Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber Montana 308 problem

I was shooting my Montana 308 and the bolt started binding up on me. I took a look inside, and this is what I see:




I bought the Montana here on the Classifieds. It was in excellent condition with a low round count, and I've only fired less than a couple hundred rounds of factory ammo through this rifle since getting it.

I called Kimber Customer Service. They offered to take a look at it, but I'd have to pay to ship the rifle to them, and then it would cost me a minimum of $35 for the "evaluation" and $15 for return shipping. As the rifle is over one year since the date of manufacture and I am the second owner, the warranty no longer applies, so I'd probably be responsible for the cost of any repairs, according to the CS rep that I talked to. In the past, I've heard of Kimber paying for shipping both ways and repairing manufacturing defects even out of warranty, but maybe that's changed?

So now I have a dilemma - pay $80-100 out of pocket to have Kimber "evaluate" the rifle and then charge me an unknown additional amount to have another factory barrel screwed on? Or have someone like Shooter71 screw on something like a Lilja dupe?

Not enought shank to set it back just a touch?

Good thought, but I don't know that I trust the metallurgy of that barrel at this point.

Just now started binding or has it always?

No, just started binding. It always cycled fine before that.

Clean the heck out of it, polish the ramp/rails, and oil it up.

The first thing I did was to disassemble and clean the bolt and add a little grease to the rails. None of that helped. But then I noticed the exposed receiver threads and that chunk of metal that's missing from the lower part of the breech...

If you’re talking about the missing sliver on the bottom of the cone, that’s normal. Kimber cuts a relief for the action screw and the edge of the cone there can be very thin or cut back a hair. Hard to tell but your action screw looks bottomed out, perhaps it freed the sliver and it’s stuck in the extractor cut or some other place. Check that the mag box is seated properly and shorten the screw. Where is the binding in the bolt happening?

Send it to Shaen........

Thank you Bwinters! Gasman, you didn’t just change rings? A long base screw can also bind a bolt.

You know your way around Kimbers. Not many do. Plus you do excellent work. If I ever manage to shoot out my 308, it will be the same config you did with 338 Fed. Same with my 280......

Shaen,

Interesting about the relief cut - my 8400 300 WSM doesn't have that.

So, in order to rule out the front action screw or the mag box as the problem, I removed the barreled action from the stock. As before, the bolt would bind before it would fully close, so I gave it a little bump forward. Now the bolt is stuck - it won't go forward or back. I might have to reach for a rubber mallet.

Does it bind traveling forward, or bind when you lower the handle? If you get the bolt out try pulling the firing assembly out and see if you can feel anything when you close the stripped bolt. Does the extractor cut line up? Nothing stuck in there? You could pull the extractor and try that too.

Interesting thread. I'm probably asking the obvious but could there be debris in the receiver lug cuts?

So the problem turned out to be a loose cocking piece screw. Here it is after I removed it to apply some Loctite.



Sorry, Shaen, I guess this rifle's not going to you, at least not right away. But that will allow you more time to work on my 280AI!

Thanks to everyone for the help.

ETA: just a little more info for clarification. The cocking screw was backing out and binding in the rear action screw hole. I wasn't able to figure that out until I'd removed the stock and actually saw it hanging up in the hole.

That's not uncommon and is one of the Kimber Checklist verification evaluations. Glad you figured it out.

That screw uses a 1.5mm hex wrench, BTW, to anyone else who needs to tighten theirs.

I love happy endings....

Me, too, especially ones that are free and don't involve shipping firearms!

Great to hear you got it figured out!