Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Kimber Montana rifle construction.

These rifles intrigue me and seem to be a well made, but "too" light of a rifle. So where is the weight savings? Pot metal bottom metal? Cast aluminum trigger? I am interested in buying a Montana in .30-06. I have not been able to handle these, due to nobody selling them in my area. So I am going off the current owners here. Are the triggers good? Bedding good? I am not interested in a pissing match between brands, just honest feedback on the CFR feed, and function of the Montana. I am NOT interested in a Model 70, Ruger (heaven forbid) or any other CFR rifle, only the Montana for now. Flinch

Weight savings through light contour barrel, slim/round action, action and bolt sized to the round, lightweight stock, blind mag.

Everything is scaled down on the 84M. Unless you see it side by side it's hard to notice. The trigger is fantastic! Stock is also very light. I had to just go for it since there were non available to handle locally. I have been pleased far more than I imagined.

Kimber uses a lot of MIM but that does not reduce weight. There is no pot metal in a Kimber. They have a very good trigger and the bedding is good.

No. The materials have not been sacrificed.

Here is a link to an article that explains it very well:

American Rifleman Article

This is an excerpt from the article. Note that the article is reviewing the wood-stocked 84L Classic, and not the synthetic stocked Montana which is about 8 ounces lighter IIRC. The red text is the key:

"For decades the gold standard in American factory-made .30-�06 Sprg. rifles has been the Model 70 Featherweight introduced in 1952. Winchester trimmed up the stock, employed aluminum alloy bottom metal and lopped 2 inches off the barrel to get a nominal half-pound savings in weight. The long action used for .30-�06 Sprg. Featherweights was the same used for larger cartridges up to and including .458 Win. Mag. As graceful as they are, Featherweights still use full-size receivers and full-diameter bolts. It�s not so much pounds and ounces that set the Featherweight apart so much as its lines, especially its slim stock and Schnabel fore-end tip.

A team of Kimber engineers picked up where the Model 84M left off, basically stretching the action, bolt and other components 0.52 inches into a long action with a 3.174-inch-long ejection port. The 84L�s receiver is 8 5/16 inches from the receiver ring�s front to the end of the tang and 1.14 inches in diameter, while a current Model 70�s action is 9.25 inches long, and its receiver measures 1.34 inches in diameter at its narrowest point. The 84L�s cylindrical bolt body measures 0.58 inches in diameter and is 6.54 inches long. Not to pick on the �Rifleman�s Rifle� too much, but a current-production Model 70 .30-�06 Sprg. bolt weighs 14 ounces, measures 7.51 inches long, and its body is 0.705 inches in diameter. The weight of the 84L�s bolt is 9 ounces on the nose, which equates to a weight savings of 5 ounces for the bolt alone. The weight of the 24-inch-barreled 84L Classic Select sample rifle was 6 pounds, 2 ounces, without a scope, rings or bases, and equipped with a Leupold VX-III 1.75-6X 32 mm scope, Leupold bases and rings, it weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces�less than most comparable factory rifles unscoped. In fairness to my friends at Winchester, to get a 6-pound, 4-ounce rifle (unscoped) in a .30-�06 Sprg. from Remington, the only option is the 24-inch-barreled Model 700 Alaskan Ti with a full-diameter titanium receiver, a full-diameter fluted bolt and a $2,225 price tag. Browning�s A-Bolt Mountain Ti (also with a full-size titanium receiver) with a 23-inch barrel comes in under the Kimber at 5 pounds, 8 ounces, but you can�t get it in .30-�06 Sprg. Priced at $1,979, it�s a WSM-only proposition. Due to the use of titanium, the receivers on both guns are lighter but larger than the Kimber."

The rifle was designed to use as little metal as possible in the action,bolt handle, barrel,etc. They use steel triggerguards as well. Mine is in 308 and weighed just a couple oz. over 5 lbs out of the box, just under 6 lbs with a Leupold 2.5-8X scope in Talley lightweight mounts. The 30-06 is built on a different action and would be several oz. heavier. The stocks are well designed and lightweight.

My trigger was good to go out of the box. As to being too light, maybe. My rifle serves a purpose and is the perfect choice for carrying all day in steep terrain. The rifle is plenty accurate, but I find it a little harder for me to shoot it as well as a rifle about 1 lb heavier. The Kimber will get the job done, I just have to concentrate and make sure I do my part.

I have a Classic in 270 win., that has the slickest CRF action I personally have ever had the pleasure of owning. The rifle is well made and shoots fine. You'll have no worries I would say with a montana. I would like to handle one myself.

I'm a Kimber fan. If you'll remember when their Custom Classic .45 came out, it was the first production gun that included most of the bells and whistles from the factory. I have one of the first pistols that I bought new, and it is still my favorite .45 and one of my most accurate.

The rifle is in the same class as far as I'm concerned. The short action Montana is the perfect mountain rifle and I'm lucky to have one in 257 Rbts. And I can only imagine that the long action will even be better.

BTW.....I thought Kimber had planned to make the 84L in 280AI??

+1 on what everyone else has already stated. Although, my experience has shown that the bedding and often the crown needs attention.

I've got a couple of em and IMO the Kevlar stock is the best I've seen in production rifles.....definitely better than the synthetic stock on my two Dakotas.

My long and persistent use of the Kimber rifles have convinced me they are the finest product made for the money. The lightweight design of the 84M, 84L and 8400 Montana WSM's
trump anything else available. Are they perfect? No. But in general you will get a good one that will last a long time.
The Montana version is about as "bomb proof" as you can get.
Many custom features for $1200 or so.

The Montana construction sucks, mainly whats it's lacking, is lefties....

Anyone out there LISTENING?

I bought a 270wsm from the classifieds here and like it more everytime I shoot it. About had it traded for a 708 mountain rifle and the guy backed out cause he couldn't hit the target at 100 yards. He also read where some don't shoot. He missed the target cause he had the turret a whole revolution off so...? Ive done no load work up really and have no trouble ringing the 300 yard target at home shot after shot. Just a plain good huntin rifle.

Montana's are good to go. I'd jump and not look back.
BTW, how's it been going?

A picture's worth...........

3 Short Actions with caliber and B/A weight.

L-R M7 6x45 (3.94), 84M Bob (3.30), Hawkeye 358 (4.34)




Note the Kimber is 2/3 lb lighter than the Rem though it has 2" more barrel.

Pete

Good pics. Kimber really did a great job designing and planning that action for what they wanted to achieve.

Good comparison...comparing the 84M to the Hawkeye, it looks like I could park a Buick in the ruger!..

Am I seeing things, or are the scope mount holes off-center on that Kimber? Probably just the angle of the photo.

I have 2 kimber rifles, an 84M Classic Varmint in .22-250 and an 8400 Classic in .300 WSM. Other than a few initial issues with the .22-250 (which were quickly and coureously corrected with a a phone call to the Custom Shop), I'm really impressed with 'em.

I think it's sitting on a slight angle.

B8

"It looks like I could park a Buick in the ruger!" And you would probably get a better product buying the Buick...lol. Nice photos!~ Flinch