Don't let one person's opinion turn you completely off the Tikkas. Chuck Hawks site is interesting to read, but he's far from an expert on most things he writes. Infact many of his articles contain factual errors. This most often comes out when he writes about military surplus firearms. His comments about plastic in firearms an free floating barrels are totally incorrect.

I agree with him in that I don't like the one length bolt for all cartridges sizes, but many other rifles share this trait. The four Tikkas I own all shoot sub 1" with factory ammo. They all shoot 1/2" or less with good handloads.

I own 700's now and have owned a small warehouse full of them over the years, but the Tikka in my opinon are superior built rifles.

TO&D,I hope you are right ,cause i just last week bought a new tikka t3 in 270win lefthand. i haven't fired it yet ,but so far i really like it .

Yeah, I "used to" think that way too but to be honest what matters most is what YOU like and that YOU get the best quality. That being said, I think anything other then the 710 or 770 from Remmy is good quality along with Rugers M77 rifles. Did I miss any other NA made rifles? Oh yeah, Savage but I worry about the bolt actions on them becuase they stick alot although they areaccurate out of the box! I will still stick with my Ruger however and work on it along with the marksman. I just can't part with exceptional quality.

Along those lines I guess Browning, Beretta, Weatherby, Blasser and God knows what else are also good. Again, it's all in what YOU like.

My stepcousin has a Sako, it is one of the finest out of the box rifles I have ever seen. He also has a Tikka. Great shooter. Just about everyone else has a Remington or Savage. We have all shot each-others guns and only a fewshooters actually benefited from the accuracy of his Sako and only then from a bench.

For the American Hunter ISay Remington.

well ,i own a remington 700 bdl and a new tikka t3. i just got the tikka and shot it this week . the first grps were 3/4 in at 100yds. the rem weighs a full pound more then the t3 and the rem has more recoil. the trigger on my rem is good after being worked, the tikka trigger is very good and needs no adjustments.both of these rifles are 270 win. so far i really think i'm going like the t3 better.

both of these guns are also lefty's as far as price ,about the same.