Originally Posted By: EasternPredHunterThere are alot more positives to me than there are negatives.
Isn't long vs short action just a preference to one or the other? Or is there something I'm missing?
What savage in my price range ($550) is as good as the tikka? I have looked at some model 11/111's, but I read as many bad reviews on those as I have on the Tikka.
Thanks
Simply.... a long vs short action is one is longer then the other. For most people, it really doesn't matter. But a shorter action means less metal being used, which equals less weight. And a stiffer action which means better accuracy, all others being equal.
You're buying a short action cal, but Tikka doesn't make a short action gun, just a long action with a stopper.
I don't know what the prices are in your area, but in mine a similar savage cost ~30% less then a Tikka. I have personally shot 3 tikka's and 5 savages. I couldn't tell you which was the more accurate one of the 8 guns. The difference IMO comes in how they are built. And I do strongly feel they (savage) are better guns.
Along with metal parts where it counts, (and a trigger guard certainly counts imagine breaking that) you also get way way way more in aftermarket support. I live in a small city and I know I can get a aftermarket stock, and trigger for a savage, within 15 min. I don't know if anyone makes a trigger for a tikka, and they only recently made one stock... Heck it's actually common for people to turn the lowly stevens into a benchrest gun, I have never heard of someone doing that with a Tikka.
Buy what ever pleases you. I bought a Tikka, before I knew about guns, and the more I learned, the less I liked it. You don't even have to buy a savage, my next budget rifle will most likely be a Weatherby Vanguard, which comes in, in my neck of the woods, at almost half the price of a tikka.