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

Stumbled into a small town pawn shop the other day and there all lonely on the shelf was a brand new Kimber Hunter in 308 with a little white tag hanging off it with $649 written on it. As I sat there looking at it I looked directly below it and there was all kinds of powder for sale (not common these days). The first thing that caught my eye was a whole row of Varget directly beneath it. Well obviously this was a sign from the heavens that I needed this rifle and all that Varget. So the sad little Kimber followed me home. So far I’ve cleaned her up and bedded the lug, gutted the gel from inside the stock. Fit and finish looks great , it feeds good from a full mag, I did most of the Kimber checklist stuff too. Got some 155 Scenars to stuff into Varget and get it to the range. Any testimonials from Kimber hunter 308 owners would be much appreciated.

https://www.imgurupload.com/uploads/20210119/e6e9d950e5bead147245e03e87e80dee4fdc4a24.jpg

Outstanding find. A Kimber and Varget...........Unreal. Buy a lottery ticket!!! Good luck with the 308. Let us know how she shoots.

That Hunter will either have a Bergara or Criterion barrel, most likely a 1:10 Bergara and it will shoot very well. Look at the extractor cut in the breech end of the barrel and if you see a B it's a Bergara, or a C and it's a Criterion. If you need a spare magazine or two let me know.

Is losing a magazine a common theme with these? I’ve read several threads where guys pick up 1 or 2 extra mags.

"Two is one, and one is none."

No, you will not lose a magazine if it's in the rifle. If it's in a pocket or pack or in the glove box of your truck you're on your own. Spare magazines have their uses though. The Hunter is a 3+1 arrangement and some folks want more rounds on hand just in case. They can be useful for testing and load development too.

Happy with all my kimbers so far, hunters included.

Thanks to MCMXI I now have a couple spare mags. Needed no but things get misplaced and I won’t have to worry about hunting with a single shot if it ever happens.

Nashville, your magazines have the revised floorplate that adds about .100" of internal height to the magazine. If anyone is wondering if they have the gen 2 floor plate just tilt the follower down at the front and look inside the magazine. If it's a gen 2 you'll see a 1 or 2 at the bottom of the mag in the center. It can be faint but it's there on the gen 2 mags. The 84L magazines had the extra internal height from the get go.

You know your stuff, it’s got a Bergara barrel.

Good to know, thanks!

Bergara is single-handedly responsible for the improvement in accuracy of Kimber rifles since early 2014. Kimber hasn't made a rifle barrel in years. Oddly enough, Savage tried to make Kimber barrels but they were far worse than anything Kimber made. Criterion has started making 6.5 CM and .308 Win barrels since early 2019 and they do a great job. They've made the Caprivi and Talkeetna barrels since the beginning. I was constanly pushing for faster twist barrels and switched all .30 cal barrels to 1:10 in 2015. There was some new old stock to use up so I wanted to put the twist rate on the barrel but that got shot down.

I was the Kimber rifle engineer from November, 2013 to May, 2020 and designed the 84M and 84L Hunter stocks and magazines so I know a thing or two about Kimber rifles. There were many things I wanted and tried to do but unless you've worked for Kimber you don't know how tough it is to get anyone to agree to anything or have any interest in improving the product.

👍🏼

Do you think Kimber will ever make a .22 rimfire rifle again ?

Who makes the barrels on the hunter 6.5s? My buddies doesn't shoot worth squat. We've tried several different factory ammos, action torque settings. Definitely not moa like the hang tag suggests.

I have two, a Creed and a 7mm-08.
Both with SWFA 3X9 MQ’s on board.

They have very good practical hunting accuracy, which is probably more an indication of my lack of skill at the bench than the rifle true abilities. They’re light and take a bit more care to shoot than heavier rigs, but are a pure joy to carry in the woods. Good snag on your part 👍

I’m hoping Kimber will someday see the light and give us a fast twist Hunter .223!

This.

Do you think Kimber will ever make a .22 rimfire rifle again ?[/quote]

I picked up a slightly used Hunter in 6.5 Creedmoor at a gun show 2 weeks ago. Shoots great & shows no tendency to wander as it heats up. Very happy with it. Did remove the gel, bed the recoil lug & also added a 9” carbon fiber arrow shaft + Acraglas to the forearm. The forearm now will not contact the barrel in the simple “John Barsness squeeze test”.

While doing the last, I relocated the front sling swivel to the tip of the forearm where it is incapable of gouging my hand in recoil.

Weighs about 6 lbs w/ Leupold vx3 1.5x5 in weaver mounts

Thanks to MCMXI, I now know my 6.5’s barrel is a Bergara, & I have two mags, a 1 & a 2. They both work fine.

I just picked up a Hunter in 6.5 CM about two hours ago!😁. Right now the recoil lug is settling into some fresh Acraglas gel. I looked and it has a Bergara barrel. I've got a set of Talley lows and will probably make use of a new SWFA 10x. Looking forward to wringing this out!

I have two Kimber Hunters,a 6.5 creedmoor that I bought new,and a 280 Ackley that I bought used that looked new.

They are both great rifles,both will shoot under moa with factory ammo. Both feed and function perfectly.

I bought a couple of early Kimbers that were 2 moa rifles and had to go back to KImber for feeding issues.

I swore off KImbers for several years before finally trying another. I now am the happy owner of four. In addition to the two Hunters,I have a wood stocked 257 Roberts and a Adirondack in 6.5 Creedmoor.

All have been excelent. I am anxious to try one of the new Kimbers made in Alabama. Hopefully they will be as good as my late production guns from New York.

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.

Bergara has made most of the barrels for all Kimber models since 2014. There was sporadic barrel production in NJ in 2014 and for a couple of years after but the majority of barrels came from Bergara. Kimber never made the barrels for the Talkeetna or Caprivi as I mentioned earlier. A good Kimber barrel is as good as any other properly buttoned barrel but the consistency from Bergara is what drove the huge drop in accuracy related issues and customer returns.


Criterion started making 6.5 CM and some .308 Win barrels in late 2019, early 2020. I would be happy with either a B or C in the extractor cut, and if there's no letter and the rifle shoots well then all is good.

My 6.5CM is a B barrel and a 2 magazine, the magazine that came with the rifle has no number, might be why I prefer the spare?

Only complaint of the Hunter stock is the comb feels sharper/narrower that the Montana which I prefer. In Australia the Hunter is significantly cheaper than the Montana. I don’t mind the magazine.

Well I looked at my .243 Montana and no B or C. There is a vertical line, looks like a scratch. Does that indicate anything?

Your rifle was made before 2014?

Where are you guys seeing these markings on your Kimber barrels. My Montana just has a P on it.

Look inside the breach of the barrel and just above the extractor cut you’ll see a B or a C on the barrel face.

Thanks, just looked mine is a B. Never had any accuracy complaints with it either so I guess I got a good one.

Am I missing something, who made the barrels before 2014? I didn't see a B or a C on the extractor cut

I was going to bring this up on another thread but my information isn't rock solid so I never did, plus I really don't want to believe it.

According to a major gun dealer(Australia). He informed me that they heard it firsthand from one of the biggest rifle importers here, that Kimber is slowly pegging-back their rifle sales to concentrate on their pistol market. Whether or not there is any truth in this its still a concern. I cant imagine having no Kimber rifles options in the future

Making control round feed rifles is certainly a more costly exercise, especially when the action-length is suited to that caliber and not a universal one.

I hope this is just that, a rumor.

The way he explained it Kimber did.

Exactly. Prior to 2014 Kimber made the barrels at the Ridgefield, NJ facility, but with no investment to replace or upgrade old and worn out tooling and machines the quality was inconsistent. Then along came Bergara and things got a whole lot better. There were many suggestions to advertise the fact that Bergara was making the barrels but it was decided to keep it under wraps. I always thought that to be a mistake.

Wasn’t it about that time (~2015 iirc) they introduced the sub moa guarantee?

Well not too shabby minute of nickel . 46 gr of Varget and 155 Scenars at 2900

Group measure .51”


https://imgur.com/a/ELd1uSp

It was introduced as a "sub moa accuracy standard" rather than guarantee and it was the brainchild of a number of idiots in marketing who never even bothered to ask if all or any of the models were capable of meeting the stated accuracy standard. No testing was performed to validate the claim but they loved the idea of a hang tag with a target on it. In addition, the hang tag states 0.99" or less at 100 yards even though as we all know 1 moa at 100 yards is greater than 1", but having 1.0472" or less on the tag isn't as catchy as 0.99". CS would get calls from customers stating that their rifle doesn't meet the standard because they were getting 1.0" groups and not .99" or smaller.

Good info, thanks for sharing MCMXI.

Jason

Agreed ^

A lot of useful information shared. Some myths and mis-perceptions put to bed.

A very informative thread! Thanks all for posting.

I made the mistake of buying when they first came out.

I ordered it in 257Bob and it showed up as a 6.5CM. I went ahead and took the rifle home as 6.5CM wasn’t so “boutique” then. Long story short. I didn’t have any reloading components for the new to me chambering so I bought one box of 143G Hornady and a box of 129g hornady American Whitetail... When I got the rifle to the range, I couldn’t get it to chamber a factory round.

I took it to my smith just to see what he thought the problem was, he fiddled around with it for a bit and somehow determined (bear with me here if I get something wrong as I’m not a smith and it’s been a good while) that there was too much material on the bolt face and that somehow prevented the cartridge from sliding up under the extractor completely and that was causing the issue. He fixed that issue and then the rifle seemed to work fine, but it shot like absolute garbage. I don’t think it ever turned in a group under 2”.


Hope your luck is better than mine. As I really liked the rifle. But I wouldn’t buy another.

I remember several people sending in their Kimbers that were spraying 3" groups, then getting letter back from kimber that their rifle met their accuracy standards. And shipped the POS back. Turned me off from ever buying one. ... Sounds like things are better now.

I know some folks got bad barrels in the mid 2000’s, as a guy I knew at the time was so amazed with the handling and accuracy of mine that he bought one himself. Ended up having to rebarrel it after wasting unknown numbers of components and rounds to no avail. I can’t see how Kimber could go wrong having Bergara supply the barrels. And with less than 20 rounds down the pipe of my new .308 it’s shooting 1/2” groups, no complaints here.

Thanks MXMCI. You solved a mystery of my one mediocre Montana. It is the only one without a B stamp, and my oldest. A 300WSM. My friend has one a year older that is pretty amazing straight from the factory with factory ammunition. I struggle to keep mine under 2 MOA with handloads and a good stress free bedding job.