Tikka 595 — "Poor Man's Tactical"?
Think about the features you’d want in a bolt rifle for tactical/practical comps. How about a smooth-feeding, single-column 5-round detachable magazine? Fast, positive, side bolt release? Short, 70-degree bolt throw? Dove-tailed receiver top for secure, low-profile, and perfectly-aligned ring mounting? Smooth factory trigger adjustable to less than 2 pounds? Flat-bottomed receiver with integral recoil lug for secure bedding? Now how would you like to get all that for under $600.00? No, this isn’t a pipe dream. A late-model Tikka 595 offers all those features, plus respectable accuracy with a factory barrel. With the addition of a match-grade barrel, Tikka 595s can approach half-MOA accuracy.
Sadly, the Tikka 595 is no longer in production, but, with patience, you can find used examples on Gunbroker.com, AuctionArms.com, and at gunshows. These typically sell for around $500-600 for a bare rifle in a synthetic stock, but there are even better deals to be had if you shop around. Mac Tilton of MTGuns.com, just picked up a Tikka 7-08 for $350.00. The gun in the photos, a .308 Win with fluted barrel, recently sold for $650.00 on Gunbroker, including the Leupold 3-9X scope, rings, and four magazines. Sure, eventually you’d want to upgrade the optics, but the point is, for about the same cost as a trued Remington action, you can have a complete rifle that will get you in the game.
Tikka 595s come in a wide variety of calibers, with either .308 or .223 bolt faces. There are three sizes of magazines available–.223, 22-250, and .308-size. And get this — Tikka’s 22-250 magazines even feed 6BR cases reliably. Credit that to the single-stack design and short follower.
If the sporter-style stock isn’t “Tacti-cool” enough for you, Mac Tilton has bare Tikka Master Sporter stocks for sale. These nice walnut stocks offer a vertical pistol grip, deeper, stippled fore-end with rail, and an adjustable cheekpiece. McMillan and Robertson Composites also offer fiberglass stocks that can easily be adapted to the Tikka 595 action. You can find complete Tikka 595 Master Sporters for $850 and up, but the word is out, and prices are rising.
I agree, the Tikka seems to be a very versatile rifle. Many people here in Australia (including myself) are using the Tikka T3 actions to build up match rifles for across the corse competition with great success. Check out http://www.aihpa.com for a couple of the conversions
Well, even better than the tikka 595, is the tikka 590.
The receiver is the same except the ejection port is smaller.So you get more rigidity in the action which can help when you want to rebarrel that action with heavy target barrels.
But these are very rare…
Another trick as well is to ditch the original recoil lug and replace it with a Holland one (the one made for sako, they share the same barrel tang diameters. See http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/productdetail.aspx?p=6911&st=holland%20lug&s=). The rifle is set up “a la remington”. You then, do not have any “moving part” once your action is bedded in the stock.
Devcon bedding the factory recoil lug into your stock removes all movement issues
and
makes a very precise return to point when taking the action in and out of the stock for cleaning etc.
later
p
I´ve got a tikka 595 here in Spain and i am very satisfied with the gun. Smooth action and precise shots. Thank you Sako for being Tikka´s manufacturer.
I shoot a Tikka m595. Excellent rifle, great accuracy and action. I’m still looking for a 3-shot magazine in .222 (in Europe). If anyone knows one for sale, please drop me a message.
Hey Wout. Did you find a 3 round magazine??
5-round detachable magazine only ?
I need 10-round magazine.
primaloft comforter
Leif: sorry for the very late reply. Yes I found the 3-shot magazine at a Finnish gun dealer. It makes a big difference (for me) shooting the rifle lying down & off-hand because this one does not protrude beneath the stock. Still love the rifle (don’t tell my wife
)
I have a tikka m595 308 varmint semisporter with 3rounds+5rounds magazine and ziess optics duralyt 3-12-50 and it is quite heavy but realy nice to handle love of my life dont tell my girlfrend