To keep things in balance and perspective, I would like to know how many of you have Kimber rifles that shoot well?

I've had 9 and they all shot from good to great but I do understand that there have been some with problems but I would like to hear from those who've had positive experiences..................................DJ

I have a 84M Varmint 204 Ruger in my safe that can hit the quarter inch mark with a tailored load, no wind and a good shooter.

I don't really know if the barrel is good? Of course if you make anything it can turn out bad.

I've been real happy with an 8400 Montana in 30'06.

Shoots 5 shot groups into about 1.5 inches. First three typically about 1 inch. IMO, plenty accurate for a lightweight hunting gun!

My 308 shoots better than I can no issues what so ever.

Montana 300WSM. Shoots great!

Same here!

LA Montana in 25-06 was a shooter!

DJ-personally I've had one Montana in a 7 shorty mag, I only put about 200 rounds thru it but it sure appeared to have the goods to be a shooter.

Not enough rounds for me to judge a tube (I know I know that sounds weirdo but that's just me), but it sure seemed to be more than adequate.

Dober

84M Montana in 308, 3 shots, 100 yards, premium factory ammo. Consistent +/- 1 MOA precision under the same criteria, too.

My 300 montana shoots .75 if I do my part...

My Montana barrels were fine, both shooting three into 1-1.5" at 100.
Fine, I wish I could of said that about the rest of the rifle.

All three of my Kimber 8400's have good barrels as they're all MOA rifles.

Good barrel, bad crown = very fussy shooter on a 7-08 Classic.

Had it re-crowned with Brownell hand unit and now shoots sub-moa with variety of bullets.

My 2 shoot very well. 270wsm classic, 300wsm classic in both the wood stock and a montana stock. They both shoot less than an in. with multiple loads.

325 WSM Montana, great shooter.

-jeff

300WSM... 1 1/4 at 200 yards.... 1 inch at 100 yards...

The .260 Classic was my first. The stock came with large knots through the buttstock. The dealer got that replaced. Upon shooting it the barrel would not come clean. A local smith used his borescope and we could see burrs on tops of the lands. Seems the drill picked up a chip.

Kimber looked at the barrel and said that nothing was wrong with it, that it was fouling. I sold the rifle at a loss.

A 7-08 Classic was next. It was fussy with all loads but I touched up the crown and now its very accurate. This rifle was taken back to the factory for feeding problems and to add a three position safety. I have feeding problems with my other 84M's as well but not the 8400 WSM.

A 243 Montana was perfect out of the box. Then after good use it started thowing shots left and right. I tried various stock tensions with a torque driver and touching up the crown. This did not help. Now I have shimmed up the bedding with tape and its better but not proven.

The 270 WSM Montana was somewhat consistent as a 1.5 moa shooter. I hunted with it anyway but after touching up the crown its much better.

Like the other Montanas the stock guard screws will not stay tight. I have not figured this out yet.

A .308 Montana was sent back for poor groups. They sent me a target back showing small groups but they did not note that its a 50 yd target. This rifle shoots ok now considering its light weight. Of course I touched up the crown.

All in all I must be putting up with the Kimbers as they are light, have good triggers and have other features that I prefer.

I did have some contact with a person at Kimber but when he told me that the 260's barrel did not have a burr in it I stopped talking to him.

308 Montana shot great from the get-go

My Montana in 338 Fed puts EVERY shot into a hole less than .375".

300WSM classic, 1 inch or better with 180AB's and RL19, 1 inch with Hornady 180 Interloc and RL19, 1.5 inch or better with 150 speers and I cannot remember the powder.

7-08 and 300 WSM - both Montanas, both great shooters - did have some feeding issues on the 300, but got them sorted out.

DJ

300wsm 5 shot groups at 100 cover with a nickle.

Mine seems to do alright...........

My lord, there are some good shooting Kimbers out there after all!....grin

Light barrels don't shoot!

Yup!

300 wsm french walnut shoots almost everything 1.5" or less at 100yds. Several loads under and inch with 165 sierras or 150 ballistic tips both with IMR 4350 powders. Best 5 shot group so far is .68" at 100

84 Montana in .308 that was a good, but not great shooter. 1.5" or so with most factory ammo.

84 Montana in .243 that is a great shooter putting multiple factory loads well under an inch with some closer to .5".

Still awaiting judgment on the .260 I just got, but it's going to HCR and will be a shooter or I'll rebarrel it.

.308 out of the box was submoa, .260 groups were ugly but the components were fine, just crappy crown and bedding, both fixed and now submoa.

I have a Kimber Montana .300 WSM and it shoots great. Sub-MOA with 168 TSX.

Lou

Had no problem with any of my Kimbers - .308, 7mm-08, and 300 WSMs are all shooting well.

Like my Montana 7MM08!!!

i have an older kimber of oregon continental classic in 22 hornet that shoots like a house a fire...........

Both of mine shoot great.....308 montana and my new one. A 300 WSM in french walnut..I "wasted" my project funds money on it. It shoots factory Win. 180 Power points and Fed. 180 Accubonds under an inch. I put the Leupy B&C reticle on it and hits to 500 yards was mundane from the bench....


SC

My 300WSM shoots good .... normally the first two touching and the third spreading out to about an inch at 2 o'clock.

Add my name to the list! My Montana is a shooter....:GRIN:

I have an early 84 Classic (2 position safety) in 308 that is an exceptional shooter with everything I have tried. I also have a 270WSM Montana that was fussy with some loads at first and very inconsistent. After a re-crown job the rifle shoots very good 3/4-1 1/4" with any factory ammo I have played with, and is very consistent. The best part is sub 1/2" with RL-19 and 140 grain TBBC's at 3100 fps.

Well Guys,I'm jaded because mine had a bad barrel and a friend that bought a lot of them had bad barrels on some of his,and customer service treated me badly.Maybe it was the time frame of our rifles?? Anyway, sounds like alot of you are having good luck with yours and that's great. It is a neat platform. Good luck!!

It's a real Scientific test comparison but I think it's pretty clear from our results here that a lot more people on this forum feel they have good barrels from Kimber than have bad ones.

There are a couple things that I hope Kimber notices though. One is that a lot of guys are having to recrown their barrels to get the accuracy they want. IIRC the first person that tried this was our own Savage99. To me there isn't any excuse for these rifles to not have a perfect crown from the factory on each and every rifle. It's not that hard for them to get right, they should fix this issue immediately.
The second reoccuring issue is that a lot of shooters and needed to rebed their rifles. This is a little tougher issue. I know that with the Montana's they use a Mule action when they bed and so naturally manufacturing tolerances are going to end up with some rifle's not perfectly bedded. I think that individualy bedding each action might be tough to do in a production situation.

I think overall they are great rifles and I've had super good luck with them. I'd just like to see everyone have as good of luck as I've had.............................DJ

After all this time I am surprised that no one has figured out the fact that ALL of the Kimbers should have good barrels. If Kimber would get on the ball and upgrade their Quality Control to the level it should be for a $1000+ rifle we would not be having discussions like this on the forum. 'Nuff said.

Shot the Montana yesterday. Two different loads, factory 180 gr ballistic silver tips and hand loaded 168TSX's. both shot well under an inch at 100. my scope was crooked and i didn't stretch it out farther but i'll fix that today and hit the range on the weekend to see how it does to 550, that's the farthest i can shoot at the range.

You let Steely mount ur scope?



grin

i did it on the couch watching TV... i never mount them straight the first or second time...grins

You still talkin' about the scope Paul??????
Laughin'

Haha..BTDT Now I bring a tool kit with me whenever I go shooting for that reason.

i could have fixed it at the range but with all the idiots there i just wanted to shoot and leave!

TFF!

Enjoy your Tikka.

You just have to wonder, Vikings, Tikkas, what's next?

Do a search of this guys posts. He's as bad as E in the Optics Forum. He poopoos on every thread discussing Kimbers. I just don't understand people like that.

Clark98ut, There are 2 or 3 guys who will chime in on every Kimber thread and go on about how awful they are, I think most of us know them. On the other hand you can pretty much count on me and a couple other to chime in on the postive side.
Maybe it sorta balances out, or at least we all can try to be open minded. I've realized that not everyone has had as good of luck as I've had. Maybe others can realize that most of what they make is pretty darn good............................DJ

Well, I'm the new guy. Here's my Kimber 84 Montana story. I bought mine used about a month and a half ago from a friend. He wanted to buy one in .338 Federal and I never pass up a good deal on a .308. First off, I bought a set of Kimber bases because that was all that was available. Took it out to the range to sight it in and it was all over the place. I gave the scope the wiggle test and the whole front base lifted up off the rifle. Both screws had broken off. So I made a late night trip out too a gunsmith buddy of mines house (we're both night-owls, and if you want him to work on a rifle you're better off showing up at ten at night than 10 in the morning.) We removed the two broken screws from the reciever and decided to "rockwell" the head of one of them. It was around 65R, WAY too hard for a fastener in that application... Then we looked at the hole spacing on the base, WAY too far apart. So between the holes not being spaced correctly and the fasteners being too hard and brittle, we were amazed it made it 8 rounds before breaking.

Next day, back to the range. All was well, punched several one hole 3 round groups off the rest. So I put a sling on it and decided to work over a few gongs at the range. I stuffed 4 rounds in the mag and blazed away only to discover that it won't feed the 2nd round off the left hand side of the mag. So back to the gunsmiths it will go in the near future.

I'm a little pissed about the whole thing. It shoots great. But Kimber needs to tell whoever is manufacturing their bases to use real fasteners and watch their hole spacing. The not feeding thing can be fixed... But it should be done right at the factory the first time IMO

I think there should be a law that Montanas wear a set of Talley One-Piece Lightweight Rings/Bases.

DJ, I think you're right about some of us offsetting the badmouthers, I just don't understand how people that have never owned something will constantly badmouth it.

-Dan

My main point is that the level of Kimber's QC is not where it should be and as such is a disservice to customers buying their rifles. I think Kimber designs good riles but too many bad ones seem to make it out the door. Since I have worked in the manufacturing industry for 25 years I know pretty much what is going on at Kimber. At this time, they are probably selling guns as fast as they can make them. In this push to maximize revenue, QC is probably not where it should be. I have seen this before at companies where they just want get the product out the door and let customer service and the customer deal with the fallout. I have thought of buying a Kimber a few times but chose not to due to the negative QC issues I see on the forum. FYI I have one Tikka in 338 WM. My other rifles are Remington 700's and Weatherby's.

7 WSM 8400 Classic- bad barrel. Re barreled by kimber and shoots okay.

338 Win 8400 Classic- good barrel, bad crown, bad bedding, bad pillars. Nothing done by Kimber, fixed by Hill Country Rifles.

Ive only had one Kimber (so far). Its an 8400 Montana in 325 WSM. If it doesnt shoot into 3/4 inch at 100 with any decent handload its because I didnt do my part. It tends to shoot different bullet weights so close together up to 200 that I can interchange without making scope adjustments. This is rather handy when I want to slip into the dark timber and switch over from 180s to 220s. I'm happy.

None of my 3 Kimbers have been 'tack drivers' that is, sub 1/2 MOA at 100 yards, but on the other hand, none of them have shot 3-4 inch patterns like some folks have seen.
Mine have just been steady, one to one and a half inch rifles.

Don't know about my latest Kimber, a 308 Montana.
Poor thing still has not been shot as of yet!

I'm wondering how someone who owns Remington 700's can complain about Kimbers QC! ...........................DJ

Beargrease is right. Theres no reason for these Kimbers to leave their factory with such obvious faults. Theres no doubt that they need to improve their QC if they already havent. Bear in Fairbanks, one of the forum members (and a super nice guy) bought one of the Montanas in 270 WSM after reading many of the Happy Kimber owners posts (mine included) praising Kimbers on this forum, and teh idea that it may just be one of teh greatest packages for a high mountian sheep hunter. He spent endless amounts of time and money with factory ammo as well as many of his own handloads and just couldn't tighten up his groups only to find he has a bad barrel. IMO a fella shouldn't have to endure that kind of BS on a $1100 rifle that has had known QC issues for years now. But on the flip side I am glad as hell I got one of the good ones!...grin I would also buy another without blinking if it filled a niche.

Had one in 7/08 that wouldn't shoot anything well, meaning 1.5" or less. Contacted the factory and was brushed off. Polished the crown, rebedded and it was the same. Sold it and the new owner returned it to the factory twice. Shot worse when it was returned the second time. It has been sold again. Now another friend has the wood stock model in 7/08 and hasn't has anything less than 2.5".
I am glad some of you have Montana's that shoot but mine was not up to my standards. The factory is totally unconcerned. I can't see paying their price on what I consider a crap shoot and then spend more at Hill Country to correct the problems that shouldn't have been their to begin with. I was glad to find a Montana in 7/08 since that was the caliber I wanted and had planned to hunt with the rifle last deer season but after many range sessions and a few hundred rounds it was sold. Couple hundred more rounds and two trips to the factory, sold again. It still did not shoot. You'll can post all the good things about them and be critical of those who got bad ones but they do exisy and no amount of horn blowing will change that. They have a QC problem at Kimber and their customer service doesn't exist.Rick.

I agree Rick.


Jim

Here's how...

Remington Arms is ISO 9001 Certified. Kimber is not. Here is what ISO 9001 certification is.

ISO 9001 Certification is intended to tell purchasers that the certificate holder has a system in place to deliver consistent products and services, that it conducts periodic internal audits of its system to assure that its key processes are functioning as intended, that it has a system for preventive and corrective actions, for measuring its key processes and for determining customer satisfaction with an eye toward improving the overall management system.

By the way, FN who is manufacturing the new Winchester Model 70's, is also ISO 9001 Certified. If FN starts making a Stainless Featherweight the Kimber boys could be in trouble IMO.

What beargrease said +3. My Kimber Montana plus 2 more are at the gun doctor's right now needing new barrels. Found out yesterday he had just picked up the new Lilja barrel that's going on mine. No more Kimbers for me unless and until I KNOW they instituted a program commonly known as quality control. Glad to know at least some of you won the Kimber crap shoot.
Bear in Fairbanks

Check out the latest offering from Winchester(FN).

http://www.winchesterguns.com/prodinfo/catalog/detail.asp?cat_id=535&type_id=103&cat=001C

Not as light as a Montana but less of a crapshoot in the quality department.

Sorry but to me ISO 9001 certification means diddly-squat. Having owned more than a dozen Remington's and have worked on dozens more I know for a fact that those several dozen Remington 700's were not made to near the quality standards that the dozen or so Kimbers I've owned or had in my hands. I'm not saying that everyone's Kimbers have been perfect but they have been far better than most Remington's. Last time I went and checked several M-700's on the shelf at the local gunstore more than 1/2 wouldn't reset the sear if you lifted the bolt straight up and down!

I've also seen some excellent service from Kimber. My buddy bought an 8400 off the net with a Claro walnut stock. He sent it in because it wasn't shooting quite as well as he wanted and they replaced the Claro stock with the French Walnut stock on the bottom in this picture:



The same buddy had a 22-250 that was shooting just sub-MOA, he sent it in and they recrowned it and now it's a sub 1/2 MOA gun. My experience has been that Kimber's service has been excellent. If you have had negative responses from them perhaps it's a reflection of how you approached them..........................................DJ

I must be the luckiest guy in the world. Model 8400 300wsm, .204 varmint pro, Montana .243 and .270 wsm. I love them....Caprivi on the way, maybe I should cross my fingers? Why would I though? I have absolutely no reason to doubt the kimber products. They have been nothing but perfect for me, and that is all I have to go on.

Well, I was on their site last night looking for an e-mail adress for them. I noticed that they had a "career opportunities" link and lo and behold, right at the top of the list was "QC engineer."

The other thing you have to wonder... Why do they call all the stainless synthetic rifles the "Montana?" I live in Montana, same area where their sales office is, and I've known a few of their sales guys. Now this part of the country where you're just as likely to run into elk and bears as you are deer, about the only one you could call "The Montana" is the .338 Federal. They should call the .308 "The Ranch-Truck Dashboard Special" The 7-08 and .260 "The De-caff Deer and sheep Model" and the .243 "The Varmint Slayer."

I agree with what beargrease has stated above, however, ISO 9001 does not necessarily mean that the company is 'world class'. All it means is that they follow their own processes and have measures in place to ensure that they are producing firearms to their own specifications. It does not in any way reflect the quality of a product compared to another product.
A company with a superior design, superior processes, and tighter specifications may not have ISO certification. Another company with an inferior design, and looser tolerances would have an easier time getting ISO certified. In addition, ISO certification is optional and carries a lot of overhead that smaller companies may not bother with. I'm not implying anything specifically here, but just the ISO certification alone does not tell the whole story.

DJ, I approached them in a very professional manner and asked specific questions. They did not answer any of my questions and told me I wrote "a very intelligent letter". Then they gave me torque values that differed from those that were given to a friend of mine for the same make rifle. I had not asked for torque values. By the way the Kimber I had wouldn't cock on just opening and closing the bolt. That tells you nothing about quality of the product nor customer service.Rick.

DJ, I've gotta ask you! Do you work for Kimber or have some association with them????

What you say is true, but I have yet to see a company that would invest the time and money in ISO 9001 to ship substandard products out the door in todays competitive business environment.

Kimber Montana...

Nothing against the rifle but everytime I see it in print pornstar comes to mind.

Don't forget the .325 WSM Montana. That's a pretty potent round.

-jeff

Go down to the local walmart or gunshop and look at a few of the Remington 700's closely and you will have.........................DJ

None whatsoever, nor do I with Sako or Winchester, my other favorite rifles. I do however own several Kimbers all of which have shot well, some extremely well. I've also had nothing but good experiences from their customer service to me and my freinds that bought Kimbers after shooting mine. I just call it like I see it.
When I started this thread I wondered how long it would take Wiktor, and RickSmith to chime in about how rotten their experience with Kimber's was. But what you and a couple others maybe don't yet realize that although you had bad experiences with Kimbers doesn't mean that there aren't far more of us who have had good to great experiences with them..............................DJ

This is the same DJ that shoots factory ammo in his Kimber 7/08 since it will outshoot anything he has loaded. As posted in another thread in this forum. Yep, all great shooters. Maybe now is the time for someone to tell you you just don't know how to shoot light weight rifles or your reloading skills are up to par.

What you don't realize is that there are some of us that have had bad experience with Kimbers and their lack of customer service. No amount of Kimber praise from you or any of the others will change that experience. And yes I will continue to voice my dissatisfaction with Kimber. Glad you now know my name.Rick.

Yea my 7-08 isn't the only Kimber I've had that shot as well or better with factory ammo as anything I loaded for it. I had a 7 WSM that would shoot 160gr Accubond Federal Premiums into 3/4" groups at 200 yds. When factory ammo shoots that good I sometimes get less motivated to keep working on handloads. About the same thing with the 140 Fusions in the 7-08, they shoot 1/2 to 3/4" at 100yds and they aren't very expensive, so I moved on to another reloading project and haven't worried much about the 7-08.

And I do realize that some of you had a bad experience with Kimber. Get over it, life goes on, go buy another brand of rifle and be happy geez....................................DJ

I can vouge for that kind of experience, I played with so many different loads in my Kimber while handloading and though the groups were good, the bottom line is that the Federal 165TSX's will plain bug hole in my Kimber and I couldnt load anything that would group that tight. Under an inch @ 200 yards with factory ammo is hard to beat and I dont see the reasoning for trying to do so. The Federal 180 TSX's are also about as accurate as it gets, but the 165's are plain scary accurate.

Coming soon.....Kimber Montana Does DJ.

I am over it. Sold that rifle and moved on but can't let others think Kimbers are some kind of God sent rifle. As long as you and others sing their praise, I will give my opinion based on what I experienced. My biggest gripe with them was the total lack of customer service. I have had other rifles not shoot well but their makers made the situation right, plus I didn't pay much for them compared to the Kimber. Kimber did not offer anything useful. When the person that bought it from me sent it back to the factory twice and it shot worse, I have no praise for such.Rick.

+1!!!

Mine is still pissing me off. Yesterday at the range it put 3 rounds into a group of .348" center to center. And it won't feed at all now off the left hand side of the mag. Its not me, I've successfully loaded and unloaded several magizines in my life No matter how I load it, it doesn't work.

DanAdair, Sent mine back via the shop I bought it from and it came back in exactly 4 weeks with the left side feed problem completely fixed. Dudes there seemed nice enough. No, none of them asked the wife and I over for dinner but they did do the required work quickly. Any other issues I have with mine I'll handle myself. Give them a call.

Well, I bought mine used (ironically it was traded in on another Montana in 338 Federal.) After I bought it, I found out that it's first owner also sent it in to Kimber to fix a feeding problem (turns out its first owner works with my brother.) I'm hesitant to do so again. It's a weird sort of feeding problem. You can make it feed dummies all day long. I think what's happening is that under recoil the round creeps forward, the tip hits the feed ramp, lifts the nose, drops the back end, and then you have a "bolt over." If the feed ramp is hogged out too big, the only fix I can think of would be to start with another action, and hog it less. But then it might not shoot as well as it does

Ask my gunsmith, I always wind up with the basket cases.

I have seen more than one ISO9001 companies that produce products with poor quality. Just because it is documented does not mean it is right.

I ahve owned 5 or so kimbers in the last few years and still have three ( sold an oegon .338 and 22 Lr)

300 wsm montana likes pretty much everything i have ever fed it, worst groups were 180 Gr factories that consistantly went around 1 1/2" @100yds, it shoots amazing well with 150 NP handloads.

The girlfriends 308 montana shoots well under 1" with 150 Np handload pretty much daily

Kimber 84m 22-250 absolute tack driver no matter what i feed it, handloads with 50 gr vmax's go under 1/2" all day @ 100 yds and often much better

Never had one have to go back to kimber and am more then happy with all i have had

I think you can get bad samples of them all. Kimber puts their money in the action and stock, I am not sure about how much more they put in their barrels relative to Remington. I like the Kimber action, I guess the Remington action is fine but I kind of prefer the ejector on the Kimber. Someone told me that the 260 Rem when it came out had the wrong twist in the barrel and this one did not shoot well for any reason.

Mine's at the gunsmiths shop right now. He's really good with Mauser 98's and understands the CRF action pretty well. First he sat there and cycled in with some dummies I loaded up (didn't say anything) Then, he pulled it out of the stock, looked over things (didn't say anything.) Then he put three rounds in the now detached mag box (shook his head.) Then he put the box on the bottom of the action upside down in the vice, closed the bolt (lauging hysterically now.) Then he measured across where the action accepts the feed lips of the magazine with a set of calipers (now holding his gut and laughing even harder.) THEN he looks at me and says, "You'd think that for a 1100 dollar sporter they would have done something right..."

He gave me a grocery list of what needs to be done to make it feed, and took the time to show me what all was screwed up. The box is bowed inward in the middle (so no rounds loaded into the mag form an equilateral triangle, or rest without wanting to tip one way or the other), the feed lips are too tight (which is causing the RH side to make it "push feed" which I didn't even realize it was doing), where the feed lips come into the back of the action needs to be opened up slightly to allow more case head to come in contact with the bolt, the spring is too weak, AND the ejector is too long (so when you close the bolt it PUSHES the left hand rounds down at the back end .035-.045" on the LH side, it's at least .085" too long.) So I'll have another 150 bucks (at least) into this gun before its over. If it didn't punch nice tiny little groups, I would have unloaded it at the gunshow today and let somebody else have an 1100 dollar project. What kills me about this, Kimber designed this rifle to be a short action that ONLY fed .308 based cases. Mauser had like 28 different designs depending on who or what it was made for, and they didn't have CAD/CAM software back then and they all WORKED.

I'm not happy about it... This is NOT what I expected out of an 1100 dollar sporter. But then I was not expecting a factory de-caff rifle to put 5 rounds into one hole either. Its going to wind up being my go-to rifle. But I'll never buy another one. I'll build another Model 7, or put together a Montana Rifle Co. barreled action for not too much more money.

Dan...good post..thanks for going into detail

And having done that with an MRC short action I more feeding issues with it tan with my Kimber and the rifle weighs a lb and a half more, even with a McMillan Edge.

If Kimber had announced the .257 Roberts last year before I would have happily plunked money down on it vice having built one as the 84M in 7mm-08 I have I'm very happy with. Sorry for your troubles.

back in 1970 I bought my first new car and I paid about $2500.00 IIRC for a Ford Comet GT. How much did a Winchester model 70 cost in 1955, $100.00 if that?? $1100.00 seems like a lot these days based on what is left after Uncle Sam takes his portion and then filling up the family car for $60.00 a tank with Gasahol so the (subsidized with tax dollars already) farmers can get a taste of the energy money and so now we pay more for the pizza and more for fuel. However if you look at a Hein mauser type barreled action it is $2700.00 on their website, or look at the $3000 Kimber .375 H&H, this I think is more in line with the quality you would be expecting in a $1100.00 Kimber. Sadly we just cannot buy this quality anymore for $1100 American dollars. What do you figure Kimber makes on that rifle at $1100.00??? What do you think Remington makes on their rifles after you deduct cost of materials, labor, etc? You can bet that almost everyone in the firearms industry is makeing about the same margin. That is why we don't see Kevlar stocks on $600.00 Rugers! If I could send a note to Kimber management I would tell them to raise the price to $1350.00 and put a better barrel on the gun along with better bedding and adding a final QC step (or just 2 of the 3). A man that will pay $1100 will pay $1350 if the reviews are good, sadly Kimber needs to get that message.

For many of us in the US of A even the $1100.00 seems like a lot these days especially when you can buy an accurate, dependable, and perfectly good (but very heavy) Ruger for half that. For me I just don't want to think about what I am toteing around so I am willing to pay more for less weight as long as it works and works good. My one Kimber copy shoots and feeds well, and weights less than a Ruger. This is all I can ask of it for the money I spent on it.

I don't know whether mine was a bad barrel or other issues, but accuracy with multiple bullets/powder/seating depths was dismal. I sent it back to the factory. They did nothing to it. So I sold it and took a $400 bath. Won't happen to me again.

Ive a Kimber 84M LongMaster in 22/250. It shoots like a dream, little fouling, and cleans up in a snap.

Jimmy, thats a good point. I WOULD pay 1350 for that rifle that works 100% right out of the box. It never occoured to me. But still, no matter what the sticker says, they have QC issues.