Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Anyone shooting a Kimber Hunter

MCMX1- Any inside information - will they make a 22lr again or 223 in a Hunter model?

Good score Longshot!
Watch your consistency of hold & pressure points ( grip & cheek pressure) when you shoot it. If you have any troubles it’ll be that or the forend contacting the barrel under the violence of firing. Enjoy!

Definitely. Consistency with an ultralight is key, for sure. I learned that with my first Ti rifle.

Amazing find, congratulations. I bet it shoots lights out!

I bought one in 7-08 a few yrs ago. Shoots well and very light. My son killed his first buck with his. Great choice for a mtn rifle.

Two or three years ago I did 98% of the work for a Hunter in .223 Rem. The VP of sales and sales manager figured they could sell 5,000 units a year to Australia and New Zealand alone so I designed an insert for the current 84M magazine giving six rounds capacity and intentionally long enough to feed 80gr loads. The receiver was to be the standard 84M and the barrel was to be a 1:7 with a Wylde chamber. When the COO got wind of the project he threw a fit and that was that. He shut it down.

As for a .22LR ... very, very unlikely. There is little interest in rifles at Kimber other than possibly a push feed model that some have convinced the COO will cut the cost of manufacture dramatically.

Bergara has made most of the Hunter barrels from introduction to current day but Criterion started making some about a year ago, mostly 6.5 CM and some .308 Win. Faxon tried to make some but it was a disaster. If you're familiar with barrel making there's always a chance of making a bad barrel. The gun drill can wander, the button can hit hard spots, poor throat/bore concentricity etc. Some processes are better at reducing the chance of a bad barrel and the likelihood of a bad Bergara or Criterion barrel is fairly low and this is why Kimber's accuracy has improved over the past six years or so. If you send the rifle back you'll most likely get a new barrel which will probably correct the issue. It happens.

.....that was sounding really good until the COO screwed it up. Who screwed up and let him hear about it? Make sure he's in the dark next time.

That would be the perfect .223 ! I'd buy one in a heart beat!

Your COO must not have his finger on the pulse of the American shooter/hunter, nor those abroad. A lot of folks here have been clamoring for the return of the Montana .223 or a Hunter version. They'd sell like aspirin after New Years.....

MCMXI,
Yeah a .223 Rem Montana or Hunter model would be great. I have often thought that rifle production at Kimber is not exactly high priority taking a big back seat to the pistol department....Am I far off here?....Thanks Hb

ah .... sounds like typical management. the garbage always floats to the top.

my .223 montana is a “top 3” rifle of all time. so glad i snagged one.

Who made the barrels for the Kimber Montanas? I have a 243, 308, and a 223. Did Criterion and Bergara just make barrels for the hunter model?

My Montanas and Subalpines are stamped with a B, I never noticed it before but now that I know where to look its easy to find out...👍.....Hb

I looked at both of mine, but didn’t any such marking...?
Exactly where is the stamping located?

Do the Kimber Hunter mags have a 2.82” limit?

Open your bolt and shine a light in toward the chamber the stamp will be on the right side at the rear of the barrel, I had never noticed it before but its there plain as day....Mcmxi said Bergara barrels were used starting in 2014 so if your rifles are made before then id say there will be no stamp...Good luck...Hb

I can say there is no mark on my older (2009ish) Montana. Barrel is currently off rifle so easy to look.

Found them...... both are Bergar’s.
There’s no stamp in my magazines though.... that I could find, to tell if gen 1 or 2.... not that there’s a problem with either one.. These are two of my favorite rifles. Only my RAR .223 gets for range time.

Any idea why? I bought what is probably one of the last .223 Rem Montana’s and it by far my favorite gun. If they made them again, or made them in a Hunter, I’d buy 2 more.

In a word yes. Handguns make way more money than the rifles. The rifle division is profitable but it's the red headed stepchild at Kimber. Consider that the margins on Hunters are extremely low, and I mean EXTREMELY low, and yet most of the rifle sales are Hunter models. I've made this point a number of times but when you buy a Hunter you're almost buying it at Kimber's cost. Some of the fluff adds margin such as Kimpro, muzzle brakes, dipped patterns etc., but not much.