Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Yep, I took another spin at the "Kimber Roulette" wheel

I have been encouraged lately by some of the better Kimber QC reports so when I ran across a most beautiful NIB 8400 Classic Stainless in .300 WSM at a LGS I gave it a careful examination, fit and finish looked flawless so I decided to try My third spin at the wheel.... First things first so I got the rifle home and tore it apart and gave the wood stock a good coating inside and out with Birchwood/Casey gunstock wax, the trigger was factory set at 3.6lbs (just where I like it) so no need to fuss with the that, I then gave the barrel and action a thorough cleaning and reinstalled It into the stock with 40 inch pounds of torque (not sure what torque setting Kimber recommends but I will find out soon)...Took the bolt apart and cleaned/oiled/greased... Installed a Leupold VX3i 3.5-10 x 40 in Talley lightweight's (med) then I took it to the range with 4 different factory loads to do My little break-in procedure and to see how the rifle function's, I can report that this rifle is most certainly accurate as it printed several sub MOA groups with the factory ammo I had including a few that were well below MOA .60"-.75" 3 shot 100 yd groups hot barrel and all, I did not baby this rifle today with any extended barrel cooling between groups 😁.... I do have an issue with this rifle though, the chamber seems very tight and I did experience a hard to close and lift bolt on several rounds ( some were very hard) .....Whats at play here Kimber guy's? I got the rifle home and gave the chamber a good scrubbing with a nylon brush and some Hoppes 9 then ran a few rounds through the chamber and the bolt function was better, some ran slick as glass but one particular brand was still a little tight, is this a common issue with Kimber match chambers or what?......Thanks Hb

Can't comment on the chamber or ammo but sounds like you got a good one. You certainly like those .30 cal Thumpers...

Good luck!

I am on the band wagon of condemning Kimber's quality control and lact of customer
service but there could be another problem here. If the rifle has been sitting for a while,
you could have a little rust in the chamber.

To fix that, spray a little automatic transmission fluid on a swab that is a bit larger
than the cartridge brass and spin it around in the chamber. That will remove and help
prevent the rust from returning.

Did you try another brand of ammo? BTW I lke the looks of that rifle .I better not go into my LGS anymore they have a Kimber Mountain Ascent in 7mm-08

Lmao! I guess Im a recoil slut.....Hb

I know what you mean, the LGS I got this rifle from had a Mountain Accent in .280 AI, it felt outstanding in My hands, now I think I may need a Subalpine in 30-06 for those 1 1/2 hr hikes it takes to get to a couple of My public land spots.....Hb

What an enabler

This is encouraging, as I spun the wheel for the first time last Friday. I was torn between a Montana and a Fieldcraft; I took the cheaper route first. The rifle is supposed to be here tomorrow. Before taking it to the range, I will complete the "pre-flight checklist" and go from there.

On another note, my BIL has a new Mountain Ascent, 270 Win and it shoots very well.

This rifle was made on Jan 23rd 2014 so it has been sitting a while, I may try this if my chamber brush cleaning didnt do the trick..(I am headed back to the range today) ...If I end up sending this rifle back to Kimber we will see if their CS has improved any .....I dont expect much though 😁....Hb

Lmao! Its all your fault..😆....Hb

I am not a big fan of blind magazines but that Kimber Mountain Ascent felt great .

Good luck also.6 shot's 117 Sierra's,257 Roberts

Gorgeous stock!

I will be adding another data point to the Kimber Roulette survey soon. My new .308 Montana will come in today, but I have a girls 4x100 relay team and a few runners going to the State Championship meet through the weekend, so garage and range time are in short supply.

How does the sticky brass measure compared to the SAAMI max cartridge drawing?

Thats a good question but I sold my micrometer with the rest of My reloading equipment several years ago, I got plenty of buddies that still reload though 👍 So i can check.....Hb

One of my 308's, factory chamber, is toward the small end of spec for diameter at the body/shoulder junction and is right at the min in the headspace direction too. It'll tell me quick if a factory round is fat/long side of spec.

Before I passed judgement on the chamber, I'd check velocity. Kimber chambers tend to be a bit on the minimum side of spec. I've had several that had sticky bolt lift but coincided with more velocity. Of course without the sticky bolt lift, it would just be a 'fast barrel'.......

I have also noticed scarred/gauged brass, this rifle has a burr in the chamber but I still dont think it would cause the hard bolt closing and lift on particular cartridges, it doesn't matter what brand of ammo I try some are hard to get the bolt closed and some are slick as glass, it must be a super tight chamber on this Kimber.....but what to do if anything?....Hb