Even though I’m sort of married right now I managed to sneak a rifle past the significant loved one. And don’t get me wrong: in SRA (Sovellettu Reserviläis Ammunta, aplicated reservist shooting maybe in English, LINK TO DESCRIPTION.) you can also have sniping stages, and this kind of gun would be most handy in these circumstances. and in 6,5mm Creedmoor the rifle has plenty of ability to reach out and touch someone out to and about 1000m. As FDF current doctrine requires designated marksmen to pull off 600m shots, there is more than enough rifle fro SRA shooting. Simo Häyhä competition is obviously a different story.  There ARE english SRA rules in existense, so if you want to check it out here you go.

Other application I wanted the rifle for was roe hunting. Granted it is on a heavier side  to lug around, so it is best used in ambush or from a stand. I was going to get the Tikka Deerhunter in 6,5mm Creedmoor, but it was not available in two stage trigger  before Yuletime. This being the case I decided on TAC A1, which I picked up from Oulun Ase the following week. Tikka is a great rifle, the brand is not as famous as SAKO, but it has solid reputation and, I feel, I do not “pay for the brand name” when I getting a Tikka compared to SAKO. Yes IF I had the monees, I would be owning SAKO TRG M-10 but I’m just a math and physics teacher, so my wallet protects me from many follies!

The ballistics and accuracy in Tikka TAC A1 are there for at least 300m. So hunting is easy with this kind of gun, even considering that the roe are not biggest and tallest of targets around. The folding stock makes the gun shorter, and the locking of the folding stock is solid, so the gun is never the less a quite short to carry.  In the sticks in Finland the foliage is quite dense, so short rifle is nicer to lug around. (And in Finnish hunting law, the AR-15 with 3-round mag is also lawful, so that is sort of my carry gun for stalking)

And what you get?

Tikka TAC A1 comes in cardboard box along with all the tools you need to get started with the rifle. And with the different pads and dingy dongies that you may want to use in setting up your Tikka just so. As you can see from photo above the stuff that comes with the rifle is neatly and nicely packed, but cardboard box is a cardboard box. Rifle and parts are in sturdy plastic bags and everything is at its place, so taking them out and getting the gun ready is a breeze. You can decide wich muzzle device you want to mount on the gun. There is SAKO muzzle brake or you can let the gun stay with the barrel thread protection ring. The thread on barrel is 5/8″x24 (Tikka manual gives it out as M18x1) I don’t know if they are the same, or “close enough”.

As I mentioned there are three different pad thicknesses for adjusting the gun to your arm and eye relieve lengths. These work nicely for most people and there is also the tools to get the adjustments done in the package. So you are ready to go right from the start.

I managed to fumble the SAKO OptiLock scopemounts mounting process: I, for some reason, managed to put the plastic rings that go around the tube of the scope so, that Vortex scope didn’t sit straight on rifle. What more, it looked somehow off, but I couldn’t put my finger on HOW it looked wrong. The problem was QUITE evident when I got to range the following day. I couldn’t manage to hit standard army chest ring target from 150m. After I picked this up, and rectified it, the rifle and Vortex optics VIPER PST 3-15 FFP 44mm lens combination was really good. Vortex page in English. In fact now the combination is so good that I can see the impacts if they land on white in target. Well at least with new optics of my face as well.

As I poitend out the rifle is a 5kg carry, so ity is not reallya pleasure to carry around. On the other hand this rifle is a pleasure to shoot. It is accurate, the 6,5 mm Creedmoor gives it a flat trajectory, so it is plenty of a rifle to shoot out to long distances. tekstiä tekstiä tekstiä

Now when the gun is zeroed in for 150m, I used the Vortex Optics LRBC to do cheatsheet out to 1100m I don’t expect to be shooting the roe that far, but in future SRA stages it may become handy. I’ll go over the Vortex Viper PST zeroing in process on some future date.

In the end, yes you can quite peacefully spend your hard earned monees on Tikka TAC A1 and rest assured that you were not using your money stupidly. I recommend to get one in your favorite caliber.