Bedding a Tikka T3 Stainless Laminate

 
The Laminated stocked Tikka T3 rifle as it comes from the factory is a reasonable quality rifle. Some shoot very well right out of the box and a few do not. The standard bedding on these rifles is relatively easy to improve upon. In this article I will show you how to epoxy bed the stock and its recoil lug for improved performance.

From the factory............. As can be seen in the photo to the right. The Laminated stock is machine inleted at the factory and comes with a very small alloy recoil block. This alloy recoil block sits into a recess machined into the stock and is not glued or held in place by anything else. The action screw holes in the stock have no alloy pillars and the laminate stock is quite soft. On one of my rifles the recess for the recoil block was cut too deep and the recoil block failed to control the recoil of a .338WM. The soft alloy block was actually damaged by the recoil. The aim of the bedding job was to improve the ability of the rifle to transfer the recoil energy from the action to the stock via its bedding and improve accuracy at the same time.

After shooting this rifle in its "Out of the box" factory format, I was not happy with its accuracy. While initially showing reasonable accuracy. The accuracy of the rifle never got better and actually got worse. Inspection showed a long scope screw touching the bolt head and a problem with the recoil lug. While the scope screw was an easy fix, I still decided to bed the action as I felt it would help improve accuracy. The photo on the left shows the bottom of the T3 action with its recoil lug sitting loosely into recess in the action.  The lug is a sloppy fit in both the stock and the action. It amazes me that these rifles have such a good reputation for accuracy at all given this system.

The contact area of the lug in the action slot is quite small, while it would do an excellent job in the smaller calibres it was way too small for heavy recoiling cartridges like the  .338WM. I started off by giving the action and metal contact points a good coating of Johnson Wax. This is an excellent release agent and only a very thin film is needed to stop the epoxy gluing the action permanently into the stock. I then glued the alloy recoil lug into its recess in the stock at the correct height to ensure full contact with its mating slot in the action. Once the recoil lug was set into the correct place I used electrical tape in the stock barrel channel to help centralize the barrel and also to act as a dam to stop bedding compound running up the channel.

Care must be taken to ensure that bedding compound does not get into the trigger mechanism and bolt stop release. The best way to do this is to remove them but I simply taped them.  There is plenty of room inside the stock for taping so this worked quite well. Once the stock and action parts were taped, I mixed up some bedding compound and applied it to the stock. I then let the compound cure for a few minutes then installed the action and held it in place with a few windings of electrical tape around the stock.  Leaving the rifle sitting level in a bipod helps stop the wet compound from running out. It is important that the rifle remains still while the compound sets. This may take quite a while so leave it for 24 hours before doing anything further.

The photos above show the bedding  job once the action was removed from the stock. The electrical tape was removed and the overflow of bedding compound was cleaned up with a sharp knife and some fine emery paper. Some controversy surrounds the subject of rifle bedding. While process of epoxy bedding actions such as the Remington 700 is well known, little is know about bedding the Tikka T3 action. For this reason I will explain how I bedded this action the way I did. First up I did not bed any of the parts that contacted the barrel. I feel that a barrel must be free floated along the for end of the stock to avoid any accuracy related problems due to uneven pressure that may be applied by the shooter to the stock. With  Remington style actions the recoil lug is solidly sandwiched between the barrel and the action. The front of the recoil lug is not bedded. Only the rear of the recoil lug comes in contact with its support block. While this is fine for these actions I felt that the Tikka recoil lug needed greater support. This was due to the fact that it is not firmly attached to the action. The lug is held in a sloppy fit in both the stock and the machined slot in the action. It is such a loose fit that this can not be good for accuracy. I know that Tikka T3's have a good reputation for accuracy but imagine how good they would be with a better recoil lug and bedding system! With my system the lug is help quite solid in its correct position. While little can be done about the slop in its recess in the action, at least the slop has been reduced and the action is better supported throughout its full length. Harmonics under recoil and a better return to battery is the result.. Pillar bedding of this stock may also help accuracy. I will monitor the performance of the rifle and if I think that it could be improved further I will consider doing this next. If I was going to do a barrel replacement on a Tikka T3, I would get rid of the factory recoil lug altogether and install a large standard type recoil lug between the barrel and the action. Just like other rifles.

Accuracy testing. The rifle performed very well at the range when tested. The two groups to the right were the first groups shot after the bedding job. This was with two different load using 225 grain Hornady Interbond and 250 grain Nosler Accubond projectiles. This was also without any load development work so further improvement is possible.

It was with interest that I was given another Tikka T3, by a client to sort out.  This was a standard T3 in .222 Rem. It is shown in the photo right. The owner of this rifle was unable to get better that 3" groups with this rifle and factory ammo. I did a modification to its bedding and groups shrunk to just under 1".

 So it looks like these light weight, Tikka T3 rifles with timber stocks, can benefit from a good bedding job. These rifles come with a 1" group guarantee so consider this before doing any modifications to your rifle or it may render the guarantee invalid.

But for those willing to tinker with their rifle some excellent improvement in accuracy is possible.