AusVarmint

Am trying to work out what to do with my Tikka LSA 55 in .222, was thinking of selling to go towards a new heavy barreled/varminter .22-250 but with a bit of reaserch it looks like it has a rather desireable action and are very accurate rifles. The stock is nothing special with plenty of scratches and one good ding and brother decided he'd have a go at re-blueing the barrel 15yrs ago, the blue is still there but so are the scratches from the corse sand paper So.... do I do up the stock and barrel ( was thinking of putting it in a mates lathe and taking it back to the steel with wet and dry and redo the blueing) to sell or would it be worth a new barrel and stock(or match stock to a heavy barrel) for the action? What's take to re-chamber the action to .22-250? I know they came out originally in .22-250, but just wondering what to do.








As much as I want to get my hands on a new rifle It'd be fun to build one, so imput would be muchly appreciatted.
Cheers Rito

HI Rito, 22-250 is not very compatible - the bolt face diameter is bigger than .222 and your magazine wouldn't fit the bigger cases. It could be done by having a gunsmith open up the bolt face , and buying a new mag to suit 22-250. However new mags are rare if you can find them at all. If the original barrel is shot out than rebarrel to .222 or something else if you want a change. You could go to .223, or 6x45. If the original barrel still shoots well then just get it reblued, and might as well get the crown redone while it's there.

Do it up
Put a new barrel on if needed.
The plastic spacers in the mag can be modified to take any round up to 3" long X .5" wide, I replaced a shot out .222R barrel with a heavy fluted .204R. Action and barrel are duracoated and the stock has been re done with tru oil a couple of times in its life, yours would come up a treat with out much work at all.

Glenn

First up welcome to the forum Rito,
I would go for it as GJS suggested.That stock would come up with a little work(less than you expect).
A fast twist twenty cal with enough case capacity to drive a high BC 50-55 grn pill or for shits and giggles a 32 grn really fast .
May I suggest a 20 PPC very easy to form up and inherently accurate.It has a similar case capacity as the 204 Ruger but with the benefit of better brass and can run at higher pressure.
Also where abouts in this wide brown multicultural land are you.

Whoops I forgot about the .204 !

Cheers fellas, have been lurking on here for a while. I hail from the Mackay region, Eton to be exact.Probably should of added the fact that I was looking for a rifle to drop dogs and roos with good accuracy to 300m( for the dogs) and have been concidering the Ruger Hawkeye Preditor or the Weatherby Sub MOA Varmint.
Cheers Rito

do you relaod, how much of tha anal accuracy bug have you got? Fitting and chambering a match grade barrel with a basis action true is gonna hit you up for about $900. Add more if you need to alter the bolt. magazine etc. Probably cheaper to trade it in on something like a T3 varmint, or the Ruger you like in 22/250.

But I dont want to talk you out of it, its a fun and addictive hobby!

G'Day Rito,
that's a classic rifle, I'd be putting a match barrel on it in either 221 fireball, 204Ruger, 222, 223 (maybe a 1:8"T for F class and up to 80gn bullets) Dont worry about larger diameter cartridges as this will lead to you needing different magazines, mofication to stock, possible ejection issues etc. Leave the bolt face alone and use ANY case with the same diameter as the .222. and this makes for a painless easy conversion for you AND the gunsmith!

If you want a larger case like the 22-250 buy a suitable action with a burnt out 22-250, 243 or 308 etc. All the hardware you need will be there for a basic rebuild...saves $$$$$ too.

As for the stock follow the link to SSAA articles hints & tips for fixing up old stocks, it really is quite simple, Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil is a good finishing product, search this forum and you should find topics covering this too.

http://www.ssaa.org.au/stories/hints-ti ... shing.html

The web has PLENTY of sites covering stock re-finishing especially some of the shot gun sites

Hope this helps

Cheerio Ned

go a 223 or 204 barrel for it and do it up. if you decide to ditch the stock i'll buy it from you

the LSA 55's come up very nicely, tend to be very accurate and have a super smooth action.

Yep and if andrew has the stock, I will take the magazine...