Tikka CTR vs Superlite (Practice/Volume Gun & Hunting Rifle)

[treillw]

I'd like to get a smaller caliber gun (6.5, 308, etc) to practice shooting wind with, so it's less expensive to practice and I don't throw my main hunting rifle out of tune shooting all the good ammo into the wind. For a strictly practice gun, the CTR looks awesome and I'm sure is the correct choice. Now I think, it would be great if I could get this new rifle to serve double duty - a volume practice gun and a hunting rifle for my wife. That is where the Superlite comes in. We hike 15+ miles a day through the mountains hunting and I wouldn't want to carry the CTR around. Would the Superlite work well as a practice/volume gun? How accurate are they? Maybe I'm better off just buying two guns, but then that translates into two expensive optics as well. Why does having fun have to cost so much?

Thanks!

 

[Ndbowhunter]

That's a pretty random choice. That's like asking for a sedan or a 1/2 ton

But First question a guy has to ask is why you hiking 15 miles a day??

And secondly what's 2.5 pounds worth to ya? A straight t3x 6.5creed with 130 Bergers is mild on the shoulder. With a good scope and rings you'll be right at 7.7lb or so.

 

[treillw]

But First question a guy has to ask is why you hiking 15 miles a day??

I guess cause I'm too dumb to find elk closer to the road haha.

 

[fightthenoise]

My wife carries and shoots a Superlite in 6.5. She loves it. She’s not a gun person at all, hates recoil, hates noise, the whole nine. She wants a gun that has no kick, makes no noise, and hits animals like the hammer of Thor. Obviously that’s an impossible combo but the SL in 6.5 has been a good compromise. She killed two whitetail bucks and an antelope this past season. So far so good. Hers wears a Silencerco Omega. She would whoop my ass if I tried to make her carry a CTR.

 

[treillw]

My wife carries and shoots a Superlite in 6.5. She loves it. She’s not a gun person at all, hates recoil, hates noise, the whole nine. She wants a gun that has no kick, makes no noise, and hits animals like the hammer of Thor. Obviously that’s an impossible combo but the SL in 6.5 has been a good compromise. She killed two whitetail bucks and an antelope this past season. So far so good. Hers wears a Silencerco Omega. She would whoop my ass if I tried to make her carry a CTR.

I don't even want to carry the CTR - I know my wife won't want anything to do with it haha. It would be an awesome range gun through, or great for less strenuous hunting.

Was it difficult to thread the superlight barrel? Did you install an adapter brake, or go with direct thread? What thread pitch? How is the accuracy?

 

[fightthenoise]

Not enough meat to thread 5/8 so it’s threaded 1/2 and then a bushing adapter brings it up to 5/8. It’s boringly sub-MOA like all the other Tikka’s you read about.

 

[treillw]

Ugh, you're not helping me. haha If I was guaranteed those results, I'd take one this second. I'll be the one who gets the lemon though!

How much playing with loads did you have to do to get it to shoot well? Factory loads? What recipe if reloading?

How many shots is it sub moa for? How long do you wait between shots?

What scope?

Thanks for the help.

 

[zimagold]

I have a CTR in 260 Rem and a superlite in 270win. For multishot accuracy and practicing the CTR wins hands down. I have put over 1k through my 270 superlite, but I generally fire 2-4 shots and then switch to another gun to let it cool. That barrel heats up super fast and I'm not sure I'm would want the superlite as dedicated practice gun. The 6.5 Creedmore will have less heat load and be easier on the throat, so maybe it would work out OK.

The superlite can be suppressed. TBAC recommended a 9/16 mount to keep more metal at the muzzle with the slightly larger 270. They strongly advised at the time to not use a 1/2 thread as accuracy would degrade faster. You need a very compitent gunsmith to work with the small shoulder and cut threads to fit for your specific muzzle device. Even with these precautions, my gunsmith said to expect less than 1k of sub moa after threading. I'm 400rds post threading without issues. The CTR avoids this and comes with 5/8 threads.

Edit: I test hunting accuracy by shooting 3 pairs 20min apart. First shot simulates cold bore, second shot is without delay to simulate a follow up shot in the field.

 

[fightthenoise]

Ugh, you're not helping me. haha If I was guaranteed those results, I'd take one this second. I'll be the one who gets the lemon though!

How much playing with loads did you have to do to get it to shoot well? Factory loads? What recipe if reloading?

How many shots is it sub moa for? How long do you wait between shots?

What scope?

Thanks for the help.

You’ll never buy anything if you’re worried about lemons. Ever rifle is a risk. Not many lemon Tikka’s I’ve heard of. There are three sub-MOA T3x’s in my safe. It’s nothing to brag about because everyone else’s shoot as well or better.

The 6.5 shot factory GMX’s just sub-MOA for 5 shots. I shoot three shots pretty much without waiting because that’s how I’ll need to shoot it in the field. Then those final two I’ll wait a minute or two in between just to round out statistical significance. For hand loads I use RL26, 143’s seated to about 2.95”. Just a hair under mag length. 49.8gr gives 2925fps at about 3/4 MOA. Again 3 at hunting speed, then two more leisurely. I could probably mess with seating depth to get it lower but I’m cool with it how it shoots now. This is all done at about 5600 feet of elevation in Colorado. Oh, forgot scope. Maven RS2. I like them. I have one on three rifles now and I’d buy another if I bought another hunting rifle.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

i'd get the 15 miles a day thing more dialed in then worrying about the weight/shootability difference between a ctr and Superlite. 7-8 pound rifle flinging 120-150 of lead in front of 40-50 something grains of powder isn't an ass kicker. Buy a case or two every quarter and practice up.

If I'm humping a 6 pound pack, 8oz knife.. 3 t shirts, a sleeping bag and worrying about rifle weight..

the carts a bit in front of the horse.

 

[mt100gr.]

My superlite 6.5 weighs 8lbs on the nose with rail, rings, and a 3-10 SHV. It wears an aftermarket carbon stock but the stock weight is similar to the t3x stock.

I should be receiving a 20" CTR any day now and at the advertised 7.4 lbs, with Hawkins direct mount rings (3.4oz) and a SWFA 10x (18.7oz) it will tip the scale at 8.78lbs. I'm guessing the CTR may come in a little over advertised, but the difference won't be to wild.

For comparison, my superlite 30-06 with Hawkins rings and SWFA 6x, javelin bipod and a cheek rest weighs 8.1lbs.

The last time I weighed my superlite 7mm it weighed over 9 lbs with a Harris bipod and it has seen more miles than the rest of them combined.

Figure out what kind of shooting you have in mind and choose a rifle that you will shoot a lot. Even if the 20" CTR ends up at 9.5 lbs, it will still get some miles. I love the idea of putting together a lightweight pack rifle but by the time I get them how I want them and shoot them the best, they all seem to end up within a pound or two of each other. I can make up that weight elsewhere in my kit so I carry the most appropriate rifle for the task.....not that any one of them wouldn't be up to anything I'd need it to do.

 

[MHWASH]

I have the T3 lite 6.5 Creedmoor. Very accurate and I can shoot it quite a bit without the recoil bothering me. It’s way less than my similar weight Rem. 270.
With Talleys and Burris 2-10 Veracity in weighs in at 8.5#. I’ve heard the Limbsaver recoil pads help a bunch as well.

 

[JeffRaines]

Ugh, you're not helping me. haha If I was guaranteed those results, I'd take one this second. I'll be the one who gets the lemon though!

How much playing with loads did you have to do to get it to shoot well? Factory loads? What recipe if reloading?

How many shots is it sub moa for? How long do you wait between shots?

What scope?

Thanks for the help.

I bought a SL and got it threaded for a brake(not for the recoil reduction but for jump reduction).

If yours is anything like mine, I haven't put anything in it yet that didn't shoot an inch or under, with the HSM 140 load coming in at about 1/2". Also the barrel seems to be fast - I'm getting 2820 with that load. 2645 with 143eld, and 2780 with the 147s. All factory. All under an inch. I would bother with trying to load for it, but why?

I let it sit 3 minutes or so between shots. These are 3 shot groups - I'm sure 5+ it would probably open up a little bit depending, but thats to be expected.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

If ur swfa 10x as configured from factory weights 18.7oz I'll buy if from tomorrow for 100$ more then you paid for it.


Swfa 6x plus egw rail and nightforce ti low rings weighs 27.5oz. Superlites with the 24.4" barrel generally run 95oz give or take depending on size of bore.

i was thinking the 24" ctr runs about 8lb 6oz or so which is exactly 40oz (or 2.5lbs) more then a superlite

 

[mt100gr.]

I'll be throwing it all on the scale soon - should have the scope and rifle in hand tomorrow. Stay tuned. Gotta be optimistic when the printed word is all we have to go on.

If memory serves, my superlite 7mmRM (24") weighs 97oz bare and my superlite 30-06 (22") weighs 93oz bare. They're both T3s, not t3xs with aftermarket steel recoil lugs not AL in factory stocks.

The Hawkins rings are probably the best place to save a quarter pound on a Tikka. Both sets I bought (30mm) weigh 3.4oz.

 

[16Bore]

If you wanna practice, get a 1:8 223 and shoot piles of 75's.

 

[howl]

Superlite, cryogenically treated is my guess.

 

[JimCraig]

Shooting a light rifle like the Tikka superlite to train for wind might be a bit of a challenge. Not saying you're not up for it. However, the lighter the rifle gets, all external input from the body and environment (breathing, pulse, trigger press, wind, etc.) will be amplified. So when I think about training for wind, I want as many variables eliminated or at least minimized so I can actually tell if my POI was due to wind. But with such a light rifle in field conditions, I think it would be hard to determine if a miss was due to a bad wind call or some other shortcoming in stability or shooter input.

 

[Ndbowhunter]

2 summers ago I did a lot of shooting in Wyoming with a braked 300 win mag superlite.

Unless you live under a rock ur probably savvy that’s its always windy in WY

Since I was reloading I played around a lot with light loads and quickly found out that an Unbraked load of 150gr sst above about 50grains of H4895 was the limit to really getting good, solid repeatable hits even at 700-800 yards.. and to be fair that combo was competing with 208gr eld-m lit with about 75gr of h4831..

That’s a .415bc at 2700 vs a .65 at 2950

And both loads were under 1moa 5 shot.

Numbers could be wrong it’s been about 18 months

But it was just surprising to me how much easier it was to shoot the lighter recoil load even with the ballistic penalty

42gr of h4895 under a 125gr and braked was 223 level recoil and it was super ez to head shoot prairie dogs at 150 yards off the pack.

If I was really hard up for a rifle to do everything it’d be damn hard to pass up a 6.5 creed superlite, swfa scope and just kill stuff with great factory ammo.

 

[treillw]

Are there any other rifles out there that shoot as good as the Superlight? If it weren't for the fact that they are known to be accurate, I wouldn't be too terribly interested in them.