r/canadaguns • u/ExtremeCommercial821 • 3d ago
Buy recommendations Ruger American Gen II vs. Tikka t3x
I'm looking for my first bolt action, and I know this sounds like a no brainer; the Tikka is objectively better on action and accuracy.
However, I'm going to be doing mostly range and I'm drawn to the Ruger; it's tastefully bubba'd from the factory and has all the aeathstics I love, plus functional stock risers, plus a pic-rail to boot.
Action feel is so important to me but the cost savings on the Ruger are very noticeable and at its price, the Tikka is already much higher I'll be spending hundreds more on a scope and basic mods.
I guess what I'm asking is; will the Ruger fall short the more experienced I get and cause me to just get a Tikka anyway; or is the Ruger respectable enough to keep for years to come and put down good groupings at distance on range?
I'm looking at 6.5CM btw. Thanks!
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u/Eyeronick 2d ago
I have both. As you said they Tikka is definitely better but the aesthetics of the gen 2 are hard to pass up. Something to note is that they both have pretty thin profile barrels. I'd highly suggest you look at something with a thicker barrel if you're interested in range shooting. My Ruger starts to drift after 1 mag and I need to swap it out for a different rifle to cool down. If you want to do both hunting and range shooting I'd suggest two seperate rifles.