Hornady Supprise Tikka 7 rem mag

I bought a Tikka T3x in 7 rem mag 6 months ago with a Vortex Viper 4x16x50 Scope on it . Admittedly Im not rifle expert just an average joe, never really rifle hunted until it was for coyotes 2-3 years. Got a box of cheap winchesters zeroed it 100. Then bought some Hornady American Whitetail (Big mistake ) . Ive always thought of Hornady as a superior ammo as I never saw it growing up in the Walmart as a kid and it costs quite a bit ....I shot it for a while and dinked around probably 100 rounds over the course of a few months practicing at 1-300 yards. I thought I was a terrible shot, couldnt get this thing on paper at 2-300 unless it was lead sled dead cold, complained it threw shots when the barrel got hot, tightned the action screws, scope screws, did dry fires drills, cleaned the copper out of the rifling. Honestly just admitted I was a terrible shot or the rifle was finicky after the first shot. Some boxes or shots would group good and the next were awful... I even had a factory one that wouldnt let the bolt close on my rifle. I actually was working on getting a backup rifle for my upcoming hunt because I had that little confidence. I finally got smart and started to try some different ammo after reading the "Finicky Tikka Thread' and glad I did. ... Here are the results.

Sorry for huge images.

Left to right. Hornady American Whitetail - Federal Fusion - Winchester Silvertips

Looks like you found a winner.

I wonder if its the heavier bullet in addition to the manufacturer. I would be interested in the accuracy of 160gr bullets.

My Tikka .308 will not shoot American Whitetail for crap either. Which is weird because it shoots the BTSP Interlocks very well, those are basically the same bullet except it has a boat tail base. My .300WM, my wife's .270, and our shared .243 all shoot the American Whitetail ammo great. Maybe it's just a Tikka thing.

My Tikka also likes Silver Tips, Fusions, SSTS, and Nosler Balistic Tips. The trend here is they are all boat tails. This puzzles me a little because my slightly-better-than layman's knowledge of ballistics tells me that the boat tail design shouldn't really show much effect at 100 yards, its strength is more to overcome wind resistance and atmospheric conditions down range, but I figure rifles just sort of like what they like.

elkantlers said:

I wonder if its the heavier bullet in addition to the manufacturer. I would be interested in the accuracy of 160gr bullets.

Click to expand...

My thoughts as well, Kinda wish I would of picked up some heavier hitters but taking the rifle for antelope so didnt need a huge slug. The squares are less than an inch in the pictures, probably closer to 3/4 for reference. Also used was a cheap lead sled.

Silver tips grouped tighter at 200 than fusions at 200 .

My dad's Tikka .243 shoots the American Whitetail ammo pretty well...