Looking for the "right" rifle.

[Taternater]

Hummm..., well I checked out the Tikka and Im imprested. On paper it looks great, but im always iffy about new brands. I had heard something of a gaurentee. but my favorite would be the varmint or super varmint. I just want to make sure that it can be dead on at 500 to 600 yards with some sort of ease. most likley a 308.

[britz]

I have a Tikka T3 lite stainless synthetic 300 wsm. I haven't owned many rifles, but I will say it outshoots my heavy barreled savage 22-250 and my rem 700 BDL 30-06. I have gotten consistent .75 MOA shots out to 600 and many groups at under .5 MOA. I highly recomend the Tikka for the money. As I have said before, the heavy barrel is made for a little more stability and for slowing barrel heat up.

[grit]

The Tikka will outshoot the rem sps varmint. There are other remingtons with much better stocks. I own and enjoy a rem Sendero. As far as new brand fear, they are only new in the US, and not that new. They have a superb track record. They are made in Finland, reportedly in the same factory as Sako.

Further, 500 yards will no problem for any accurate rifle. Tikka is one of the few brands that guarantee thier rifles to shoot 1 moa or better. All brands produce a few rifles that shoot well. Most of the time you simply gamble wether you will get good, poor, or mediocre. An accuracy garantee means better quality control.

The Tikka is a good, solid, accurate rifle... off the shelf. No gamble. It will shoot.

[Forrest Ebert]

I would stick with a caliber you can get anywhere like the 270,30/06,308
something that every Mom and Pop store would have on hand as you didn't mention about handloading. The rifle brand is up to you what feels good when you bring it up length of pull and buy the best scope you can as you never want to skimp on your optics especially if you want to shoot long range. I would stay with the Remington 700, Savage or a Ruger.
I have delt with the Tikka T3 line as I bought one for my girlfriend in 7mm-08 and it "DOESN'T" shoot any type of factory ammo in the guaranteed 1" moa! with that being said good luck to you in your quest.
Remember one thing on your long shots is you must follow up on everyone of them even if you think you know where your shot went as some times the animals don't act like anything has been done and they could be laying just out of sight from where you shot at them.

[Timberbeast7]

I would also look pretty hard at the Tikkas if I were you. VERY solid rifles, and like someone already said they are not a new brand. I have seen many of them in action (8-10 rifles) and haven't seen one that will not shoot. I also recommended these rifles to my sister when she decided she wanted to get into shooting and my brother when he bought his first rifle.

[Taternater]

Im most likley going to get the Tikka, but the only problem I think I may have is luging the big heavy varmint barrel arround through the woods. The question i have is that "do I really need the Varmint (although i like the free floating barrel) to get deer from around 500 to 600 yards, or is there something that would work better from the tikka line?" but I will most likley buy ammo untill i save up enough to hand load (which may take a while) but I am most deff. going to spend 400 to 500 dollars on a scope, hopefully nikon.

[Taternater]

Also, should I still be going with a 308 cal??