This Cake Isn’t Done Yet

I finally got to make a nearly-credible effort to try out the Tikka T1x .22 rifle today.

My hope has been that I could find something that would shoot around half an inch at 50 yards. I have not found it yet, but it could happen soon.

I decided to try two rifles today. My Marlin 60 and the Tikka. I used two kinds of ammunition: CCI 36-grain Mini-mags (1235 fps) and CCI 40-grain Standard Velocity Target (1070 fps). The Target ammo is more accurate because CCI stamped “Target” on the little boxes. It really tightens those groups up.

I have criticized the Marlin a great deal, because there is a great deal to criticize. The inner workings are cheap. From the factory, it couldn’t shoot hyper loads safely. It has a tube magazine fastened to the barrel, so free-floating is not an option. To reload, you have to put your hand in front of the muzzle. The factory trigger was a horror. It came with no sling studs.

Whatever. It has a great barrel. There is no denying it. And because I have done a lot of work on it, it now has an acceptable trigger, sturdy guts, and studs. It’s 80% of the rifle Marlin should have made.

I have been planning a major .22 campaign against squirrels, and I wanted something substantially more accurate than the Model 60 and my Savage A22, so I bought the Tikka, my first .22 bolt gun. It cost three times as much as the Model 60. Unless you count all the parts I had to put in the Model 60 to turn it into a proper firearm. Then I guess it only costs around twice as much.

The Marlin has a UTG Bug Buster scope, so named because it will focus on things 10 feet away. I paid something like $70 for the Bug Buster. It started out on an expensive RWS/Diana air rifle, which turned out to be worthless and a waste of money.

The Tikka has a Vortex Diamondback 4-12×42 scope, which I would say is pretty good for deer. It will focus on things as little as 30 feet away, supposedly. I can’t get it to do it. I believe the current price for this scope is around $250.

Which scope is better? The Bug Buster. I don’t care who laughs at me for saying it. The glass is clearer, it has target turrets, it has an illuminated reticle, it has parallax adjustment (the Vortex is fixed at 100 yards)…it’s wonderful.

I couldn’t get a truly sharp focus with either gun at 35 yards, but the Bug Buster was nearly there. The Vortex was just plain bad. Rotating the eyepiece did not overcome my vision issues. Maybe it would have worked well with my glasses.

I set up two four-bullseye targets. The bullseyes are 4″ across, and the rings are 1/2″ apart. I shot 40 rounds per gun. I shot 20 Mini-mags and then 20 of those anointed target rounds.

If my little Leica rangefinder is right, I was shooting at 35 yards. I used my nice solid bench, and I rested the guns. The plan is to zero at 35 and shoot targets later at 50 to see what the gun will do. If I’m zeroed at 35, I’m right on the button for long squirrel shots, and I just have to hold over 1/2″ for normal shots. I can hold under at 50 yards when shooting for accuracy. I think it’s over, not under. I’ll find out.

So what happened? I’ll post the targets. Marlin first. The top two bullseyes on each target were shot with Mini-mags, and you can guess what I used on the lower bullseyes.

I would say the Tikka did a little better, but not two-times-the-price better. I pulled at least one shot while shooting the Marlin, but even if I hadn’t, I think the groups would have been slightly worse.

I would also say the target rounds were less prone to flyers, so Mini-mags are probably the wrong ammo for squirrels over 25 yards off.

At normal squirrel distances of up to 75 feet, these guns are interchangeable in their current state. Might as well shoot the Marlin and avoid getting the Tikka dirty.

Was it a fair comparison? No.

I mounted the Diamondback for seated shooting off my back porch using a hunting tripod. When I rested the gun on the bench, the scope was too far forward. I had to fight with it to get in the eye relief sweet spot. Also, I would guess that the parallax error cost me some accuracy. The Diamondback is not a precision scope. I think it was made to hit a deer in the side, accurately enough to kill it. That’s asking very little.

Right now, you can walk into any store and buy a sub-MOA hunting rifle. Not a tactical rifle or target rifle. A hunting rifle. The hunting rifles our parents and grandparents used, including very expensive ones, were doing great if they managed 4 MOA. Deer are big. You just have to hit an immense kill zone in order to take one home.

I suppose many scopes are still made with MOA+ accuracy in mind.

The furry glass in the Diamondback made it hard to see where my point of aim was. I had no trouble at all with the Bug Buster.

The darker it got, the more the Bug Buster outshone the Diamondback.

I suppose I should put the Tikka away until the new scope comes. Then we’ll find out what it can do.

I also want a new front rest. Today I used a Caldwell Rock Jr., which is a front rest that only goes up to 7.5″. You have to crawl under the gun to get the crosshairs on target. I don’t understand how people use it without fighting it. I should make a simple rest from plywood, with a wingnut to let me adjust the height.

I also used a front bag, but it was hard to get height out of it. They’re great for prone shooting, but they’re small for seated shooting.

I ordered two types of ammunition to see if they’re any better than what I have. I ordered Eley Benchrest Outlaw, which has done great in at least one T1x. I also ordered subsonic CCI hollow points. Not the really slow ones. Barely subsonic. Maybe they’ll help. Real .22 nuts buy lots of different brands to see what works in their guns.

With the silencer in place, the Tikka sounded like an air rifle, as it did the first time I tried it. Really nice.

In any case, I think it’s fair to say I am ready to commence .22LR squirrel genocide. The Marlin will do the job reliably and humanely as long as I don’t get ambitious about distance.

I need to practice and get my trigger pull in top shape. Otherwise, I’ll hold my guns back and maim squirrels.

So that’s it for now. The Marlin will work, and it’s too early to say much about the Tikka.