Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber vs TC Icon

Depends on your use and patience.

The Kimber is a great mountain rifle. As light as they get. They can shoot decent, but it takes some serious fiddling around at the loading bench.

I've never seen an Icon but, heavier guns do have their place, and I use them often.

Maybe there are bad Kimbers....but I've not found one.

8400 Classic 300 WSM shoots Federal 165 gr TSX loads to under an inch consistently.

8400 Montana 270 WSM shoots Federal 140 AB factory loads to .5-.75" consistently.

84M Montana 338 Fed shot Federal Fusions and 185 TSX loads to 1.5-4". Loaded Fed Cases with 48.5 gr TAC, BR2 primer and 185 TTSX it shot at just under .5".

Rifles that light are hard to shoot well...maybe this is part of the stigma?

Nothing wrong with heavier rifles, but they aren't as much fun to walk with. There is no denying that getting a Kimber to shoot can be tough at times. It took me a while to concur each of mine, but the fruits were worth the labor.

Love my Icon.

30T/C 3 shot group at 150yds with factory ammo. Bipod and a pillow. IMO the Icons are the best factory rifle you can buy for the money. I own 4

The first one I had issues with was properly bedded, then restocked and bedded again. Kimber recut the bad crown. Load development went virtually nowhere. Kimber was an absolute PIA to deal with. Finally had a smith go over it at my expense and found excessive headspace and chamber wasn't cut in line with the bore.
The second poor shooter had a huge burr in the throat, chatter marks in the chamber, and the bore resembled a bananna.
The third Kimber is absolutely wonderful. Light, accurate, and good looking. I won't buy another one.

I realize many folks can't shoot heavy recoilers accurately but I seem to do quite well with a 7lb 375 H&H. The bad Kimbers I dicked with had major build issues.

I bought a 84m in 7mm-08 as an early Xmas present a few years back. I put a Leupold vxIII 2.5-8x36 on it and thought I had the perfect deer rifle. I took it to the range and it shot shotgun patterns using 140 grain Remington Corelockts. I then noticed the foreend of the stock warping to the left. I sent it in to kimber and I had it upgraded to the 3 pos wing safety. I got back the original receiver,forward portion of the bolt , trigger and barrel. Everything else and I mean everything else was replaced. They did all this in 2 weeks or so. The gun shot great and everything was ok. I don't remember how much I paid for the gun at the time but I thought with that kind of cash outlay a lot more attention would be paid to build quality and detail.

My 4 Kimber Montanas did not take much load development. Simple to load for, easy shooters. You certainly have to know how to shoot such light rifles from the bench if you are taken by bench accuracy standards. I'm much more interested in how they shoot from sticks, bipods and other field positions than bench work.

MY .223 ICON Precision Hunter is aptly named. It feels like a precision tool in your hands, and retains more inherent accuracy than I can withdraw from it with my feeble eyes and trembling extremities. I bought it for varmint/paper punching and it is well suited for both of those tasks. It is a bit more heavy than my Kimbers but it is used for a different purpose.



The Kimbers I own (.308, 7mm-08, and .260) are all light in weight and just have that special feel as you raise them to your shoulder. Light weight and precise are the two adjectives I use to describe them. I think both rifles fill specific notches on the typical rifle looney "needs" list.

This thread caught my eye as I own 2 Icons-both weathershields. I really like the product. Don't follow the company profile to much but it seems all the SW-TC bolt action marketing has been steered toward the ventures/predators. As far as the Icon, if you can find one, the prices have really headed downward the last couple or three years. My hunting buddy is a heck of a woodsman and hunter. He must own 20 long guns, 3 of which are Kimber bolt actions. This is why I have a lot of respect for the Kimber products cause this guy doesn't go cheap on a rifle, he knows what he likes in the details. Like the Kimber the Icon has a flat bottom receiver. This is the big difference along with the bedding between the Icon and a Venture, and the reason why I chose the Icon twice, even though years ago I started out looking for a venture. I am quite satisfied with the accuracy and the aesthetics of the Icon. I'm glad to see a comparison discussion between the Icon and the Kimber. Even though availability of the Icon seems iffy, I consider the two I have belong in the same conversation as Sako, Kimber, Mark Vs Accumarks (certainly winchester and remington) and other high-dollar rifles.

I've never touched a TC, so can't comment on them.

I've played Kimber Roulette twice and won big each time. First was an 84M Classic in .308, bought used off of here 5 years ago, it shoots well with several bullets. It was my favorite deer rifle, until the second Kimber.

Second was an 84M Classic Select in .257 Roberts, bought used off gunbroker a couple months ago. Dad reseated some bullets he had loaded up for another .257, immediate sub inch groups. He's loaded up multiple bullets and powder combinations, all sub inch groups.

I've got variations of 700's, 70's, and 77's, I like them all for one reason or another, but the Kimber is the one that feels best to me.

as one who has owned a couple kimbers and fired a couple icons, if the focus was on accuracy and dependability/function, i'd select an icon.

if the focus was on light weight, kimber gets the nod.

Agree with hot soup...you wont find better shooting rifle than an ICON