Hey all, I've been a member here at the campfire for a while but can't remember having ever posted anything other than "I'll take it" in the classifieds, so hello!

This forum seems to be the place to talk about Kimbers, so here's my story. I am a 260 Remington fan, and have had a Savage 16 for the last year with the Accustock in 260, hunted with it several times and it's been a great(accurate) rifle. However, the new Accustocks are not lightweight in any way, and I do alot of walking/hiking type hunting. The weight at 8 lbs scoped isn't terrible, but I really got a bug about adding a lightweight rifle to my collection. It became my mission to find a Kimber Montana in 260 if I could, or a used one in any caliber at a good price to have rebarreled to 260. I shoot Berger VLD's exclusively, and up till now have only used the 140's. Reports had led me to believe that the Kimber's 1 in 9" twist rate wouldn't stabilize the 140's so I planned on rebarreling in the future in any case and going with the 130 grain bullets at first to see how it would go.

Found a 260 Montana on Gunbroker that was "mint condition with box", and that was reported as perhaps never having been fired. At $975 buy it now it was more than I wanted to spend on the rifle, but I figured I'd go for it and if it shot well out of the box it would save me some money and I could use it till I felt like rebarreling. Bought it, and I do believe it was new in the box, looked to have never been fired except at the factory.

Took it out today for the first time with some 140 grain VLD handloads from the Savage, reseated deeper to fit in the Kimber's magazine and some 130 grain VLD's I had made for the Kimber. I wasn't expecting much with the 140's, and maybe not even the 130's given the 0.090" jump to the lands with the magazine length. I've read all the bad reports out there about Kimbers not shooting well, etc. so it wouldn't have surprised me alot if it didn't do well. After all, who sells a rifle they've "never fired"?

Well, worst group of the entire day was 1.25" @100 yards eith the 130's. Best group with 130's was 0.85" at 100, using 44.0 H4350 and Lapua brass, CCI BR2 primer. Most surprising was that the best group of the day was 0.70" with the 140 grain VLD's that I didn't think would stabilize! This was at 45F degress or so, 600 ft above sea level. All groups with the 140's were under an inch, and all but one with the 130's as well.

I am very pleased with my Kimber, and glad I took a chance. I've read alot about Kimber roulette and have had 2 of their 1911's that just couldn't get reliable, but I guess I was due for a hit. Gonna sell the Savage and I think this is my new go-to for hunting here in Texas!



If 2nd amendment rights can be subject to licensing and fees, how was the poll tax unconstitutional?