Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Inaccuracy with new Kimber 84M Montana 7mm-08

How much were the BG loads charges? Speeds? Thx.

Recently bought a 270 but have yet to shoot it (I have only seen it once...). Your view on the need for a barrel chop please.

TP, I mis-spoke. Meant to say "Hunter" rather than Big Game.

49.0 Hunter with the 150 NBT gave 2,745 fps., and gave the highest velocity with that bullet by a wide margin.

I think it's generally safe to run the 150 at 2,660 - 2,700 max with Varget, H4350 or RL17.

Ed, for me it's an aesthetic thing... the barrel is just too darn long to my eyes in relation to the forearm length. It's "snouty!"

My rule of thumb is the barrel should be 2" to no more than 3" longer out front of the forearm than the actual length of the forearm itself.

So in other words, if the forearm is 9.5" long, I don't want there to be more than 12.5" of barrel out in front of it, and 11.5" is nicer to my eyes.

Subjective thing and obviously gnat straining, but there it is.

Would also add, since it's a no.1 contour, cutting the 84L's barrel shorter (stiffer) with a nice step crown is not anything that can hurt, and likely can help.

If I get another 84L MT its barrel will get cut to 22 or 22.5".

Here's a 30-06 84L MT with 23" barrel... as you can see, it's still pretty long in relation to the forearm:





270 w/ 23" barrel:

FWIW.......(and a bit of a derail here) The local Gander Mountain in Tonawanda NY had a BARELY used 30-06 Montana with Leupold bases for $899 less 10% the other day. $810 sounds pretty good and IIRC they'll ship their guns to another GM for zip.

The gun did not look like it had been shot..........

Brad, great backdrops to those last two pics, very pretty country.

84L or 8400 30-06 Montana?

The 8400 is not a rifle I favor at all...

Thanks for clearing that up, I was kind of wondering about that since the Nosler manual switches from BG to Hunter when you go from the 140 to the 150. BG gets the best velocity with 140's in mine by far, right at 2,900 with no apparent pressure issues. That's gotta be pushing it though. I don't shoot that load because Varget although slower is more accurate.

Gonna try the 150 Scenars with Hunter and see what happens.

I got one in December and shot one load (Lake Schitty brass, CCI 200, 44.5gr's of RL 15 and the 155gr. Scenar.) it went 1 1/2 MOA right out of the box.

Took it home and did the same schit I've done to just about every other factory rifle. Check mag box, screw lengths, bed and float, blah, blah, fuggin'-blah.

Same load did this:



It's no secret that light guns are tougher to shoot and that is what I attribute all the Kimber woes to. I could be wrong, but that is what I think contributes to a whole bunch of people's problems.

The [bleep]'s are LIGHT. And they are a fantastic bargain IMO.



Travis

All of the above, including "tweaks" (what factory rifle doesn't need tweaking?)!

Have said it for a long time, a LOT of the supposed Kimber "inaccuracy" is the nut behind the butt.

Are these groups you guys are showing with the Montana's at 100 yards?

How do they do when you wring them out at 400-600 yards?

Thanks -

Greg, mine are all 100 yards.

Shooting out to 500 yards is often, though not always, moa with the better loads. Some of mine have been consistent out to that range, others haven't maintained moa at longer range (past 300 yards).

It depends...

Will say too, I often throw a shout out of a Kimber group. These rifles are darn light and require VERY consistent bench technique... something I don't always posses!

A Kimber MT in 308 at the bench is around 5lbs 13 oz's... just like a supertanker is more stable on a heavy sea than a dinghy, so a heavier rifle is less prone to human vagaries.... and yeah, the Montana is a dinghy.

Those are the 1, but it has been grouping ridiculously well @ the 2 and 3 as well.

I've been shooting it at least once a week (on steel) since I got it up and running and I shoot it to the 500 regularly. It do well.

I don't have any pics because there has been snow on the ground and my vagina does not like to post-hole more than once per range session.


Travis

If I want to shoot clay pigeons @ 600yds, my MT isn't what I would grab. But if I want to hit milk jugs from the 1-500 with the lightest rifle, and least complicated fashion, I can't see finding anything better than the MT.

The biggest drawback to them is I haven't figured out how to fit my dong into the chamber. Yet...



Dave

That excessive headspace can be a bitch.

Like putting a .22LR into a 25-06 chamber, huh?

Good question, I didn't know there was a difference. Google answered that for me! If someone is interested a phone call could answer that question. If I get over that way, I'll check myself.

Probably would be a lot easier to reach if they hadn't put the chamber 3" in there.

Shod

Well, it's a distinction non-Kimber-nerds usually don't make!

However, hold an 8400 30-06 MT in your hands and an 84L 30-06 MT in your hands and it's like holding Rosie O'Donell vs Audrey Hepburn...

It's the elevated discussion that keeps bringing me back to the Campfire...