Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber Hunter vs Montana

+1 end user who appreciates your efforts MCMXI!

I have the 6.5 Creed Hunter & am loving it.

Did remove the gel & bed the recoil lug & first couple inches of barrel.
I also installed a 9” carbon fiber tube & Acraglas into the forearm, which in my case made it stiff enough that I couldn’t easily squeeze the forearm & barrel together with my relatively weak fist. Relocated the front sling swivel lug to the tip of the forearm while I was at it. Now the swivel lug never impacts my hand.

None of that diminishes the excellence of your design! Way less “tuning” work than any other polymer stock I’ve ever dealt with. I usually just throw ‘em out.
In fact, I expected to do just that when I bought this gun, but was very pleasantly surprised.

THANKS!

Love hearing the background on these things.
Thanks for taking the time to share!

Thanks again. I wonder how much of the movement was the barrel flexing and how much was the stock flexing. If you ever want to add rubber back it's a product called PT-FLEX 60. It took a while to find a solution that would add weight, damp vibration, couldn't shoot loose, couldn't be "easily" removed and didn't cost much. It adds $4 to $5 to the cost of the stock.

AlI I know for sure is the before & after;

Before, they could easily be squeezed together & after, they couldn’t.
The “couple inches out” of bedding did provide a platform which reduced the length available for either barrel or forearm to meet each other. Did eliminate some weird flyers.

Would you personally leave the PT-Flex in a Hunter stock?

It's hard to argue with empirical data.

I was never in favor of adding weight to the Hunter stock or doing anything to make the Hunter less than the Montana but I was in the minority. I wanted to dampen the stock if possible, but not necessarily at the expense of adding weight. That said, the dense rubber does reduce some flex in the stock under recoil, and when the vendor moved all of the rubber to the butt cavity a couple of years ago i.e. removed the "window" between the butt and wrist, it improved accuracy/precision by a few tenths at least. My explanation for this is that the wrist is already stiff due to wall thickness and geometry whereas the butt is nowhere near as stiff. So adding all 8oz of the rubber to the butt cavity increases the amount if support inside the butt and reduces stock flex under recoil. Personally I wouldn't remove the rubber because there are some advantages to it being there, and I'm not fanatical about the overall weight.

The reason why the vendor wanted to close up the window between the wrist and butt cavities is so that they could ultrasonically weld on the grip cap prior to adding the PT-FLEX 60. The grip cap on the Hunter was supposed to be a SHOT show thing only due to a very tight timeline but years later it's still there. I had nice domed shaped grip caps with logos modeled and quoted but never could get anyone to sign off on the upgrade.

Here are a couple of the 84M Hunter .223 Rem prototype magazines (3D printed parts) that worked well. They're shown with a 55gr Remington factory load and an 80gr A-MAX handload. The Hunter magazine parts are all nylon 6,6 and the insert would have been made from the same material. If someone had access to a 3D printer it wouldn't be impossible to build a Hunter in .223 Rem. It was frustrating to know that it would have been "cheap" to introduce an 84M Hunter in .223 Rem. It would only have required a new barrel, magazine follower and magazine insert with virtually no risk. The only tooling costs would have been new molds for the follower and insert which are relatively cheap. The only likely complaint would have been that the bolt travel was longer than necessary since it would have been built on the standard 84M receiver.

Too bad they wouldn’t listen. That sure would’ve been cool.

Tag

IMO, it was/is super foolish to not allow the adoption of the .223 to the 84M platform.

Fast twist with ample magazine length on the 84M is an easy sell - and it sounds like it's an easy transition for the company.... I'd drop whatever I was doing and buy one of those in a heartbeat!

There's a lot of money changing hands every year to create custom rifles with these very features.

I HOPE the Kimber folks are paying attention....

They did offer a 223 Rem in an 84M
You must be referring to current offerings. I have handled one in a Classic Select. It was a sexy MFer too

Good catch.

Yeah, I should have said "Hunter" platform, as they did chamber the Montana and still chamber a Pro Varmint model. I was not aware that they chambered the Classic Select in .223, once upon a time.

The price tag says "Montana", but the rifle say 84L = Hunter.

That rifle cost $839 at a gun store.

It costs me a lot more than that to build a rifle on pre 64 M70 action.

And the Kimber 280AI shoots better than rifles I build at that weight.

tag

They made 223 Classic Selects.

Speaking of Kimber Montanas, I am a fan. I've got a few, and am looking for a couple more in certain calibers.

We known specific calibers have been inexplicably discontinued - .25-06 and .223 are just two examples. But, lately, I hardly see any Montanas available in any caliber. That's for both new and used. What's up with that? Covid? The move to Alabama? Kimber is phasing them out? Something else? Anyone know?

As far as seems apparent, they have no particular concern for the customer. They have very good rifles, but don't have a clue how to operate a business.

I called the closest Kimber master dealer and was told the Montana has been discontinued. I was really disappointed, but I found a used one in .260 Remington, which is on its way to me. Now all I need is bullets!

what could have been.... a fast twist 223 84m with room in the mag box.

buncha clowns running the place by the sounds of it

84L is just a long action, while 84M is their short action. The rifle pictured has a Montana stock and appears to be a Kimber Montana not a Kimber Hunter.

I’m amazed that something so obvious and so easily obtained, is being frivolous cast aside.....?

Toss a few samples in outdoor writers hands and watch the rave reviews roll in.

Sales would be screaming for more inventorying!