Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber Montana Ti bolt handle finished

That new handle is on a 8400 and not on a 84M. The 84M has a very small handle that easily clears a scope and would not save as much in weight reduction either.

It could be made better looking however.

A rearward sweep might look nice but unless the rifle were restocked the bolt knob would hit my finger. The grip could be made more open of course but it seems like a lot of work for an exising Montana stock.

There is a thread over on AR showing how some smith brazed on an aftermarket handle on a 8400 with a rearward sweep. It looks nice but I would not want a brazed or welded bolt handle.

Nice work. I wish I had your machining skills and tool access. Any thought to making slimmed aluminum trigger guards for the Kimber? The 84M's trigger guard is a heavy hunk of steel, and as others have said, when we're talking lightweights, we're down to talking ounces.

The subject bolt handle was made by Schmaltz and not myself. All the credit goes to him.

True that the Montana trigger guards are too big and heavy but they would require much more work. Best to cast them from a lighter metal and as you say not as wide. I have never purchased titanium investment castings but if it could be done that would be my choice for Kimber to do.

As far as just one guard goes for a custom rifle it would be easy to slim down the existing Montana guard.

Above is the aftermarket bolt handle welded on by James Anderson.

This topic is at AR and linked here.

This would require a new stock and that seems to be the intent of Anderson.

I am not going to do it but if your trigger gaurd needs to be lightened it would be easy. One thing i was thinking of doing is cross drilling the webbed area where the gaurd meets the stock. Look at the second picture of my bolt handle and you will see that both in front and behind the trigger the area that meets the stock is this huge triangle shaped area. I was thinking about a single hole drilled in both areas would remove a lot of mass alone without and sacrifice of durability

Yes Schmaltz thats another good idea. The best we can say about the look of a Montana is that its purposeful. The cross drilled holes would not detract at all.

You remember the Ti bolt handle from this thread last year? I have it on gunbroker and wondered if there would be a lot more interested in having something like that since the guy that bid on it wanted 2 of them. Thinking about kicking some more out but wondered how much interest there really would be? Ti is not cheap these days.... What do you guys think? Shaves a full OZ off the gun, and looks and feels better with a slight smaller ball

If I owned a Kimber I might be game, but it would depend on the price. One is only saving an ounce but lightweight freaks are known to go to extremes...........

Very nice work btw, your improved bolt handle look cool!

MtnHtr

I wuz bumping around Gunbroker a couple hours ago and ran across these and thought, "that's pretty sweet"....

Nice work schmalts.

Price?

it would have t be in the 45$ area with the price of Ti

I would be interested it getting one for a friend that has a Kimber Montana...If you are taking orders let me know.

I guess I could but don't want to get this post nuked for being accused of selling off the classifieds so i would rather you did a PM. I am really looking at more of how much interest there would be in this product.
45$ is cheap when you thnk about it. Look at a brownells catalog and see what they get for a plain old steel one in the white.

I will have more, I will keep you posted and keep an eye out in the classifieds in a few weeks. Damn that Ti is out of this world price wise these days! But the way some may look at it is you can put this on, on not feel as guilty about bolting on that little heavier scope right

can ya offer some artsy werk on the ball end? maybe a bloodshot eyeball in the lightening hole or carve a bighorn skull/horns as a ball

Could maybe lazer etch you name in it? Dogs, You couldn't just look over the next bench and ask me tomorrow in person?
Lazy bastage

Not worried about the weight, but would like one a little longer and with a bigger ball. The original is just a little small for my liking.

Battue

Isn't that a lot of work for a gun that won't shoot? ......................DJ

..................sorry Scmaltz, I just couldn't resist................DJ

No problem, gun was made MOA by pressure point, then promptly sold and replaced with a Sako 85