Anyone have any first hand experience with this newer Kimber rifle? Range reports?
No haters comments please, just real experience
In mid July I shot 32 5-shot groups at 100 yards with a Kimber Open Country using four different types of Hornady ammunition. I shot the loads in the order shown in the table below starting with the 120gr and ending with 147gr and no suppressor. The rifle started out NIB, I cleaned the barrel between the different loads using a foaming bore cleaner followed by alchohol soaked patches followed by a dry patch. I saw no significant difference to the POA/POI with a cold, clean bore or a hot, fouled bore. The rifle weighs under 7lb without a scope.
I would like to have five or six shots back from the 160 rounds fired but overall the results were decent with only 5 groups of 32 over 1 moa with the worst being 1.262 moa. The Open Country would really shine with a handload using Lapua brass, H4350 and a 140gr ELD-X bullet. Maybe bedding the recoil lug would help too but I've never found a stock Kimber that I couldn't get to shoot in the sub 0.7 moa range with handloads (5-shot groups) so it's not something I'd do on principle.
I have photos of all of the test targets and can post if necessary.