Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Bedding a Kimber Montana...

I've not had great luck in the past with Kimber's sporter weight rifles, but in all fairness I've not given them a real opportunity either. In spite of my previous experiences, they just feel to darn good for me to ignore. I keep going back.....

I recently purchased a new Montana in 243 Winchester. After some load development, I have three bullets shooting fairly well. The 80TTSX, 95 NBT and 90gr Speer Deep Curl are averaging about 1.25" at 100.

One trait I've noticed is horizontal stringing -- all bullets are virtually at the same elevation, but 1.0 to 1.5 strings. Not all groups do this, some are triangles. I realize these groups are perfectly acceptable for hunting. My goal is to tweak this rifle to realize its true potential.

The action is a little "loose" in the stock and I feel that could be contributing to the horizontal strings. I'm planning to skim bed the action myself. Any tips, pictures or advice from any of you that have done this to a Montana would be appreciated. I'm assuming the tang and the lug are the only areas of interest? I've never bedded a rifle myself. I've always paid somebody to complete this task, but I have no doubt I can do it.

This isn't a Kimber bashing thread. I'd like to utilize advice from those who have "been there, done that" to maximize the potential of this particular rifle.

One more thing -- anyone ever full length bedded a Montana?

PM karnis. He can tell you everything you need to know.

And I'm pretty sure clark98ut full length bedded his 6mm rebarrel.

You could start by just bedding the lug area; that's pretty simple. Be sure to chip or sand off the gray paint on the inside... it's not something you want to stick bedding to. Also be sure to maintain the barrel float.

On a rifle that light I'm of the opinion that the trigger should be very light too FWIW.

Good luck!

After messing with the Forbes rifle, the full length bedding has peaked my interest. That rifle was dang accurate and it shot 130's/150's to almost the same point of impact.

Karnis responded to my PM and he was very helpful. I'm going to start the project tonight.

let us know how it works and what you do. I have a montana 270wsm that needs a little tweaking.

Dremel some material from the lug area. Slap a teaspoon of bedding in there, sit the action in it and electrical tape the action to the stock. Done.

Tune the trigger down to 1.5 pounds while youre in there and you're good to go.

I glassed my Montana a month ago with no improvement with a floated barrel the full length bed is next

Yep. Let us know.

The action is back in the stock. I followed instructions provided by Karnis. I'm just bedding the receiver/lug/shank for now. We'll see how it turns out.

I bedded a 300wsm, just the lug and tang. Took it from a 3" rifle to 1". Nothing I can tell you these guys havent. My only tip is to absolutely make sure you have enough release agent on the action.

I thought these things were reasonably well bedded from the factory. What am I missing? I am currently looking to get rid of a wood 84M for the purchase of a Montana in 308. I want it to shoot of course.

If I could ask..what did you find that made your decision to re-bed? A couple I've looked at were very well done from the factory.

The stocks are slave bedded -- not individually bedded to a specific action. In my case, the action had a little wiggle room in the stock. I wanted it to be stress free to optimize performance.

I bedded my .308, first, just the lug and the action (not the shank). It shot pretty good, but it shot better after I bedded two inches of the shank.

TAG

I want to follow up on this post. Karnis was a huge help with this project.

Before bedding. Although the factory job was smooth, I still had lots of wiggle room.



Etched the bedding with a Dremel tool and plugged the holes..



Applied tape and Acraglass gel...most of you that have done this before will recognize that I didn't use enough compound in areas needed...especially the lug!



This was my first attempt at bedding any rifle and It was far from stellar! Notice the lack of bedding in the lug area. The shank area was fine, but the receiver area was horrible.

I couldn't stand it, so I ground it all out the next night.



And this time it turned out much better!





I used more compound the second time. I had to Dremel a little overage from the mag well, but that was no biggie. I still have plenty of screw contact as well. I'm pretty happy with the results. I have a nice snug fit now. I'll shoot it this weekend and see how it does.

A big thanks to Karnis for all his help! Had he not been nice enough to exchange PM's, I would have probably made a big mess.

Nice. Shoot it!

What did you plug the holes with? How did you get it out of the screw threads?

Looks like a find job. Hope it shoots well enough for you.