Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber Montana 7mm-08

After much consideration, I have decided a Kimber Montana in 7mm-08 would be an excellent addition to my Arsenal. I'd like to get your insight on Accuracy and bullet choice. This rifle will be handy on long hiking trips for mule deer and elk. I always bed most of my rifles, however have you seen any improvements in accuracy by bedding?

It's a very appealing combination, but I would caution against buying a used one. I bought one used a few years ago, and after messing with it for a couple years, I finally had Pac-nor rebarrel it. It is now very accurate, and very unfussy.

I have heard the newer ones group better than the old. There's several threads here that describe accuracy fixes, so you might study those.

I have found that Montana's are very finicky about bedding. There is no room for error. Both of mine prefer tip pressure. I'm stuck between the Creed and the 7-08 as my next rifle. Waiting to see what's up with the Hunter. If it has feed rails I'll grab one for an extra Montana stock I have laying around.

I purchased a new Montana in 7mm-08 last spring and it was a 2" gun before bedding, and around a 1" gun after bedding. If memory serves correctly it was fairly easy to work with.

If you make sure the magazine box is not binding, make sure the front scope base screw is not too long and hitting the barrel threads before tightening and bed the action I think all will be good with the new ones. I have owned three Montana's and all needed to be bedded. If you loosen the front action screw on a new rifle slightly you can shake the barreled action side to side and front to back a considerable amount and this cannot be good for accuracy.

I have a new 308 coming and I am confident I can get it to shoot with little trouble.

I just purchased a Kimber Montana in 7-08 and put a Leupold VX-3 2.5x8x36 on it in Talley Lightweights and Flattop_Johnny from this site shot a 3 shot group (after 1 rounder fouler and paper finder) less than an inch with all three bullets touching. I shot the next group and it was under an inch with 2 bullets almost touching and 1 about a 1/2 inch away which I probably pulled, wind was kicking up so we quit after a long day of shooting a bunch of rifles. Ammo was Barnes factory Vor Tex 120 grain TTSX.

I bought just what you are describing last June:

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I did what was needed to the action and then had Eddie F. do the bedding.
The rifle shot five shot groups of a little over an inch when I got it. It didn't need much work as it seems that Kimber may have been reading some of the fix-it threads on this sight. (Mag box was fine as was the front action screw) Now, after bedding, if I don't get the barrel too hot it will consistently shoot under an inch at 100 yds. My loads of choice include the 120 gr. Ballistic Tip and the TTSX, as well as the 140 gr. Partition. I think those bullets are all I will ever need, and all three shoot to the above degree of accuracy. Take the plunge.

Most often I get my game with the first shot!

That a hunting rifle stay sighted in is primary.

I have been taking big game and also varmints with my hand loads in my tuned rifles since 1953.

Kimber Montana's are a new syn. SS addition to what I hunt with.

I have target rifles suitable for matches including schuetzen.

We get 'sighters' at matches. There are no sighters when hunting!

Thus I keep a record of where the first shot goes from a cold barrel.

That's one clean bedding job!

Thanks. I am very happy with his work. The picture doesn't show it, but he bedded the entire action, from front as pictured through the tang.

how I fixed mine

Kimber Roulette, just get a Tikka T3

Is that a Leupold 6x42? If so how do you like that turret? Nice rig by the way......

Yessir. The scope and turret have been reliable for me. But I'm a tinkerer, so I've been debating selling the scope and mounting a SS 6x42 or 3-9x instead

The Leup currently sits in a pair of Burris Sig Zee rings on Warne Maxima bases.

I can certainly understand the tinkering part, lol. Changing a reliable scope makes me nervous though. I like Burris Zee rings a lot as well

Mine has been drama free. Bought mine off the used rack @ LGS with an unknown number of rounds through it before I got it. Freed up the factory trigger a bit, loaded R-15 and 120 TSX or V-max @ 3050fps, put a 6x42 w/M-1 elevation into Talley lows and that was that.

I've had all 3 scopes on my 84M. It's still wearing the 3-9x42 SS, no plans to change.

David

That'd be a good way to go. A 3-9x sits on the 7-08's big brother- the 7WSM. Great scope and a great fit. I may go that way, but it's tough when I've had zero problems with this particular 6x42, despite more than a bunch of dialing

I really dig the 4-9x MQ on my 84M.

Jordan has a heck of a lot more experience with the Montucky than I do, and shooting, but I've had great "luck" with my 7-08 Kimber.

I recently made a switch from Big Game & Norma brass to RL15 & Lapua. 162 AMAX for both loads.




Shot these at 100 to confirm zero:









Then at 490 yards: