300wsm or 325wsm or??? Packing Elk rifle

[Frank in the Laurels]

Great little cartridge ! As with any short mag always go with H-4350...if you can find some on planet Earth...

 

[aj427ci]

No h4350 where I live lol. Probably going to try imr 4451

 

[RockyMtnMT]

RL-16 would be worth trying.

Steve

 

[DartonJager]

Well I picked up the t3 in 300wsm. Wife not to happy lol. Now to get a load made up. It was mentioned about another thread to extend the col in these rifles... Any one no which thread that was, maybe a link so I can be lazy. Thanks for the help

I bought a T3 Lite in 300wsm and love it. Lived up to the T3 reputation for OOTB accuracy beyond my expectations. I can not recommend STRONGLY enough that you invest a few dollars in a Sims Limbsaver Airtech recoil pad. I am EXTREMELY recoil tolerant but even I get a little tired of the recoil a 300wsm generates in a sub 8lb rifle after 20-30 shots from the bench. The Limbsaver Airtech reduced the felt recoil to very IMHO entirely tolerable.

I am presently getting an MV Average with 180 NBT/NAB of 3050 fps W/IMR4831. If your gun happens to like RL-17 you might be able to top a MV/AV of 3100+fps as my T3 did but my best accuracy to date with 180's was with IMR-4831.

My advise is unless you have DEEP pockets stock up on less expensive brass like Winchester or Hornady as it was in stock on line less than a week ago, otherwise be prepared to spend from $1.50 to a $1.75 for Norma brass which can usually be found in stock, at auction sights like GunBroker you will likely get a major hosing.

I waited well over 18 months (and I maintained a weekly vigilance) for Winchester or Hornady brass to become available to buy ANYWARE and it finally did about 2-3 months ago so I bought 500 pieces just so I never run out.

I will be the first to concede Norma brass is of quite a bit higher quality than the Winchester I bought, but for my purposes at the moment of strictly hunting and shooting at distances at or below 600 yards, Winchester should serve me just fine.

Good luck and enjoy your Tikka. Tikka's are in my most humble opinion the best rifle for the money. Period.

 

[DartonJager]

Excellent advice here, the seating depth issue in a short action was addressed in an other post as well and the Tikka is the solution IMO, it's a very simple fix to make your WSM Tikka into a Med length action allowing it to run bullets seated out or for throating out for better bullets. The 300 WSM with a 215 Berger seated with no compromise has a coal of 3.2 ish, runs like butter through the Tikka mag and action.

Would you be so kind as to if available post a link to the above magazine length (or lack there of) solution you speak of?

Thank you,
DJager/Arthur.

 

[86alaskan]

I've read about the mag issue before, and it's an easy fix. get a standard LA magazine. If you can buy it, get a LA bolt stop. If you can't remove the bolt stop and cut away the portion that engages the bolt until you can easily cycle a LA cartridge. It's really that easy.

 

[DartonJager]

Instead of the T3 Lite, consider the standard T3.

Too light can be too much of a good thing.

I am wondering if you found Tikka T3 lights difficult to shoot due to their light weight. I'm no expert but shooting off hand with no sling can and have hit a 8" steel plate easily 8 or 9x out of ten at 200 yards.

 

[Pdvdh]

I am wondering if you found Tikka T3 lights difficult to shoot due to their light weight. I'm no expert but shooting off hand with no sling can and have hit a 8" steel plate easily 8 or 9x out of ten at 200 yards.

We've shot game out to 850 yds with Tikkas in 7mm RM. And verified POIs by shooting them on targets at 1000yds. Done reasonably well, but the rifle rest and shooter must be A game quality, compared to shooting a rifle with some additional weight.

The handicap I refer to is at those extended ranges. Not shooting offhand at closer ranges. Offhand they're fine. The one bothersome thing is with a 30oz scope mounted over the receiver, the rifle gets top heavy / unbalanced. I disliked that enough that I removed those scopes in favor of a 22-24 oz scope. And that's as heavy as a scope as I'll ever put on them.

Tikka T3s are wonderful rifles, for the money spent. Just 2 negative things to say: 1) the factory supplied scope rings used to be Tonka toy quality and would fail in the larger higher recoiling cartridges, and 2) the price they charge for additional mags is dumbfounding!

I don't know if they still come with the Cracker Jacks scope rings or not. I mounted one piece rails and Seekins' rings to both of mine, and solved that problem.

 

[aj427ci]

So I got the Tikka kinda put together. Threw a extra vx1 on it to test things out. Picked up the cheapest box of winchester ammo I could find (150g power Max) A better recoil pad is surely the first thing that I change. I have shot nothing but 300 win mag the last 4 years... This 6lb 10oz rifle totally dressed will rock your world lol. Not helping the fact the factory ammo is pretty hot stuff 3400fps! I'll be pulling the bullets and loading them down lol. But I'm excited. Didn't buy this gun for the bench. It's going to be a 400yrd max elk/deer hammer.

 

[DartonJager]

We've shot game out to 850 yds with Tikkas in 7mm RM. And verified POIs by shooting them on targets at 1000yds. Done reasonably well, but the rifle rest and shooter must be A game quality, compared to shooting a rifle with some additional weight.

The handicap I refer to is at those extended ranges. Not shooting offhand at closer ranges. Offhand they're fine. The one bothersome thing is with a 30oz scope mounted over the receiver, the rifle gets top heavy / unbalanced. I disliked that enough that I removed those scopes in favor of a 22-24 oz scope. And that's as heavy as a scope as I'll ever put on them.

Tikka T3s are wonderful rifles, for the money spent. Just 2 negative things to say: 1) the factory supplied scope rings used to be Tonka toy quality and would fail in the larger higher recoiling cartridges, and 2) the price they charge for additional mags is dumbfounding!

I don't know if they still come with the Cracker Jacks scope rings or not. I mounted one piece rails and Seekins' rings to both of mine, and solved that problem.

I indeed read countless reviews advising better scope rings than the factory ones and went with Talley 1 piece and Yes I completely agree on Tikka OUCH mag prices being simply outrageous

 

[aj427ci]

Do the Talley rings incorporate the use of the recoil pin/lug?