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.

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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.