Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Thinking about getting a Kimber Hunter and chopping it to 18”

Thanks for the daily lesson. My assumption was that they are all (supposed to be) filled as all of mine have been so far.

Maybe? The rifle was ordered new, it's first stock arrived with the grip cap broken off so Kimber asked me to send it in on their dime. They put a new stock on it and shipped it back. Maybe under warranty they forgot to fill it with gel? No complaints, it's very light and shoots well.

There is no maybe. I don't know how I can state this any clearer. The vendor in Syracuse hires and fires employees based on demand, and sometimes they have lazy morons running a piece of equipment with 10 minutes of training. There were more than a few instances where the grip caps weren't welded on properly and a change was made to the design to reduce the chance of failure. The vendor tries to get their employees to do as much as possible when they're running the injection molding equipement waiting for the part. They don't want the employee standing idle for 45 minutes every hour so they try to set up workstations where other things are being done such as installing sling swivel studs, screwing on butt pads, welding grip caps etc. Kimber doesn't make the Hunter stocks or fill them with rubber. That's handled entirely by the vendor who ships the stocks to Kimber based on demand. If you got a stock without rubber it was a mistake ... end of story.

The vendor who makes the stock also makes the glass filled nylon 6,6 magazine parts such as the floorplate, follower and magazine catch. Kimber only uses two magazine springs for all rifles, although a third prototype spring was ordered in very limited quantities for the .300 Blackout. There was no entertaining the idea of having a new spring being designed for the Hunter magazine because spring design is expensive so it was a case of use what we have. The magazine tube is made by another vendor in Connecticut who is well known for making magazines. I laugh when I see comments that the Hunter stock has a lot of flex or the trigger guard is prone to breaking. People that make those comments don't know $hit from sugar and clearly haven't looked at or handled other 20% glass filled polypropylene stocks or tried to break the trigger guard.

Whether unintentional or otherwise I don't consider the lack of gel to be a mistake. The vendor did me a favor ...end of story.



I'll add instead of gel the stock had a rolled up piece of foam sheeting snugly fit into the butt stock to dampen hollow sound I guess. I could remove the pad and show you but it's not worth my time, and a non issue. Kimber also issued a second spare magazine at no charge when they returned the rifle. Great customer service btw.

you need to post that on the light rifles thread!!!

That's an entirely different situation. If you're happy that no rubber was added that's great but it's not intentional, that's all I'm saying. For the record I was opposed to adding any significant weight to the Hunter stock but engineers are at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to the big decisions.




This keeps getting weirder but as long as you're happy with what you have it's all good.

ChrisAU: My LGS has a previously owned (won at the NRA Banquet) Kimber Hunter for sale. The gun is unfired and comes with all paperwork and box - I was told it never left the shop but was consigned there by the winner.
It is the stainless model with removable magazine feature and the pleasing tan/beige fiber-glass stock. Sadly it is in caliber 30/06 which is not on your list (as yet?).
The asking price was IIRC $625.00 - no sales tax in Montana.
If you are interested the shops number is 406-683-9844.
Good luck with your project.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

If anyone's interested, I have quite a few Hunter stocks for sale, both 84M and 84L, and magazines for both. I even have one 84M Hunter stock with an Open Country finish. The 84M are all FDE but I have FDE and Northwood Brown 84L stocks.
PM me if interested.

Here's another one, the extra magazine they sent me has a different follower than the one that came with the rifle:


Rifle functions fine with both (7-08). Guess they make refinements all the time.

Keep in mind I'm just a customer and they are never right.

Out of coincidence. I weighed my 7-08 “hunter” today and it comes in at the same 5lb11.5oz as yours (MtnHtr).

Nice!

Well, the Winchester didn't scratch the itch, not even a little. Ordered a Hunter from Whittakers...in 243. I figure the baby caliber will help with the recoil on a super-ultra light rifle.

Current for sure plan is TI bolt handle, TI action screws, shorten fore-end 1.5" or so, sand and paint, Talley1" low rings.

Variables I haven't made my mind up include scope (would realllly like to find a 2-7x27 VX-2), shortening the LOP and maybe doing a flip flop butt pad, and just how short I want to go with the barrel. 18" seems the common route, but I'm not adverse to 17" or 17.5". Hmmmm

How does Kimber twist their .243s?

1/10

Keep in mind, this rifle will never take a shot over 150 in the field. Likely never over 75.

I'm making it as light as I can, because, I can. Just a project rifle.

All that suggests a trip to JES for a rebore to 358 !?! That’d make it real light and be awesome fer short shots!!!!!

I'm all ears, what is JES?

http://www.35caliber.com/

He can make the hole in your rifle barrel bigger. Bigger hole= less weight

If going for ultra light weight for a walk around rifle. I’d do that. My favorite montana chop job is a .338 federal at about 17”

One thing you will instantly notice when chopping barrels is muzzle blast.

The smaller the hole the more powder is burning outside of the barrel.

The 17” 338 federal isn’t loud at all. The 18” 6.5 creed is a head ringer. My daughters 20” .22-250 is also a very loud rifle.

Recoil doesn’t matter from field positions. Sound always matters if you don’t have some sort of protection.

If you have a suppressor. ( I think I saw that earlier in the thread) I’d go the largest caliber that would work on your suppressor and the shortest barrel you can. I like to start at 17” or so. In case the smith screws up your threads you can always cut at the shoulder and do it again.

I’ve had 2 factory rifles with non-concentric threads. So I like a little bit of insurance. Baffle/end cap strikes are no good.

Yessss...I knew I had seen Luke Moffat do that to a Montana on Rokslide. Local smith wants $175 to cut crown and thread...hell for another $100-$200 I can have a better short range caliber and less weight and even more uniqueness...yepppp. Will update as I go.

Holy chit batman here's my ultra lite 9.3x62 project. 250 Accubonds at 2650 can't have that much recoil can they?