They hired a very good custombarrel maker to start building barrels in house. I think his name is Bill Atkinson but not entirely sure. Their barrels are very good, in fact about a year ago they had John Ratzenberger(Norm ofCheers fame) tour their plant, the barrel machinery and area looked like an operating room. Their trigger on the other hand could be detrimental to accuracy unless tuned. All in All if I am looking for a rugged gun that will always go bang I would pick the Ruger. The Tikka has a better trigger pull(Rugers is simpler and more rugged)and possibly a betterbarrel since Sako barrels are extremely good barrelsbut that would be the extent of it.