I finely got this 223 to shoot good groups,It has the 1-8 twist,And I got good groups using the noslers, in 40 and 50 gr,I have shot 55 gr too. But i wanted to be able to shoot the lighter pills,I tried everything to get this to shoot sub 3 in groups,I did the loads in all sorts of weights,tried dif,powders, moved over all legnths,,u name it i tried it,still nothing to write home about,untill i had over 400 rounds through the barrel,Ii ended up with great loads.that i tried before,with no luck,now with over 400 rounds,this is a tack driver,
Has any one else gone through that,brand new gun,check it all over,look at 3 or 4 reloading books,do them to the T,,and you just for the love of God ..can't get a good group,
I nver would have thought it would take that many rounds before it would break in,

Howdy 280shooter

Most T3s shoot well out of the box; likewise for the majority of rifles in production today, however, once in awhile there is a problem child that needs extra work and development.

I'm a little confused from your post, so help me out. You indicate good groups with 40, 50 and 55 gr bullets, but, also, that you wanted good accuracy with lighter bullets. What bullet weight?

Most T3s I have seen in 223 Rem have slower twists than 1-8. Are you sure of that twist rate?

YES they make 2 dif rate of twist,1-12 and 1-8,mine's the 1-8,
Oh i know what you mean about out of the box and shoot great groups,I talked a guy over at bass pro today,he told me a worker there had bought a tikka 3 in 223 in 1-8 twist and had shot a 5 shot group the size of his finger nail, right out of the box,So go figure,I also talked to a guy in a dif,bloghe.has the same rifle as mine,His wouldn't shoot either,He said he gave up on the lighter bullet weights,and was going to start loading over 60 grs,So for what ever reason his and mine wouldnt shoot good groups,
But i did i guess break it in,now it shoots good groups,using the lighter weight, 40 and 50 gr,Noslers,
So yes my rifle will shoot the much heavier weight bullets,But why pay for heavier bullets,if it wouldnt shoot the lighter ones.
You can look at the tikka web page,And u will see they do have the 2 dif twist,Now mines the tikka 3 lite,stainless.plastic stock,

Neat, 280shooter! Go forth, have fun and thanks for the information. Those heavier bullets may be interesting to try and may offer excellent long range accuracy.