Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Light done Wrong.....Kimber Montana ;)

Plenty left to punch it out to 35 Whelen

Winchester offered the 358 Win in the Featherweight in the 50's, 60's... it has the same muzzle diameter as the current Kimber 84L/M.

However, for me, .338" would be the end of the game.

Same here Brad!!! Too many good options in 338" compared to .358"

Wait until you guys see how I screw up a Montana by doing a 6.8SPC!

Looks good!!

You put the Looney in Rifle Looney!

Good for you... looking forward to seeing it.

Skipped right over the 6.5 Grendel or BR? Will be jinxed

Punch it out...a 6.8 AI would be sweet.

I've called 3-4 guys about the project and nobody wants to tackle it yet. I'll keep digging.

Back from range round #2.

Couldn't get the 225 Accubond to group any tighter than 1.5" (which would likely work given my hunting ranges) but at 61 grains it was cooking at 2635 fps from my 21" barrel. 61.5 showed flattish primers and another 30 FPS at 2665 so didn't go up any higher. Likely tweaking with seating could improve this:


Picking right where I left off from the first time at the range, 62 grains with the 210 scirocco was inside an inch with an average speed of 2745 fps.


Stepping up to 62.5 grains had my 1st and 3rd shot into nearly the same hole with the 2nd one being slightly higher and cruising at 2760 fps average.


Did shoot all the way up to 63.5 with the 210s and actually 63 and 63.5 both got within 5 fps of each other at 2791 and 2796 averages. Given such little speed increases I would think I am near the max with this powder velocity wise in my shorty 21" barrel. Someone running a 24" barrel may be able to better make use of the extra powder. I did see some primer flattening at 63.5 so be sure to work up.

All in all I was hoping to get 2600 from the 225s and 2700 from the 210s in the short 21" barrel so this extra speed is a pleasant surprise though I would trade some speed for better accuracy with the 225s.


Certainly more tweaking and work to do to verify the loads but an encouraging start and certainly workable hunting wise given the nominal ranges I hunt.

*All loads are for my rifle only, please start much lower (like I did) and work up from there.......:)

Very nice outcome. Curious why you rebored rather than simply rebarrel. What is the advantage?

TIA,

Jordan

Mainly costs in buying a barrel and gunsmithing. $275 for a rebore and a cut and crown and no other gunsmith fees and what not (since I have serious doubts in my ability to get the head spacing correct) let alone have anything other than a Rigid pipe wrench to take it on and off. Figure if it sucked I will order a Kimber Montana contoured one from Lilja or something. Granted acceptable accuracy for me is likely not as stringent as most as I will hunt all season with a rifle that shoots 1.5" groups.

When shooting off hand or some less than ideal field positions, the actual difference between a .75" and a 1.5" rifle is trivial.

Luke, I got some H4350 if you need it. Just let me know. Nice looking rifle. Bears and Moose have yet another reason to fear you.

I appreciate the offer sir! However with the accuracy and speed I am getting with the RL-17 and how much I have on hand I likely just gonna keep rocking this. 2760 fps at 20 degrees with a 210 grain bullet out of a 21" in barrel is quite enough for me especially with a couple .750" groups to match the speed.

Yup, you're there.

Luke,

A 210gr at 2760 fps from a 21" seems like a good hunting load with moderate recoil.

Did you consider a 30-06 with 200gr bullet before going with the 338 project? 2650-2700 fps seems reasonable with a little less bullet weight and better BC depending on bullet.

Jason

I looked at that long and hard. Mainly came down to me going able to load up 250 Aframes for dedicated brown bear hunts if I want (yes I know 200 or 220 paritions would do just as well).
I was getting 2820 with 200 HotCores in this 338-06 pretty easily too which is pretty stellar as well in the 21" barrel.
20% larger in bullet area starting out could be interesting, yes its less SD for the same bullet weight than a .30 cal.
But mostly cause I wanted to be different and try something new.

Everyone has a 30-06....and for good reason for sure!

It'd be interesting to see how a 250 Scenar or 250 BTHP Horny flies from that rifle. Heavy bullets for your bear hunts and high BC for longer shots.

Pushing a big A-Frame would be serious medicine! The PHs I hunted with in Africa would think that is ideal.