 18" Kukri barrel, which I'm not sure what that means but it's popular. Any advice / recommendations on what kind of barrel profile to order for the Tikka? I don't really want a 16" shorty as I would like to somewhat be similar to my centerfire which is 20-22". I was considering 18". Is it worth fluting the barrel? Seems more of aesthetics / weight, but if I'm looking at making my rifle more centerfire like, then I'd just skip the fluting. I don't need to get rid of heat as 22 doesn't really build that much heat.
If I had bought a Vudoo, people talk about 18" Kukri barrel, which I'm not sure what that means but it's popular. Any advice / recommendations on what kind of barrel profile to order for the Tikka? I don't really want a 16" shorty as I would like to somewhat be similar to my centerfire which is 20-22". I was considering 18". Is it worth fluting the barrel? Seems more of aesthetics / weight, but if I'm looking at making my rifle more centerfire like, then I'd just skip the fluting. I don't need to get rid of heat as 22 doesn't really build that much heat.
It seems like most of the makers I talked to have a barrel between .875 and .92 by whatever length you want. I got a 16” for mine so I can add a suppressor and still have a reasonable length rifle.
I tried SK Standard Plus, Rifle, and Long Range but they all shot about the same as cheap ammo. Either I’m a really bad shot of something is not setup right with my rifle.
I need to play with the torque.
What's it currently in? Don't forget about 10-15 shots to foul the rifle before it starts grouping right whenever you switch ammo. If you're curious what your gun/you can perform, get a box of Tenex, Or a box of Center-X/Midas+.
I hope so too
I'm getting a barrel just like this one. According to Ryan, extractor grooves are being cut now on the barrels destined for the US. FYI, they don't thread barrels for muzzle devices. I will be getting the 20" barrel with the Anschutz style fat end. Ryan assures me the fluting will not affect accuracy at all. Here is a copy and paste quote from his email to me, "To the point where if you want threaded you're gonna have to get her done aftermarket. The boys in the shop refuse and I'm ok with that as well. As far as fluted and un fluted we saw zero change. But since we do double stress relieve our blanks its not that surprising."
Okay, was fluting extra? I got the price of $319.
Am I going to need to go to a gunsmith to install/properly headspace the gun? I don't mind it not being threaded I guess... leave my suppressor for my 10/22. Someone mentioned how horrible it was to remove the barrel. I wonder if I should just ship my rifle to IBI and have them do it all and ship it back.
What made you choose 20" over 16 or 18. Rimfire velocity wise caps out at 16.5"?
Am I going to need to go to a gunsmith to install/properly headspace the gun? I don't mind it not being threaded I guess... leave my suppressor for my 10/22. Someone mentioned how horrible it was to remove the barrel. I wonder if I should just ship my rifle to IBI and have them do it all and ship it back.
What made you choose 20" over 16 or 18. Rimfire velocity wise caps out at 16.5"?
Ryan's word, straight from him exactly as he said it. I wanted the shnoob end so threading was out for me anyway.
Fluting is $100 extra.
You shouldn't need a gunsmith to set the headspace.
I will soon be removing one of my barrels so I'll tell you how it is. ATM, I have no idea.
I chose the 20" because I wanted to get more for my money. ? No, I chose 20" because it's what I wanted and I believe the 20" will look better in the Bravo stock with the spigot mount on the end.
I think I'll go with the standard 18" bull barrel - $319 + taxes + shipping. So it'll be probably close to 400 all said and done. Ryan mentioned I should easily be able to install it at home/range.
Should cost you around $350. No tax, $30 shipping.
Whos rifle in the photo?
Whos rifle in the photo?
Ryan sent me that photo, not sure who's rifle that is. For either the 18" bull or the 22" olympic style, it's $319 + tax + shipping. For the fluting, it was $409 + tax + shipping.
Maybe no tax since we're sending it to the US.
Bought mine about a month ago, finally got to take it out today. Mounted a Vortex Crossfire II on an Area 419 rail.
Tried some Federal HV Match 40gr.
Zero'ing scope...third 5 rnd. group got me on center.
This was pretty typical all day...
(flyer was from a different string)
Tried some Federal HV Match 40gr.
Zero'ing scope...third 5 rnd. group got me on center.
This was pretty typical all day...
(flyer was from a different string)
Shot the September NRL22 match today, and finished 2nd I think. Scores are still being calculated. Fun match. I had 2 FTE, and after the stage, the RO said I wasn't pulling back the bolt hard enough, and it's not the spring that was the issue, but "me" as the ejector. So afterwards I made sure to use a bit more force when pulling the bolt back and those casings ejected pretty far... I guess slightly different than say my .223 and .308 bolt where I can pull the bolt back w/o much force and it ejects the brass much further, but in the rimfire, I need to use a bit more oomph on my extraction.
Things to note after this month's COF.
- Weak side - major improvement, yay.
- 50 yd.. missed most of my shots at 50 yds for no idea what reason. Maybe shot a little high as I was holding over .2/.3 and now that I checked my dope it should be .1 but that really shouldn't be a miss that size of target...
- Need to practice prone, no bipod. I had a sling I never used before, and I was probably better off not using it, than using it... I was wobbly all over and it was a scoring ring stage, where I only hit in the scoring ring 4 out of 6 shots...
Overall real fun match. Managed to do everything in the time limit which is great.
Things to note after this month's COF.
- Weak side - major improvement, yay.
- 50 yd.. missed most of my shots at 50 yds for no idea what reason. Maybe shot a little high as I was holding over .2/.3 and now that I checked my dope it should be .1 but that really shouldn't be a miss that size of target...
- Need to practice prone, no bipod. I had a sling I never used before, and I was probably better off not using it, than using it... I was wobbly all over and it was a scoring ring stage, where I only hit in the scoring ring 4 out of 6 shots...
Overall real fun match. Managed to do everything in the time limit which is great.
