Kimber Montana's kinda piss me off. My 325 is such a good rifle there's been too many times when I've thought about carrying some other very nice rifles I have and end up not hunting them because the Kimber is just a better hunting tool. It's sorta obsoleted too many rifles. When I hunt with other rifles I keep thinking how nice it would be to have a Montana in that caliber. It's kinda pissing me off they they are so good and for me just one rifle is boring.................................DJ
When I read this, I thought I'd posted it! Plus one.
Exbiologist: agreed on the BLR trigger. It sucks. However, Neil Jones can cure it! Mine now breaks acceptably clean at 3 lbs...
To the original poster. I have a .325 BLR, as well as a bolt .338. My .338 is a M700 XCR with a 3.5-10 Conquest in Talley LW's on it; I don't know the weight but that should get you close if you want to look up the specs. I also have a .325 Montana.
As far as recoil, perhaps the simplest way to put it would be that if you can "handle" a .338, then you can handle a lighter .325. I hate putting in those terms because it makes it sound like a macho thing, and it ain't, it's more just how a person is wired but whatever.... Anyway the .325's recoil is a bit faster and sharper, but there's a bit more of it with a .338...
I like my BLR (once the trigger was fixed) but by the time you factor in a trigger job plus shipping, you are getting into Kimber Montana money, and frankly I'd advise getting a Montana over a BLR unless you really have use for the fast-repeater aspect of the BLR- like as a timber elk rifle, or for hogs...
As to killing power, the .338 has a great record of that. My pard in elk camp is using an A-bolt in .338 and has flattened a few elk with it PRONTO (course the next one might run a half mile <grin>). I killed two elk with a .325 and 200-gn Accubonds and was very impressed with how it performed. .325 is, in my non-expert opinion, a great elk cartridge.
If I can answer any specific questions about a .325 BLR vs. a .338, let me know, seeing how I have both!
In the meantime, another way to put it, is that in terms of recoil, I'd take a shot from any position with one, that I'd take with the other, and just treat either with the respect we show any reasonably hard kicker. Get your body right, pay attention to detail. But .325 from a BLR ain't brutal, not even close.
