Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Who has purchased a Kimber Caprivi? Your experiences thus far?

One of my friends just acquired a new Kimber Caprivi in 375 H&H, and he gave me a rundown on his experiences with that rifle after his first range session with it.

So I thought I'd ask about the experiences of our members who have also bought one of these rifles. (?)

AD

If you don't get the "American Hunter", there's an article with the Caprivi featured. Like any gun rag it goes a bit overboard on the positives, but the accuracy tests were impressive.

Allen,
I would be really interested to hear what your friend's impression of the rifle is, if you don't mind relaying that.

Dave

I really should have reported his initial results from the get-go, I suppose.

He's only fired his new rifle with the open sights at 50 yards, and he's gotten 2" groups at that distance that were 8" above POI. In addition, he had occasional extraction problems, in that the extractor would yank the fired case out of the chamber, and then the case would slip out of its position between the bolt face and the extractor, remaining there in the bolt raceway.

The barrel-mounted front sling-swivel base also slid loose (it sounds like it was sort of a compression-fit arrangement with the bbl.), and it was necessary to slide it back into position. Of course, it'll need to be soldered or wunder-glued in place at some point, I suspect.

I didn't get to shoot, handle, or inspect the rifle, but I've shot side-by-side and hunted with the man who bought it for 30 years (he got me started on the 375 H&H, for example), and believe me, this gentleman knows his rifles, and he knows Africa and what needs to go into a safari rifle.

That's why his initial results bothered me, leading me to ask about some of our members' experiences with this rifle. I'm not in the market for one, but I do hope to install a proven 6.5-20x scope on my friend's Caparivi 375 H&H, just to see how fundamental accuracy measures up. The rest of the problems aren't good, but they shouldn't be insurmountable or unfixable, either.......

AD

There's been other reports of serious problems on other boards with the Caprivi also. Not up to their nice 1911 .45 pistol quality from what I'm hearing ...

Thanks for the report. I've been curious about these rifles since their introduction.

I haven't had the opportunity to shoot one of these rifles, but I did own a Kimber of Oregon M89 BGR in .375 H&H.

I picked up a Shooting Times magazine at SHOT (Feb 2008 issue) which has a favorable article by Greg Rodriguez on the Kimber Caprivi. He does note that the rifle shoots good 3-shot groups, and then does poorly when the group size goes to five shots.

His average accuracy for five, five-shot groups was 2.22" at 100 yards with Win 270 gr FailSafe; 1.79" with Federal 300 gr Barnes X; and 2.12" with Federal 300 gr Trophy Bonded. He was getting groups as small as .493" to .536" for three shots, and speculated there was a bedding problem. (I would have thought it was barrel heat given the symptoms described). Scope was a Leup. VX71.5-6X24.

Greg has posted here, perhaps he will comment.

jim

Boddington has an on-line review of this gun. I will check to see if I can find it for you, but I am sure you can Google. He was very impressed with this rifle.

Allen
I bought one last year and have fired about 200 rounds. Iron site accuracy was about the 4" low. Due to my 50 year old eyes i removed the rear sight and bought a NECG peep which fits weaver bases i can shoot a 1.5-2" group at 50 yards. With a scope at 100 yards my groups were 1.5" for 5 shot groups. Probably more my limitations than the gun's. The gun feeds and ejects flawlessly and i have worked the action as fast as possible with no issues.This rifle will be going with me to Zim in 2009 for a buffalo hunt.
This is my 4th kimber rifle one of them was a lemon difficult feeding amd mediocre accuracy 3" groups at 100 yards i just returned it to Cabelas for a refund. One consistent theme about Kimber is quality control and poor customer service. I have never sent a rifle to them for service but have sent handguns and was happy with the response and the resolution.
I hope your friend resolves his issues it really is a beautiful rifle.
chris

Inconsistent quality-control seems to be an ongoing struggle with Kimber. Personally, I'm rather that they charge an extra $100-$200 per gun, if that's what it takes, just to ensure that they have the bugs worked out when they ship the rifles. Long-term, I suspect that this would offer the best rewards for Kimber as well.

Good rifles are about more than romance and imagery, and the great ones are all built from the inside-out. That goes for factory rifles as well as custom rifles........

AD

I have 4 Kimbers!!! I must be the luckiest guy in the world, they all shoot great. I will one day soon (hopefully) purchase the 375 and I expect no difference with it then the others I have purchased.

Allen,

I think they spent your QA budget on the wood. <---humor

The current NRA American Hunter also has a review by J. Scott Olmsted who took the rifle to Zim for buff. He reports excellent accuracy, and says he put about 600 rounds through the rifle.

He does note that you have to angle the 3.60" long loaded cartridges to fit through the action's 3.51" loading port, but also wrote feeding and ejection were flawless. I don't know how well the action ejects a loaded cartridge (say if you had to clear a failure to fire).

I didn't understand his description of the breeching: "The bolt is machined from premium solid bar stock. Its twin opposed forward locking lugs rotate into raceways in the chamber to make an incredibly strong joint." I need a picture of that chamber!

jim

You know the best most affordable rifle going right now in my opinion is the one made by Montana Rifleman. It's truely heavy duty flawless example of a Pre64 Model 70. Blue or stainless in any cartridge you want.

I used one of these that a customers brought over a few years ago and was very impressed. Since that time, I bought a rifle from them and it's simply perfect. If you like the model 70 then this is like a custom made version.

I had mine built stainless, with a very deep crown. Then sent it to James Borden for a Rimrock synthetic stock, my all time favorite synthetic stock, best checkering of synthetic material in the business! After that off to Roguard for the Nickel Teflon interior finish, and Roguard exterior. They did the Leupold Dual Dovetail rings and bases as well. Added to that a 3.5-10VXIII with the B&C reticle and it's just as nice a rifle package as you can find. It shoots just a hair over an inch at 200 yards, and I have shot lots of times with two holes touching at 200 yards.

I've got no business with these folks, I just thought I should share the good success with this product. If you really want a true 100% custom made rifle that you can afford this is the best option going right now.

Allen Sorry for the diversion from the original question, Just tossing out options for anyone interested.

jjhack,

sounds like a sweet rig for sure.

I ordered one of the new 458 Lotts after seeing it at Dallas Safari Club back in January. THey said to expect delivery some time aroung mid year.

At the price of the Caprivi(and with the myriad Kimber QC problems floating around)I'd be looking hard for a pre 64 in that caliber.

I recently picked up a M70 classic Safari Express in 375 H&H; seems to be an early one judging by the serial number.Only two range sessions so far, but 3 shot groups stay at an inch, and the rifle functioned flawlessly through 3 rapid fire sessions. Time will tell.

The Caprivi looks like a very nice rifle; but at $3k, it should not have the issues Alan's buddy encountered. That is very basic stuff that I would expect to be "right" out of the box.

Jim,

The test rifle impressed me enough that I bought one of the first production guns. I just finished testing it with a few factory loads and found it to be very accurate. It shot right around a half-inch with 300 gr. Barnes and TBBC loads, and was reliable and problem free when I worked the bolt smartly during offhand shooting. I am probably going to use it on a lion this season.

I just ordered the Caprivi and will keep you posted. However, this post may be long gone before I get it due to the 4-6 week wait.

Let me give you the run down on my Kimber experience thus far. I couldn't be more irritated with this company or more concerned about their quality control.
I bought the .375 H&H Caprivi and shot about 30 rounds through it, at which point the barrel band came loose. I was getting 1 inch groups at that point. Sent the rifle back to Kimber to fix the barrel band. When it finally returned, barrel band looked good but groups at 100 yards were now 2 to 3 inches. Noticed that the stock was now impinging on the right side of the barrel. I had a master stockmaker work on the stock until the barrel floated again. But I was also having increasingly frequent misfires. Tried different ammo, but no improvement. Noticed the primer indentation was quite shallow. I had two local gunsmiths look at it. Both agreed the firing pin protrusion was adequate, but they both found that the headspace was wrong in the chamber. The no-go gauge goes just fine, with slop in the bolt.
Here's what really hacks me off: after screwing around with this gun for months trying to work out the bugs, my African safari is rapidly approaching. I only have 3 weeks to go before I board a plane for Namibia. After spending $3000 on a rifle, no one should have to deal with such shoddy workmanship. I'm interested to see if Kimber can make this right before I leave.

MSK07,

Welcome to the Campfire.

I agree with your opinion, and hope you get it working for you...jim