I have a Tikka and a couple of older sako's. I'm also a mechanical engineer by trade and i believe I get to have an opinion on the mechanical design of these rifles. In my opinion, the Tikka is a superior design to most other on the market. Extremely smooth action. Very sturdy and accurate. Easily serviced and maintained. Rugged and very easy to use. The safety is silent, functional and very easy to disengage. Having done some simple gunsmithing on the sako's, i can tell you that the tikka is much much more rational and will probably have less small parts breakage over time.
The only drawback of the tikka is that the magazine solution is kind of boring. The single stack plastic mags feed extremely well but you can't load them when they're in the gun. Part of me prefers the charm of a hinged floorplate rifle... But if you're going with a synthetic stock you're probably just looking for a dependable shooting machine anyway. For that purpose the tikka is perfect. Much less expensive than the Blaser for example, and it does have some longevity features that the less expensive Sauer and Mauser models lack. Specifically, they have pressed barrels whereas the Tikka has a traditional solution where the barrel is threaded into the receiver.
It's good to have an engineer chime in.
I'm not an engineer nor trade qualified but I do try nut things out as am am practical and do a lot of fabric action. I like guns I've always tinkered with them.
Now I had a Tikka M55 in .222, later sold it. Replaced it with a Howa based on price and availability.
Then I got my first brand new Tikka T3, in Stainless Laminate.
Well I did what I do and pulled it apart and went over it. There was something drastically wrong! The recoil lug is not connected to the action. I've bedded a few rifles so I knew what I was looking at. I understand they are all made from one action length, some manufacturers use 2,3 or older Sakis up to 5 different length actions I think.
So , I understand the bolt stop, the magazine, the Ughh plastic floorplate. Ok those bits can be replaced by after market "upgrades".
Did work out at the time the Tikka are very modular.
I'm still worried about the recoil lug being back to front from normal. I did order the titanium lug and bought a proper bedding compound. I achieved a decent bedding job and still could make sense of the backward lug set up. The rifle worked.
I kept reading , I kept reading they work, they shoot, they are accurate, they just work . And they were proving themselves in the Australian market. Howa work too but for a moderate price increase we could have a Tikka, a poor man's Sako.
Anyway, finally it dawned on me. The Tikka engineers are in fact smarter than me and they are engineer's. So even with there backward recoil lug the rifles are capable of good accuracy and are machined to a high standard.
Later I found a Tikka CTR in 7mm-08. I always wanted a 7-08 so I bought the CTR. A slightly different platform on the same action.
And now have 4 . others.
I take advantage of that Modularity and I can swap accessories or reconfigure them making me a real Tikka Tweaker.
I imagine the recoil lug setup is adequately strong and dependable and capable of close tolerance to , just work.
I expect it might lower machining costs and be just fine.
Can the engineer add to the logic or pros and cons of such a system please?