Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Kimber Montana 84M 17 Remington

Kimber Montana 84M in 223 sacrificed to be re-barrelled to 17 Remington. Lilja 1 in 9 .17 caliber 84M modified barrel. Its the profile that Short Action Smoker had set up. It's heavier than the standard 84M barrel.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/15688005#Post15688005

Awesome AB2506. Any load specs. or Chronograph speeds? Did the barrel fit the stock contour or did you have to open it up some?

My 204 Montana is my favorite but I’ve often thought about converting one to 17 Remington. What bullet are you shooting in it?

Looks like a great rig. What is the barrel length?

Could be pretty sweet!

How does it shoot ?

Hal

Converting mine to a 17 Rem. was well worth it, but if you are planning on converting the 204 to 17 don't, sell it to me. LOL seriously.

I used a Kimber Montana contoured Lilja 9 T barrel on mine finished at 22". I love it.

No, I’ll never get rid of the 204, I have a new 223 in the safe to sacrifice. I’ve got another one that started life as a 243, I converted it to 22-250AI so I don’t really need a 223 but I still like having one.

I got stupid and sold a Sako in 17 Remington years ago. I’ve always liked the 17 and would like to have another but really, the 204 does everything the 17 can do and more.

Awesome.

That's one of the sweetest rifles ever posted here.

Well darn.............oh, so maybe the 223 is for sale?????


I picked up a 223 as a donor for a new Lilja 204 barrel I have, again in a Kimber Montana contour, but made the mistake of shooting the 223...............now I'm reloading for it. ...........so, I need another one.

Thanks deflave. It is at the top of my favorite rifles to shoot and hunt with. It thinks 25gr. and 30gr. Nagel bullets are match grade.

I had a 223 Montana punched to AI and sold it to a good friend since I had the 22-25AI and 204. Big mistake so I finally bought another 223, probably leave it as issued. Would love to have one in 308 or 7-08 too.

I kinda like the Montana’s!

Stock needed no work, barrel fits perfectly.

Had barrel cut to 24" to maximize oomph. It also matches the Kimber Varmint in 22-250 that I had cut down to 24", 26 was too long.

Rifle is light, but still has a surprising muzzle forward weight.

Gunsmithing took forever. Work should have been done by May at latest. Covid screwed that up. Barrel was ordered early December 2019. It didn't arrive until late July/early August. Then I had to wait my turn ( work was done by Alberta Tactical Rifle), a large gunsmith/gun manufacturer. Then they found that they had lost/misplaced the reamer. Had to order and wait for a reamer to be imported. Then the barrel was installed, and action blue printed. Stock/action was bedded. Had to wait for my turn on the laser engraver and then the satin sandblasting. I finally got it in very late October/early November, when all attention was focused on deer hunting. Hardly saw coyotes anyways.

Gunsmith said it should shoot 0.5" with factory. I could only find exhorbitantly priced Remington 25gr HP. I made it to the range in December. I had purchased some Nosler Custom cases, but never built a workup series. Good thing. One of my worst days at the range ever. I couldn't do anything right (I had bore sighted 2 rifles including this one, and neither were on the paper at 100. The 25-06 I played around and figured out which way to move it to get sighted in. The 17 was a bitch. Had to go to 50 and finally got it on paper. Made adjustments and went to 100, finally sighted in at 100. Did I mention that I checked both rifles again with the bore sighter and they were both fine? Did the 50 year old Redfield collimator crap out? Did I forget how to do it?) As I said, bad day. Even the 25-06, which is a known shooter, I shot for [bleep]. The 17 was no different. Probably close to 2".

I was happy to have it sighted in and deduced the Remington load would do until I get a handload. Time to hunt coyote.

Due to a number of reasons, I have only been out twice in my mule deer area and made 15 stands. On each day I called a large male, but he evaded me both times, even though I switched things up.

Then at 1630 today, I dropped the hammer on a heavy male. He was stalking the caller. My shot was 150yds, the coyote was 60yds from the caller. The bullet striking the coyote made a surprisingly loud crack that I haven't heard before.

I'll get a photo posted much later today.

Mama said we'd have days like that. LOL
What an ordeal, but real happy you finally persevered. It sounds like it is a winner.
If your contemplating where to start with a load, IMR8208 or IMR4320 is an excellent powder behind 25gr. bullets.........Rem. 7 1/2 is a must for primers.
But if you are leaning towards the 30gr. bullet, then H414 has proven to be a winner in my Lilja barre.
I don't have speeds for any of my loads. When we tried to Chronograph them the Labradar we used would only go to 3900fps, it would not register any of them. And that was from a 22" barrel.
With a 24" barrel I would be very tempted to run 30's in it.
But this is all information you already know I'm sure.

Right on. How was the performance? Still using commercial loads?

Yes, still using the Remington 25gr HP. Cold enough, I'm not keen on developing a load at the range now. Not to mention wading through the snow and ice.

There was bruising on the entrance side, no exit. Maybe caught the lower rear corner of the scapula. Entrance was a little lower than I thought, probably a heart shot. I think he swapped ends and fell over.

At that distance, 150yds broadside, I could not really tell a difference between the 17 and the 22-250. Whereas the one coyote I shot 200yds with the 17 fireball I had, jumped around like a bucking bronco for a few jumps before falling over and rolling most of the way down the ravine.

The couple hundred extra feet per second the 17R has seems to be more effective than the 17FB. 17R bullet was 5grs heavier.

I would have stayed with the 17FB, as I had everything I needed to reload etc, but when I committed to moving to the Kimber action, I wasn't sure the 17FB would feed properly without modification. I decided to move to the 17R as the donor was a 223. Easy peasy. I almost bit on the 17-204 as I was offered the use of a reamer that had cut only 2-3 chambers, but it seems it would work best with 30gr bullets and as I said, those are hard to find now.

That's two photos of the same coyote, just taken from two different angles and trying the light as the sun was going down.

I've looked very hard at doing a 17-204. That has to be close to the ultimate for a fur saving Coyote round.
If you can get Blackhole Bullets in Canada, he makes a dandy 30gr. for 17's.