Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber of Oregon - photo and link dump

Well that clears out my pics for now and that's three hours I'll never get back! LOL. Hope someone out there enjoys. Seems the vast majority of pics that interested me enough to save are the '88-'91 phase, imagine that. Anyone feels they'd like to post up others, please do so but keep it Pre-Yonkers. Oh, any pics of KoO skeleton buttplates and grip caps would be appreciated, only a couple of us did those. Please recall some of this chit occurred 27 years ago, hell I can't remember last week. Cheers!




This one looks like it was finish sanded by a trainee, phuggin flute looks like it's from Panama...

I recently acquired a copy of the September 1990 American Rifleman magazine in which this oft-referenced article written by Mr Finn Aagaard appeared. By the time this article was written the Kimber of Oregon Model 89 BGR (Big Game Rifle) had been in production for about one year. The flaws mentioned are really unforgivable critical errors. The praise for the design stands by itself in testament of what was nearly a darn good thing and Mr Aagaard describes the features like only a knowledgeable and expert rifleman could. I have included the best for now scans of the 4-page article here for the record. Please let me know if more detailed crops are desired.

In my opinion it was too much growth too fast for old Kimber of Oregon and it shows on these pages. At the time these rifles were produced the company had, in a couple short years, morphed from producing a handful of sporters a day to seventy-five M84 Governments and thirty to thirty-five sporters a day, often relying on non-rifle types to do the majority of the production work.

As a workman in the woodshop in Colton Oregon from 1988-1991 including the time when these rifles were produced, I'd say he got a dandy stock - as pictured - finally. So at least there's that. I had the pleasure of working with the company owners, tool maker and woodshop foreman in making critical stock design 'modifications', on the Model 89 BGR, 82 and 84 sporters, by locating then installing the buttpads (plates too) and grip caps and machine shaping the stocks on various belt and pneumatic sanders just prior to the shapers with their hand files. This machine sanding had a huge affect on production cycle times and ultimate overall outcomes, the size, shapes and contours we feel when we hold a rifle in our hands. Walnut - once it's gone it gone... I also did occasional shaping, fitting and final sanding work but the Machine Sanding Department was my place and I am proud to have had the chance to be a part of it. FYI at this peak production time the woodshop consisted of about six or seven shapers, myself and an occasional machine sander trainee (disastrous outcomes), three or five? finish sanders, a crew of finishers and about ten checkerer ladies. Myself and one or two ( 1.5?) of the shapers were the only ones that could machine sand worth a hoot, seriously it was easy to fubar them. It's generally described as having been a wild time in our lives.


I welcome discussion or PMs.

Cheers.

First, thanks for posting. Lots of nice rifles. Second, since you would have handled most of the stocks, approx what percentage of the KoO rifles were Left Hand ? I know the LH KoO rifles rarely come up for sale, and when they do, they generally get snapped up pretty quickly...

Hi there Orion2000. You're welcome. I'm surprised these hosted images remain from the now defunct Google Picassa... I have another bunch of KoO pictures I'll possibly try to post someday.

As for your question, darned few and a WAG is less than 1%. On the 82s and 84s my area cut the bolt slots on a router setup and I don't recall a thing about lefties at the moment besides very small occasional batches. Seems I remember aiming the buttplate position for a touch of cast-off though, a purely 'eyeball' operation. BTW the bolt slot on the 89 BGR was filed by hand, with a bit of curve and variable width.... Anyways, there's a published booklet on Kimber of Oregon that may address the topic of lefthand production numbers. I know there's folks around here with it or otherwise knowledgeable on configurations and such. If I come up with anything I will follow up with you.

WTF on some prior images. I will try to rectify.


Here's another magazine write-up circa 1989 on the Kimber of Oregon BGR Model 89.

My friend is in the process of buying a rental unit that he'd lived in back when he and I worked at Kimber of Oregon, (at the Colton plant's woodshop) and he found this magazine in the attic. I acquired the same addition off Ebay and post these ten images to the best of my current tech abilities. LOL.

1989 October Guns Magazine The Kimber Big Game Rifle

Here's the images showing the Aagaard article.

I remember seeing a stunning Kimber of Oregon at a gunshow in 218 Bee. I was a broke teenager, but I lusted over it

I lusted after a .22. Hell, I still do. But I bought the next best thing I could. I have a Winchester M320 (I think) 22LR. It's made by Kimber of OR. I gave it to my son 2 years ago for Christmas. It's a great gun, shoots lights out, and even the magazines are Kimber of OR.

Great thread.

At one time I owned one of the very few Super Americas in 7x57.

Traded it toward a Dakota 76.

Aagard damns by faint praise in that article. Don't see very many gunwriters portraying a manufacturer in a negative light these days.

I bought a Super America 22 Hornet in about ‘85 based on the article that Layne Simpson wrote in Rifle of Handloader. When I got it, it had a reprint of the article that came with the rifle. It still shoots bettr than I can.

Mod 84 .260



Mod 82 .22 WMR

This is some really good stuff. Thanks for posting.

Seeking pictures of the Model 89 BGR African, as well as skeleton grip caps and buttplates, pre-KoA, pre-Yonkers, pre-Kimber Manufacturing. Thanks guys.

Just noticed that the same photo appeared in both magazine articles.....

Thank you sir! I will steal those pictures and post them up here. That's a good one, heck of a production rifle. Those came out at the peak, putting out like 75 Government 82s and 30+ sporters a day, 5 days a week 0700-2300! Lots of dust flying in the woodshop! A lot of pride for the guys that worked these stocks up. Rifles too I suppose. Dan Cooper was in Assembly at the time.... After the handy dandy machine sander hardware guy (me) got done with it a shaper would spend most of a day shaping and finish sanding. Only two or three shapers were talented enough to work on the Africans. (There were two guys that were excellent and another pretty good, a few ok and a couple would have been canned but were buddies) IIRC sometimes a regular finish sander would finish them up but it was a shaper's joy to make. These were most complex, to get right so all of the planes were flat yet contoured so the checkering pattern would layout. I see zero flaws on this one.... Just kidding, there's a few tiny ones. A thing of beauty all sanded up ready for checkering they were. This one's a real beut! Excellent shape job! Notice the grip cap has a compartment for extra sight blades. We joked we'd (pun) carry other stuff in there like condoms and such. LOL

Thanks again! Note: a bit of detail was lost in the conversion. It is barrel stampted Clackamas....






24" tapered round Magnaported barrel with hooded full-band front sight, full-band swivel base, and quarter rib with 1 standing and 1 folding express sight. Figured walnut stock with ebony forend tip, double ebony-plugged recoil crossbolts, steel trapdoor pistol grip cap containing spare front sight blade, classic borderless point-pattern checkering, beaded pancake cheekpiece, inletted rear swivel base and maker's solid red rubber recoil pad. Kimber magnum (Mauser) controlled-feed dovetailed double-squarebridge action with model 70-type safety, four round magazine and hinged straddle floorplate with release inside triggerguard. Swarovski matte-finish, 30mm diameter, 1.25-4x24 scope with bold 4A duplex reticle on Kimber quick-detachable mounts fitted directly to receiver dovetails without separate bases. Pull: 14 1/8". Weight: 9lbs, 14oz. The original Kimber, built in Clackamas, Oregon. 99%+blue. $5995.

Thanks for posting. I must be lucky as both of my KoOs are accurate and work flawlessly. I am trying to find out how many LH model 84s were made in 17 Remington? I couldn't decipher the serial numbers from some of the forums and do not have the book. Is anyone making a stock for Kimbers now? I keep thinking I want to up grade mine to the Super American level. Walnut Grove had some patterns but it looks like they are not doing business now.

My pleasure.

There's a nice 89 in 7mm Rem Mag on gunauction right now.

Link

It was my 50th Birthday on Saturday and I spent the day working at my wife's Christmas Bazaar and doing chores. I checked a LGS and found a Kimber 89 BGR Superamerica in 338 in the box unfired for 975.00. I thought about it over night and decided that that probably was a good deal. I looked it over and it appears in good order so shazam it went home with me. I am at school so I can't post photos but I can tonight. The LGS owner thought that I should flip it for $300.00 profit. I thought oh hell with that. Its hard to find anything with nice wood these days and it was a looker as well. I put a post in GunWriters because I trust Steve Timm's experience with them. I am not going to rush out and set it up for tomorrow but it is a project that hopefully will pay dividends in the future.

Thomas