Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber Hunter 6.5 problems

Decided last minute to buy a new rifle for deer season this year. I liked the look and feel of the kimber hunter minus the trigger guard. But I can deal with it for the price. Figured I’d try 6.5 CM while I was at it. As I haven’t played with anything new for awhile. Got the rifle and mounted a 2-7 leupold, so far so good. My reloading components haven’t came in yet so I bought a box of Hornady 143g eldx. Much to my surprise the rounds are extremely hard to chamber. You gotta really use force. Feeding from the magazine is pretty much hit and miss too. Cases are coming out severely scratched and there’s brass shavings all around the bottom of the chamber . I’ve heard the horror stories of people getting rifles and stuff like this happening. But this is the first for me. I boxed it up and took it back to the shop. Obviously never fired a round. They said that I’m not the first customer with the hunter model to have this problem. The main guy I deal with wasn’t in today so
I guess I’ll find out tommorow what we’re gonna do.

Not sure I want another kimber if this is a representation of their craftsmanship ??

Sorry to hear that. Nothing worse than getting something new and being excited to use it and then have it not work properly. Kimbers sure do generate a lot of discussions here.

I don't think you can buy a rifle that doesn't need some minor tweaking. That goes for $300 rifles to over $3000 rifles. It's part of shooting and being a rifleman just like knowing how to mount a scope. Did you even look at the rifle to determine the cause of the problem?

I own 2 700s, a tikka T3, and 3 CZ s....they never needed “tweaking” to function correctly. So no most rifles don’t need “tweaking” in my experience. Bedding, trigger jobs sure. But needing tweaked just to function ? Nah never had it. It’s not even a big deal. Just sharing my experience at the moment.

I’m no gunsmith. Nothing looked out of the ordinary to me though. Take that for what it’s worth ...I examined it the best my little brain could.

I'm not jumping your case. I'm just saying it's likely very minor. I've had to do minor stuff to nearly every rifle I own. I had to polish rails and edges on my Montana and trim two little ears on the mag box that came too far into the edge of the feed ramp and was gouging brass.

You should have tried some different factory ammo. I had a very tight chambered extremely accurate Sako once that wouldn't chamber some brands of factory ammo at all,and sometimes it would only chamber 10-15 out of 20.

It's not uncommon, but is a pain in the ass. Only rifles I had that didn't need anything were two Tikkas and a RAR.

Clark. I thought about trying different ammo but the shop just said to bring it back.
16- My luck I’d do something to void the warranty and still not get it fixed

Ky,

I've personally seen similar issues with Tikka T3 and Remington 700 rifles. This isn't exclusive to one make or brand.

Jason

Tight headspace? If so, better than excessive headspace.

Be interested to hear what the actual diagnosis is. Please let us know what you find out...

That isn't minor tweaking, that is totally unacceptable.

The rifle should not have any problems leaving the factory, the quality control should catch obvious problems like that. I don't have any Kimber rifles but I heard from folks that they got much better recently.
Sorry for your disappointment.

Not being able to properly chamber a round doesn't sound like minor tweaking to me at all.

Magazine feed lips, barrel clearance, and cleaning out mounting threads are examples of minor issues. A chamber so tight it shaves brass not so much.

Solid advice..if you touch anything on a Kimber, they seem to frown upon it.

Nobody said the chamber was so tight it was shaving brass. It likely had tight headspace that was causing difficulty cambering and it was part of the mag box or rails shaving brass.

Factory ammo can have slightly different specifications from one manufacturer to another. That's why one particular brand of factory ammo will usually shoot better in a rifle than another. It's just possible that the rounds Kimber used to check function were different enough that they caused no problems. I've known of people getting their $3500 custom rifles and they wouldn't feed because the smith set them up using different ammo.

I suppose I just get tired of anytime that the name Kimber comes up,people who don't own one and most times don't have a clue start shouting " See,I told you they were all just crap rifles to start with."

Yea, Kimber may have put out a POS. It happens with all of them. I bought a Sako that wouldn't chamber factory ammo. I've seem Savages without any rifling in the barrel,and how many Remingtons have had the bolt handles fall off and shoot when you close the bolt?

I guess my point is that it is a mass produced tool,and if you want to use it to its full potential you have to learn how to work on it ,repair and modify it. To me that's what a looney is.

"Cases are coming out severely scratched and there’s brass shavings all around the bottom of the chamber ." From the initial post.

That is a significant issue. True, not specific to the chamber, but with all the bad press Kimber gets you would think they would put a little more time into making sure that the basic function of the rifle is correct.

Not apples to apples comparison, but FWIW I’ve not had to do a thing to the GA Precision rifles they’ve built for me...

Part of the reason I will never own another Kimber... I had almost the exact issue with a Kimber Montana... would not chamber factory ammo.... had to send it back to rechamber as it was cut wrong... thing never did shoot good either and that was probably part of it... absolutely horrible quality control

I am drawing blank here, can someone help me out?

______________________________ Roulette.

Local gunshop called me today. They tried various ammo and it all came out the same. Hard to chamber, scratched cases, shavings etc.

Gonna order me another one. Idk when it will be here but hopefully it functions as it should.

Gary...too bad on the Kimber...I had heard their Quality Control was a LOT better lately...

Guess not. Too many stories of guys having to tweak $1000 rifles....

If it doesn't pan out for you, like another poster said, try a Tikka...no Tweaking!

Best luck Bud!