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Tikka Tactical 7mm Saum


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Possibly unique in the UK (at the moment)

The rifle started out as a standard 6.5mm Creedmoor Tikka Tac A1, that was provided as a donor / project for a client

The rifle was very well looked after, but suffered from the usual pica-tinny rail screw issue that Tikkas suffer - corroded screws, which, doubled with stripped heads and loctite at the factory makes an interesting and twitchy afternoons work, removing carefully with the mill and small carbide end mill and thread clean up

The Tac A1 is a modular chassis, that relies on the standard pica-tinny rail to provide a "bridge" between the lower chassis and forend tube via a clever "O" support bracket

Once the rifle was stripped down and the barrel removed, I cleaned up the lugs, lapping them with fine lapping paste and then placed the bolt in a fixture, set it up to run true and opened up the bolt face to .540" for the SAUM cartridge

 

Relatively simple task, but sharp tooling required to get a good finish.

The barrel came from Sassen and is a stainless cut rifled , 7.5 twist, finished at 28" in target profile, threaded at M18x1mm for moderator or brake with protective cap.

The rifles end use is Long Range competition shooting steels and I believe the client intends to use 180 class High BC bullets, single fed.

The throat is adjusted to maximise powder space in the SAUM case

Very interesting project that one hopes will provide a highly accurate rifle for the client who I have shot with many many years ago regularly on Warcop Charlie High range when we could use such places.

 

Anyway, some images

Bolt face after machining

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Gauge test fit

IMG-6113.jpg

 

Finished rifle

 

IMG-6392.jpg

IMG-6387.jpg

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Standard extractor Neil and it appears to work perfectly well - this modification is quite common across the pond with no alterations to the extractor - there are slight variances with the Standard, Magnum and Super Mag extractors with approach angles but otherwise those are effectively he same (.218" wide)

 

Certainly slips over parent case well and extracts no issue - the angle of the forward face could if necessary be altered with low speed diamond wheel lap or D Bit grinder and carbide wheel

Hopefully see how it performs at extended ranges very soon - Tyre is a spare for the four already on my pickup - noisy as hell but takes me anywhere I need to be for extraction

 

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36 minutes ago, Ronin said:

Standard extractor Neil and it appears to work perfectly well - this modification is quite common across the pond with no alterations to the extractor 

Hopefully see how it performs at extended ranges very soon 

 

I was looking to do the same. Open up the bolt face etc. In the end end managed to find a tikka t3 with magnum boltface. I went for 26" 1in8. M18x1. Throated for 184hybrids. But longer coal to maximise case capacity but seated to avoid 🍩. Went for mdt ess chassis. Still awaiting delivery from Highland. Usual delays due to covid etc. But looking forward to it. 

Mine is mag fed using mdt tikka 300wm mags. So can mag feed longer coal. 

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Nice 

 

MDT take orders direct by the way - No “Covid” delays ....and favourable exchange rate as opposed to direct swap of Can dollar to GBP 

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Thanks for the heads up Ronin. Wasn't sure I could order from them direct. Thought I'd have to go through an importer. Will shoot them an email and see what they say. If that's the case I'll order another for me. 308. 

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Took delivery of a chassis two weeks ago no issue and short delivery time 

Exchange rate was fine - import duty paid and passed saving on to client supplied 

you may find your order comes from the supplier in the  Netherlands but again it’s no hassle 

just order direct via the MDT site 

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No problem re chassis questions - I am not precious about helping people just like most other riflesmiths who frequent the site try to help wherever they can

You do not have to declare when ordering from MDT if you have dealers licence or if you are trade, I pay what "normal people pay" and still have significant saving on UK "RRP"

you may be contacted by Customs Clearance to request "Authority to possess" but that would only entail sending a pro forma declaration which they provide and a scanned copy of your FAC - I recently had to do this for a stock coming from Republic of Ireland (Post Brexit) - still arrived safely with minimal delay once the admin was correct

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11 hours ago, Ronin said:

No problem re chassis questions - I am not precious about helping people just like most other riflesmiths who frequent the site try to help wherever they can

You do not have to declare when ordering from MDT if you have dealers licence or if you are trade, I pay what "normal people pay" and still have significant saving on UK "RRP"

you may be contacted by Customs Clearance to request "Authority to possess" but that would only entail sending a pro forma declaration which they provide and a scanned copy of your FAC - I recently had to do this for a stock coming from Republic of Ireland (Post Brexit) - still arrived safely with minimal delay once the admin was correct

When I ordered my xlr chassis through - they asked for a scan of me FAC which they included on the outside of the chassis. Customs checked it and me chassis was delivered. But it had been damaged by the carriers. Nevertheless not really a problem as Kyle at xlr replaced it within weeks for free. 

I did check with both MDT and Highlands about the whereabouts. MDT were very clear, and verified Ronins experience. No delay. They are shipping and fullfilling all orders. Highland told me it was down to suez canal issue causing issues at the border 😂 

Not sure what to believe. Hey ho. Will just be patient. Good things come to he who waits with abaitted breath... 

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Kyle at XLR is (was) very good to deal with when he first started up - haven’t bought anything from them for a long time 

Always best dealing direct in my experience 

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Having looked at your pics Ronin, wish I would have contacted you regarding me build. I was going to do exactly what you have done there and open up the boltface. But those I spoke to said it would not leave enough material so we're hesitant. But looks like there is more ethan enough. The yanks have been doing it a while without anything going amiss. Nice to see those that might be into a bit of working outside the box. Can't wait to hear how it shoots. 

 

All the best 

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  • 2 months later...

So a bit of a update on the rifle so far. 
 

I’ve been a little bit silly and developed loads for 3 bullets at the same time, basically because I couldn’t decide which one to use. Also the way our club operates means that we vary between 100,200 & 300 yds at the weekends so I have to wait for the 100yd day to arrive for more load dev. 
 

So far it’s showing a lot of promise with the 183gn Matchking and almost as good with the 185gn RDF. I’ve not had as much luck with the 180gn ELDM but it is still more accurate than me. I should have the loads truly wrapped up on my next range visit in a  couple of weeks time. 
 

Couple of points noted in the earlier posts. 
 

Twist rate. Yep a bit odd and I saw that most bullets would work with a 8 twist. However Hornady lists a higher BC with its 180 ELDM’s using a 7.5 and I wanted to try the 197 Matchking. Turns out that it favours other bullets over the ELDM but it’s worth a try. Another thought was I’d like to be able to use any high bc offerings that may come out later. 
 

Extractor. Andy did mention and I had read on various forums etc that the extractor may be a little fiddly and could need some work. However it works flawlessly and I have no issues with chambering or extraction hold ups. 
 

In terms of how it shoots? Surprisingly soft, it is now fitted with one of Dave’s muzzle brakes which tames it and its weight certainly helps. 
 

As Andy says in the first post I wanted it for longer range shooting and having sold my .338 Lapua it will now be my go to for places like Eskdalemuir for now. We have a club trip booked in July to Eskdalemuir and I’m looking forward to stretching its legs up there. 

Big thanks to Andy for his work on it. 

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8 hours ago, sean c said:

So a bit of a update on the rifle so far. 
 

I’ve been a little bit silly and developed loads for 3 bullets at the same time, basically because I couldn’t decide which one to use. Also the way our club operates means that we vary between 100,200 & 300 yds at the weekends so I have to wait for the 100yd day to arrive for more load dev. 
 

So far it’s showing a lot of promise with the 183gn Matchking and almost as good with the 185gn RDF. I’ve not had as much luck with the 180gn ELDM but it is still more accurate than me. I should have the loads truly wrapped up on my next range visit in a  couple of weeks time. 
 

Couple of points noted in the earlier posts. 
 

Twist rate. Yep a bit odd and I saw that most bullets would work with a 8 twist. However Hornady lists a higher BC with its 180 ELDM’s using a 7.5 and I wanted to try the 197 Matchking. Turns out that it favours other bullets over the ELDM but it’s worth a try. Another thought was I’d like to be able to use any high bc offerings that may come out later. 
 

Extractor. Andy did mention and I had read on various forums etc that the extractor may be a little fiddly and could need some work. However it works flawlessly and I have no issues with chambering or extraction hold ups. 
 

In terms of how it shoots? Surprisingly soft, it is now fitted with one of Dave’s muzzle brakes which tames it and its weight certainly helps. 
 

As Andy says in the first post I wanted it for longer range shooting and having sold my .338 Lapua it will now be my go to for places like Eskdalemuir for now. We have a club trip booked in July to Eskdalemuir and I’m looking forward to stretching its legs up there. 

Big thanks to Andy for his work on it. 

Try the ELDM's touching 😉

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To be honest no...

I've not bothered compare it.. they do shoot pretty good.. I shot some Sunday at 1000yds at Bisley..

My rifle is zeroed in with a mod on with 162gr ELDX's  and I shoot the ELDM's with a muzzle brake which was developed with the brake on. Approx 1.5 minutes different poi at 100yds, not sure on if it shoots the same poi line wise.. off the top of my head the poi at 1000yds was 0.5 minutes lower than the 180gr hybrids I used first.. the hybrids were probaly doing 100fps faster as I tried them on RS60. Something I tried innit 3 years out of intrest.. As the barrel has seen 2000 shots and I'm not so worried about barrel wear..

I entered the 180gr ELDM's 2nd BC value for is not the highest one..

Push to hard and they'll blow up..

I've had no blow ups in my 284 but I have using them in my saum.

Cost me serious points in a f class league match on 2 occasions so I stopped using them in competitive matches.

 

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