Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber , Cooper, or Winchester Mod. 70 field experiances??

No doubt the Kimber is a sweet setup.

I got a used Cooper model 52 Jackson Hunter .30-06 this season and have only had time to work with one load- Federal premium 165 gr. NP. It shoots 1" groups with this load. I will try some handloads and other factory loads after deer season.

I topped it with a Swarovski PH 2.5 X 10 30 mm scope. As others have stated never go cheap with the scope. You don't need to go this high but these are the scopes I like to use.

So far I am very happy with the Cooper. I have had Kimbers and have pre 64 model 70 and I prefer the Cooper over the other 2.

i too prefer wood/blue. have owned 2 kimber centerfires. both looked fine. one shot/functioned fine once i had a smith do a little polishing/adjusting, the other gave me more problems than i could stand. there both down the road now. never owned a cooper, but i've handled and shot one my bud owns (also wood/blue), and it worked fine. he doesn't baby the thing as it had some scratches and small dents, but it is his hunting rifle, so doesn't matter. i've owned a few m70s (wood and s/s). hunted them all and they always worked fine except one classic s/s 30-06 that had the barrel screwed into the receiver at an angle. so far we've heard of coopers that aren't as accurate as claimed, kimbers with all sorts of problems, and even some problems with m70s. guess all factory rifles are a crap shoot in one form or another. if i were buying a new, decent wood/blue rifle that i intended to hunt with, i'd get a ruger hawkeye. of the three you mentioned, i'd get one of the new fn m70's. ymmv.

I appreciate all the input gentleman. Based on whats posted here and what I have asked elsewhere, I will probably be going for the Model 70 after the holidays. If I get a good one out of the box, great. If not, than the initial outlay has not been too terrible and I have a bit more in the budget to fix things my way. This is basically the rifle that will do it all now that I am passing along the heirlooms to my kids.

Thanks, Rob