My last post left off as I wondered whether my father-in-law's Springfield had issues or if I needed some remedial marksmanship training. My wonderful wife told me the only way to find out quickly was to go get a new rifle. We went in to Sportsman's Warehouse to check out some of the pre-season bargains they had going. After trying several rifle and scope sets, we decided that the bargains weren't the way to go. They all had one or more of three problems: less than optimal optics (OK, they were pretty bad), rough and non-adjustable triggers, and rough actions (bolts just didn't work smooth). Working with the sales rep, we moved up and started looking at Remington, Savage, and Sako rifles and Nikon and Leupold optics.
In the end, I most liked a Sako Tikka T3 Lite .30-06. Sportsman's Warehouse mounted a Nikon Bushmaster 4-9x scope on it for me. They did a nice job, too. When I got it out to zero at the range a couple of days later, I hit just outside the X ring on my first shot and most of that was because of the 20mph breeze we had going. Just a bit of work and I had consistent groups out to 200M without any problem! Which made me feel good. I do need more practice, but I was happy.
As you can see from the pictures, this is a beautiful weapon. Stainless steel. Very smooth action and trigger. The Bushmaster scope is superb. Together, they weigh on about 8lbs. Which brings up the main challenge. Even shooting 150 grain soft points, this rifle has some serious kick. That's definitely going to take some getting used to -- target reacquistion is tough even keeping both eyes open. Gotta get some more practice in!
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