Tikka 7SAUM

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I caught the live stream the other night where someone asked if Tika made a 7 RSAUM. I don’t claim to be an industry expert. However, I have a difficult time thinking that of all the companies in the world Tika would make a 7SAUM. Just not their Style.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t get one!

I had a T3X Veil in 6.5PRC that wasn’t getting much attention because I have another 6.5 PRC that shoots much better. So I had PBB spin up an eight twist, 22-in 7SAUM barrel. Will say that switching out barrels on a Tikka was not as easy as my other previous attempts which were almost exclusively on Zermatts. I talked to the good people at preferred barrels before and chose a contour that would just be a drop in for the factory Tikka stock.

I put 20 rounds of cheap Remington ammo through it just to wear it in a little bit. I was very impressed with what I was seeing with those first 20 rounds. I then cleaned it and today took it out to try some more premium ammo.

Berger 168 Classic Hunter loaded by Copper Creek.

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Then 166 A Tip, also loaded by Copper Creek

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Pleased with the performance so far. What I wasn’t expecting though was that for the 168 this 22-in Barrel is giving me the exact same velocity that I get with that bullet shooting it out of a 26 inch 7 Rem Mag (2750).

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Took her out today with a handload 162ELDX over H4350.

First time I’ve ever tried a 10 shot group

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In fairness sakes, and for completeness, here are some less impressive five shot groups

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I wasn’t working on load development. I was doing something based upon a recent post by Jim in the accuracy database thread. He mentioned how some triggers will pull you off of zero as you give them the squeeze. If I shoot this Tikka the way that feels the most natural to me, that happens and I can easily see the crosshairs going off roughly 1 in in any direction as the striker falls. Thus I was doing some variation with grip with my strong hand. The best groups were definitely done with them Absolute lightest grip I could come up with.

Going to have to do some more work with this. Not sure how that’s going to work from a hunting position not using sandbags with such a light grip.

But overall continue to be impressed with the barrel from PBB

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Most of those still look like they are under 1”.

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