Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber vs TC Icon

Any thoughts between a kimber or a TC icon? I like the 6.5 creedmore in the icon. Kimber makes a nice light rifle.

This will be good!!!

Two different rifles.

I had a Icon in the 6.5 Creedmoor.

Its no featherweight, the rifle was accurate and the action was smooth as silk. You need to handle them both, see which fits you best.

I have an Icon Weathershield in .300WM. Excellent trigger, smooth action, seems to shoot pretty much everything well. Only downside is that it's a little heavy. I don't have a Kimber, but it seems like that would be comparing apples to oranges due to the weight difference.

I have a Icon .308 that shoots everything I feed it under an inch. But it's for sale because it's too damn heavy to lug around the mountains in Washington. Would make a great stand gun or beanfield rifle.

There is no comparison, like chevy cobalt to a chevy corvette.

I know the Kimber fans will snicker at the comparison, but I bet in an accuracy competition the Icon would win. As birdwacker said, an Icon would make a great beanfield gun. I know a lot of guys that hunt over large beanfeilds or powerlines where a heavy/accurate gun fits the bill.

Icon would be the corvette? In reality this is an apples to watermelon comparison. The Icon is a better made rifle and is more accurate out of the box then any kimber ever made. Like others have said they tend to be on the heavy side , not wall safe weight (my 308 weathershield is 7.5 lbs) but man is it a shooter and it is not even broken in yet. Have not heard of too many having to be returned to the factory either.

I have seen these guns for sale for a long time and to me they are two different animals. The Icon is a heavy tool that seems put together very well and from the reports I have read are very accurate. The Kimbers are light elegant hunting arms that are accurate enough for me. Both of mine will shoot under an inch wich is plenty accurate in my book and they are a joy to carry.

I agree. Icons will run with anything out there as far as accuracy from a factory rifle.

i shoot an icon in 308. it will shoot everything i feed it under an inch at 100. This is my carry rifle. light its not but its not that bad.

Exactly! I honestly thought this was going to be a joke...

Welcome to the 'fire!!

How can this be your first post in five years!?!?

What everybody else said, Icon is a REAL shooter but not a lightweight. I am one of the old school Kimber haters, so Ive got an Icon, and am ALWAYS impressed with it.....YMMV


Never seen a thread on how to get a Icon to shoot, or how to fix this or that little 'issue' with one....

Better made and more accurate? Just curious, what are you basing this off of? Have you owned both rifles or even just a Kimber? Or is it from "internet experience "? Again, just curious. Nothing personal.

Having owned both of them and having had to send the kimber back for a rebuild. Will not happen again. The TC action is not the classic action the Kimber is but the lugs all 3 of them seat evenly, the bolt tolerances are very tight and I have never had day one of problems with this one. Built like a tank and I will bet it has less cast or MIM parts like a Kimber does. The barrel is very very nice. Let me put it to you another way if the Kimber was as well built and as accurate I would pick it over an ICON.

Personally ive never owned a TC but the one i held (dimension) at Cabelas honestly felt cheap to me. Maybe it was the weird stock. I have 3 Kimbers currently and haven't had any issues that's why i was curious if you had actually owned one or were just another guy bashing a rifle they've read about online lol. It really does seem like a cobalt vs Corvette comparison IMO.

www.tcarms.com . Hopefully you are not confusing an ICON with a dimension.That would be night and day.

A rifle does not shoot as well as an ICON without parts being of a tight tolerance and equipped with a very good barrel. It shoots better then some of my custom 308's based on 700 actions that I used to own, in fact it is infuriating to have pizzed away that money. It outshoots my Tikka T3 270 easily. I have not even started handloading with it and it is submoa with remington 150 grain 19 $ a box wally world special ammo . This is not a featherwieght rifle by any means and it is not a graceful rifle either but it is a shooter and 1/2. Might be the perfect whitetail stand rifle . Quite frankly the only reason these rifles do not sell better is the price and the fact their lower priced models are equally accurate rifles. I bought mine from someone on the fire who never shot it, it has a 4 digit serial number. It is a keeper . The only way the Kimber beats it is in the weight and looks department.

For what it's worth, I've owned both. I have had three Kimber 84's in 338wm, 300wsm, and 308. The 338 and the 300 wouldn't shoot less than 2 inches at 100 yards. They both went back to Kimber several times and "fixed". The best I could do was 1.5" average with extensive load work and that isn't good enough for me. I still have the 308 in the family and it shoots wonderfully.
I bought my first Icon two years ago, a beatifully stocked 308 with a blued barrel and jeweled bolt. It's first group was .32" 5 shots at 100 yards with 175gr Federal Gold Medal Match ammo. It averages a solid 1/2". I bought an ultrawood stocked weathershield 7-08 Icon last year and played around with factory ammo for a month until I found HSM Match ammo with 140gr Berger VLD's They shoot 5/8" and my hand loads about the same.
Both the Kimber and the T/C have a very nice fit and finish and no function issues with either other than the accuracy problems with the Kimbers. The T?C has a very nice receiver, bedding block in the stock, the scope rail is machined into the action, the machining is also very high quality. The trigger is easily adjusted and the action has multiple recoil lugs. The only complaint is the Icon is a bit heavy compared to other options. I feel it's worth it unless you are climbing mountains a lot.

I have two Montanas that shot like garbage out of the box. I bedded them and adjusted the triggers and now they shoot wonderfully. Kimber makes a really nice rifle and I am smitten with them. There are more rifles that are capable of wonderful accuracy out of the box today than ever before, but the Kimber is more elegant than just about any rifle in its price range or below. If you want to shoot little groups in paper, then maybe the TC is a better pick. But, if you like walking around in the outdoors, looking for some elusive wild animal, than you will be hard pressed to find a better rifle than a Kimber.

If you buy a Kimber and it doesn't shoot, you should ask some of the people here for advice. This forum is a wonderful resource.