The team of evaluators wasn’t shy about their praise for Ballistic’s Best Hunting Rifle for this year, the Tikka T3x Super Varmint in 6.5 PRC. “Great looking rifle,” Shankle said, adding other plaudits such as “Great two-stage trigger… smooth and perfect.” “Natural point of aim,” Modzelewski raved, adding, “It’s just like wearing a tailored suit, it just feels right.” Suffice it to say that this writer is willing to pay whatever it costs to keep and hunt with it. Tikka ain’t gettin’ it back.
This T3X offers a modular synthetic stock with interchangeable pistol grips, and it even offers a module to change the width of the fore end. It has a 23 5/8-inch heavy varmint contour barrel that is threaded 5/8-24 for attaching a suppressor or brake. It tips the scales at 8 pounds, 9 ounces empty without an optic.
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Let’s talk about accuracy. Every shooter kept five shots under 0.75-MOA at 100 yards. The smallest five-shot group with factory fodder was 0.669 inches. Overall, this rifle averaged 0.88 MOA from all shooters at all ranges. Let that sink in for a moment. That’s a 25 percent tighter average than the next closest rifle evaluated.
