Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber - How they can build the "perfect" hunting rifle.

Over the years I have been on a continual quest for coming up with the "perfect" rifle for me. Its a journey, not a destination, but here is my current stop. It is a Kimber hunter in 6.5 creedmoor. As pictured, there is a Swaro Z3 3.5-10 scope with a 4a reticle. Rifle immediately went to a gunsmith to be cut to 16" and be threaded. Silencerco Scythe is mounted in picture. 6# 9oz. Should be firing factory 147 ELD-M's at around 2500fps. It has performed well on multiple pigs now. Furthest shot around 250 yards. Penetrated to resting just under the hide after going through both shoulder on a 75 pound or so boar.

So why am I here and where is left to go? Well the right answer to what is the "perfect rifle" is "it depends". It depends on what you want to do with it. I hunt a ranch here in Texas. Most shooting events begin with me riding in a buggy or a truck. The ability to deploy the rifle quickly is important. So I want it to be short to stick out a window or exit to get on foot. That is why the barrel is cut short to maintain a handy length while also wearing a suppressor. I also like to go for walks around the ranch looking for game. So it is not uncommon for me to walk 4-7 miles over the course of an evening. A light rifle with a good balance is important for those purposes.

The Kimber 84m is an action no longer than is needed for the Creedmoor rounds. The action itself is slimmed down to be lightweight. The stock from factory isn't my favorite but it is functional until I identify a better option. Balance and handling is phenomenal even with the suppressor. Below is a picture of the piece of barrel removed and the scythe with ocl mount and Hansohn brothers titanium end cap.






Less than 3 ounces gained by adding the suppressor vs leaving the barrel at factory length. Rifle still balances well and it is comfortable to shoot without hearing protection. Allows me to shoot faster vs having to put on ears to shoot. Also makes a light rifle well mannered when shooting.

I do not love the feeding's smoothness at this time, but it feeds reliably. The detachable magazine allows me to have a round chambered and three down. Magazine holds three but can chamber around, drop magazine and go plus 1. For myself, I rarely use more than 4 rounds before running out of shooting opportunities on pigs, but three is often times not enough. The factory bolt handle is too short. The chris84's titanium tactical bolt handle's added length helps significantly with all aspects of bolt manipulation. chris84 has agreed to make a longer version of his ascent style handle that I think will work with this rifle phenomenally. I look forward to getting some of those in. The bolt can bind a bit in factory form. The longer handle aids in pushing through that. I have also been talking with a smith about more significant changes to aid in that. Perhaps going so far as to add something akin to a pre-64 anti-bind lug. I will also likely go to an aftermarket stock of some variety with an internal magazine that holds at least four down.

The Kimber being CRF matters significantly to me. When I am hunting, I will usually be shooting at sounders of multiple pigs. I am manipulating the bolt as fast as I can. My rifles are usually dirty and dusty from riding and walking around a ranch in Texas. Mausers, Winchesters and so far the Kimbers do not fail to feed and more importantly do not fail to extract and eject. The faster and harder I work the bolt, the more extraction and ejection force I apply guaranteeing that empty case gets out of the way. I cannot say that about other action types I have used. I have had more failures caused by failures to fully extract and eject than by failures to feed. I also appreciate as a reloader being able to ease a spent case out with a crf action.

Kimber packs the most features for the money into a rifle that will work based on what I have found so far. However, I wish they would offer a broader caliber selection and would sell their rifles from their factory with a 16" threaded barrel. If the ATF continues to process form 4's at their current speeds, I believe suppressor use will continue to grow more ubiquitous. As people grow more familiar with suppressor use, I think the market will grow less tolerant of 20+ inch barrels. This is especially true when the current trends of smaller bore+higher section density bullets are proven more and more effective on game. I have found myself moving away from a 7mm bore diameter minimum. A smaller bore allows you to maintain enough velocity from a short barrel while still maintain a high enough section density for bullet performance. I have found the heavy ELD-M bullets from 6mm - 30 caliber to be nearly equally effective on pigs at least. I would have disagreed even a year ago that 6mm or 6.5mm were just as good. I haven't had the opportunity to test 223 bores as well yet, but I suspect I will find them to be sufficient at 77 - 88 grains.

I believe Kimber lengthening the factory bolt handle and adding 16" threaded barrel options to their Hunter line would go a long ways towards what they are making now being better. My wishlist would be for them to add a 223 or Arc cartridge scaled action with 223, 22 arc, and 6 arc options with 16" threaded barrels. No one is really making a stainless mini-action and selling it here in the US. Just look at the Howa stainless thread on this forum to see there is interest. I think that interest grows from here with the massive numbers of suppressors going out into shooter's hands right now.