Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber - How they can build the "perfect" hunting rifle.

The 18” Fieldcrafts are perfect for me

My idea of perfect. Handles like a rapier!

WBY MK V Backcountry Titanium 2.0
6.5 RPM
Maven RS2 2x10x38



Always under .75" at 100. 127 LRX at 3150 plus FPS. Will do for just about everything

I feel you. I hate schitcans. Never gonna happen for me.

The "perfect" hunting rifle........

What's the old bromide.........

Opinions are like noses, everyone has one, many of them smell.

Not perfect, but mine.



Kimber Hunter, 280 AI, crowned/threaded @17", Dead Air Nomad 30 can

I own/have owned a bunch of different brands/calibers/styles.



Bolt actions......




Merkel B4 Bergstutzen, 223 Rem./30-06



Lyman Sharps, 45-70



Savage BA Stealth , 308 Win

AR-15, 223 Rem.



Browning M71, 348 Win.
Browning B-78, 300 H&H
Browning 63, 218 Bee




Browning BAR, 7mag.



H Burgsmuller & Sohn S x S double, 405 Winchester

Not one of them is/was perfect for any/every application.

JMHO.

GWB

Very nice collection of rifles there. I like the Hunter in 280ai. I had a Montana in 280ai once upon a time. I wish I had kept it, but at the time I was somewhat frustrated with the lack of quick expansion on lighter pigs from 160 grain partitions (I know, too heavily constructed of a bullet. Would use 180 ELD-M's now) and chasing what I perceived as expensive brass. You should take a look at some of the lighter titanium cans out now. My buddy has the nomad and I have shot with it. The Scythe is much lighter and performs better to my ear. Despite my request to Kimber being to make rifles geared to smaller cartridges, the 280ai would be nice for them to offer in the Hunter again. I really don't like being limited to choosing between the 6.5 and 308.

If it's a kimber. Their QC needs to be more consistent

That may be true. I’ve read that for years and never had an issue with their handguns or long guns.

Either way, they have the market cornered currently on new production lightweight (under 6 lbs) , stainless, hunting rifles in the $1500 +/- ballpark. You can get a used one for $1200.

Just picked this one up yesterday and got it sighted in this afternoon. About to take it out and see what I can kill. Going to use the Barnes 110 TAC-TX. Adirondack 300 blackout with a Kahles 2-7 and circle plex reticle.

Not going to say there aren’t QC issues possible, but I wonder how often they get a bad reputation on the internet simply because rifles that light are hard to shoot well.

You’re not. Buy a used Kimber and rebarrel to whatever you want.
FWIW, I had a couple Kimbers put together similar to yours, about 8-10 years ago. Very effective prescription for a suppressed hunting rifle.

It is definitely a nice recipe. Even nicer with the suppressor options available now.

However, a rebarrel can’t get you everywhere I’d like to go. A .473 bolt face will not allow for an ARC build. It would also be nice to not have to send it to a gunsmith but just buy it as I think its effectiveness justifies it being a factory option. I could also have Stuart Satterlee machine me a custom mini-Mauser out of titanium to have exactly what I want, same as he is doing for me now with a 300 H&H, but that is also significantly more money and years of waiting.

The 6mm creedmoor I want could be done with a rebarrel though. The action I have at a gunsmith could end up as that. I’m still undecided.

No pigs this evening, but the blackout was blooded.

My 6BR Montucky is one of my favorite rifles of ALL time. Hint…………..

Is the feeding hard to get worked out for the BR cartridges on the Kimbers? I was concerned that would be difficult. I was considering a 30 BR before I found the 300 blackout. Also was thinking a 6mm GT with the 109 grain ELD-M’s could be an option for that other action.

The Gay Tiger will be fine,in issued guise. Hint.

For a Montucky BR I prefer a Reverse Bryant. Shim the fore of the mag and keep caseheads riding high in relation to boltface,in the stern. Hint.

I like aluminum and shape it as a pre-feedramp funnel. Hint.

Tough to post pictures from the tarmac. Hint……….

Help for the slow kid please;
This interests me. Are you shimming the front of the box so that the CRF Extractor can catch the rim better while further back (that momentary pause between bolt going back then forward)? ...compared to Mike's pushfeed Rem box modification that needs to hold onto the BR case as long as possible as it's fed?

For me... the Kimber roulette is a real thing.
Bought my boy the Hunter in 6.5
Had to send it back in and have the chamber repolished as it would scratch/ gouge the brass. It's also a Very tight chamber to where I Had to get small base dies. My tikkas shoot better and are less finicky.
To each his own.

I’m a Winchester CRF guy, but the thing I like about these Kimbers is that you can actually have CRF in a tremendously lighter rifle. Just look at the bolts back to back, it’s shocking how much smaller and lighter they are, a lot less material. Yes, the Winchester classic or pre64 is a smoother action, but maybe there’s some hope for that in the future. That said my next rifle will most likely be one of these Kimbers, QC be danmed, there’s always gunsmiths happy to help. Still trying to decide if I wanna copy OP’s rifle or play with another cartridge. Either way it’ll be closer to what I wanna see.

6creedmore is very interesting, and has a lot of great attributes especially with kids (16” 6creed will probably best the velocity of my 6arc 20”), but I keep having intrusive thoughts about a 358 16” and a YHM R9 suppressor. I need to sit and think on this for a few months maybe.

That's absolutely not my experience.

Just shot my Kimber in .257 Roberts. Its accuracy has greatly been improved once I found a problem with the stock touching the barrel and fixed it. Went from 3" gun to under an inch for most loads tested. As far as smoothness of the action goes it is very smooth, but I don't think it is better than my pre64s. They are like butter. I would have to have both out at the same time to confirm that.