Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles More Kimber Tales of Woe....

So its been a while since I heard anybody hacking on Kimber's piss poor QC lately. So I thought I'd tell you all about what a diss-satisfied customer I've been since the Big D. All I do is hunt and [bleep] off in the woods.

Most that know me on the campfire know the history of my 308. We got off to a rocky start, as it had some feeding issues that went unresolved by Kimber. At MY choice, I took it to my gunsmith guru of the CRF (he came up in the acedemy with D'Arcy, Tommy Burgess, and a few others) Anyhow, he built me a stainless mag box, that was windowed, and used a follower and spring from a Howa 1500 (although softened considerably) and did a couple other tricks of the trade.... This left me with a sub 7 pound "all up" hunting rifle that STILL after 18 Lbs of Varget has been down the tube did THIS today in a 20 MPH sustained wind while developing a load with a 165 NABs. I'm switching to NABs instead of Partitions because I feel like I've been sodomized worse by paying 40 bucks for a box of NPTs than when i pay 2.95 a gallon for gas...



Its been a while since I hung a pic of my Montana Express (I don't leave home without it )

Since the Big D, I pared down the arsenal quite a bit. Both because I needed to pay legal fees, and because I was starting to wonder if I owned that schit, or that schit owned me. So, I had a set of spare Talley LWs in Low, and a 2-7 Loopy with the LR duplex. I also quit using the Turner 1903 and went with the latigo. I'm just as lethal prone with either sling out to 450 prone, and that's all the farther I expect to whack schit with a 308 (and Elk will be inside 350 or it ain't happening)

So then my buddy Ed, longtime hunting buddy and serious rifleman decided he needed a new hunting rifle after this trip into some back country somewhere in NW Montana. It was October and it pissed down rain for a couple days (which tends to make blued/walnut get rusty and crusty) Ed is a serious collector of military rifles, he's a professional soldier. He also shoots Highpower (used to shoot IPSC and IDPA with me) and is part Mountain Goat.

Ed looking back down the 4500' elevation change we make in 1/2 mile

A couple camps over the season


Country from our weeklong trip in October

[img]http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL152/10882229/20647066/395250949.jpg[/img]
[img]http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL152/10882229/20647066/395250960.jpg[/img]
[img]http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL152/10882229/20647066/395250960.jpg[/img]
[img]http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL152/10882229/20647066/395250971.jpg[/img]


Ten pic cap and all...... This concludes part 1... I'm working on part 2

One more of the country I hunt and call home.

Wonder why they call them slides???




So Ed is clearly "qualified" and has a lot more time in the field using and abusing schit than many I know, and his Warrant Officer background can make for some For Real Logic at times. So Ed called me on the phone and asked me one day "Dude, if you were going to buy JUST ONE rifle to hunt everything in the state of Montana from Lopers to Black Bears and Elk (and we trip over an occasional Grizzly Bear that goes 9' or better) what would you get?" Its not uncommon to see this around camp.


So I told him I'd take a serious look at a Kimber Montana, and said I was planning on holding out for one of the new LAs in 30-06. True to Ed style, he calls me the next day... "Bro, I just bought a used Montana in 338 WM with a brake on it for 8 bills shipped..." I was hoping that the brake told the story. Like it was a bit chippy without one, and too loud for its previous owner with one. I was really hoping that it wasn't a basketcase....

Turns out that 8400 338WMs are a big ass gun. Here's the two in the rack at the range today. Two "Working Girls" in the land of Sluts

Eds rifle is clearly junk... 3rd powder we tried under 225 NABs was IMR4831 @ 71 grains even for 2844 AVG with spreads in the teens (using WW brass sized to headspace on the shoulder and FED215Ms)

Today at the range it was 25 degrees with a sustained wind speed of 20 MPH most of the day. We had gusts that were snapping off lodgepole. Witches tits are warmer We had on all the clothes I had in my truck, and I'm a professional millbilly. I've had to shovel off debarker decks in 50 below to get schit working. I live in my truck, I swear. The joke today is that we were doing paperwork at the air conditioned office... The bench became "The Desk Job" and the truck (which was running with the heater on full blast) was "The Break Room"

[img]http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL152/10882229/20647066/395250818.jpg[/img]

Clearly they need to get their schit together over there at Kimber... Ed's looking forward to beating the schit out of his Kimber as much as I HAVE enjoved beating the schit out of mine

Oh....

The 165 NABs load work up got interesting. I ended up stopping at 44.5 grains of Varget over Federal 210Ms in Lapua brass at 2.807 OAL, it was clearly right at the top of a "node" and produced a velocity of 2722 AVG with a spread in the single digits. The second group in the wind where I tried to break the shots in the same conditions was right at a half inch CTC.

I ended up quitting on RL15.... Everything else the same, and 44 grains even only went 2612. The RL15 was new stuff (date code said it was about 4 months old)

Looks like a good time. Good lookin' rifles.

Looks like a great time. Whats with all the dead timber? it looks like pics I've seen of Mount St. Helens, My uncle was near there when it blew up, said it was a real mess for miles................Hillbilly.

Good stuff there Dano.

A 308 MT is one of the smartest rifles a guy can buy off the shelf...

The new style feedramp makes feeding most excellent off the shelf.

Too funny and from all angles!.................

Keep telling yourself the feedramp wasn't changed to a shallower degree for a reason... too funny from all angles!...............

Admittedly,I'll never be able to shoot any of mine,without laughing in your honor.

Funniest schit I've ever heard!..................

You keep telling yourself that...

I needn't reiterate reality,but feel free to beat the Fantasy drum................

Dan,

You forgot to post pictures of the animals you killed this year.

The self-deluded are fascinating to watch... keep lying to yourself publicly. I'm too kind to shoot a man hanging himself.............

Feel free to cite how slowly and poorly an early serial number Montucky will shoot,in accordance to the findings of your "profound experience" and "knowledge" upon this matter and I'll happily cook you Crow until you are tired of eating it.

'Course I'll make it look easy too,if only because it is.

Fire up that Imagination Tinkerbell and shoot for the stars!

Laffin'!...............

Still curious to know how fast I can't shoot mine,as factored by your "experience".

Laffin'!....................

Your incessant public masturbation is sad to watch...

Your feigning a [bleep] clue about rifles,takes stupidity to new heights.

Cracks me up how you fight tooth and nail for a single glimmer of hope,but can't ever get there. I suggest you take notes and apply same.

Thank me later............

So why did Kimber re-design the feedramp, making it shallower by 10*?

Do tell...

DanAdair: Enjoyed the pictures of "Flathead" country!
I have done a lot of Hunting up in the Yaak to Eureka to Thomon Falls country. Lots of remote fun to be had up there.
And this - I learned long ago, that, which does not kill you ("Big D") makes you stronger!
And speaking of strong I got hung up on your super-human feat of strength wherein you "gained 4,500' of elevation in 1/2 mile" - or 2,640'!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy