This info may just save somebody a little cash/time and/or heart ache.
After hearing so much about shouldered prefit Tikka T3 barrels and the fact that Tikka products are dimensionally spot on and everything will interchange etc, I thought it might be wise to see for myself. I own several T3's from the 1st or 2nd year of importation (2003 time frame?) and when I tried swapping the bolts into each other rifle they DID NOT enter far enough for the handle to turn down and lock.
Since I know a person with access to the new model Tikka rifles now in the stores, we tried swapping a number of bolts between themselves. All the NEW rifle bolts DID interchange and functioned with no issues.
We then tried swapping some NEW bolts in my old rifles and again, they DID function fine.
And last, we tried my OLD bolts in a few of the new rifles--they DID NOT enter far enough to allow the handle to turn down and lock.
I spoke with one of the companies doing the shouldered prefit barrels regarding this issue on my OLD bolts/barrels compared to NEW rifles. They said they had not heard of that but did say that there most likely would be issues if I bought one of their currently produced barrels. So they did offer me a possible option to avoid a problem--"if you have your current barrel off, use a depth micrometer or caliper and measure from the face of the action to the face of the closed bolt and send us this dimension. We are a custom barrel maker and we can easily and quickly adjust for your particular barrel, no problem."
That statement right there just made me a new customer!
Now I have no idea how long this issue went on or how many rifles are like mine?
I do know that if I owned a T3/T3x that was only several years old that I would not worry at all. However if you have one getting close to 15-20 years old you MIGHT want to do a little investigating before buying that barrel.
After hearing so much about shouldered prefit Tikka T3 barrels and the fact that Tikka products are dimensionally spot on and everything will interchange etc, I thought it might be wise to see for myself. I own several T3's from the 1st or 2nd year of importation (2003 time frame?) and when I tried swapping the bolts into each other rifle they DID NOT enter far enough for the handle to turn down and lock.
Since I know a person with access to the new model Tikka rifles now in the stores, we tried swapping a number of bolts between themselves. All the NEW rifle bolts DID interchange and functioned with no issues.
We then tried swapping some NEW bolts in my old rifles and again, they DID function fine.
And last, we tried my OLD bolts in a few of the new rifles--they DID NOT enter far enough to allow the handle to turn down and lock.
I spoke with one of the companies doing the shouldered prefit barrels regarding this issue on my OLD bolts/barrels compared to NEW rifles. They said they had not heard of that but did say that there most likely would be issues if I bought one of their currently produced barrels. So they did offer me a possible option to avoid a problem--"if you have your current barrel off, use a depth micrometer or caliper and measure from the face of the action to the face of the closed bolt and send us this dimension. We are a custom barrel maker and we can easily and quickly adjust for your particular barrel, no problem."
That statement right there just made me a new customer!
Now I have no idea how long this issue went on or how many rifles are like mine?
I do know that if I owned a T3/T3x that was only several years old that I would not worry at all. However if you have one getting close to 15-20 years old you MIGHT want to do a little investigating before buying that barrel.
