Had my Kimber Montana rebarrled from 358 win to Lilja barrel 6.5 Creedmoor since I was already setup for handloading that and I can suppress it which means I can work up loads at home.

So now it’s 4.1 pounds naked and 5.2 pounds with a 3-10 weaver on it. And just under 6 pounds suppressed.





Anyways just getting it zeroed and burning up the rest of a box (11 shots in all) of factory 143 eldx.


First shot after boresight was far right. Measured in reticle and adjusted for three more.

Over corrected an extra .1 mil on the top left but still grouped those 7 shots very well. Of course the factory 143s are lumbering along at 2465 fps out of the 16.25” barrel. I am hoping to get 147s to 2600 fps or so with a little handloading and just as good of accuracy....time will tell.

I will say this is thus far the most accurate Kimber I have had no doubt and should be a perfect sub 500 yard hunting rifle.

The practical side of me says just buy a pile of factory ammo. The tinkerer says we can do just as good only faster if I handloads . Luckily I can always default back to practical.

If thats the best it will shoot Your obviously not holding that light rifle right....😁.......nice shooting!.....Hb

Pretty damn sweet.

What brand is the stock and who did the fitting?

nice work especially considering how light that gun is. It takes a little more focus for me to shoot the lightweights as well as say a 8 or 9 lb gun. Have you had the chance to take a look at the rifling inside that barrel? Id be curious to see what their finish work looks like.

Wow! What all have you done to it to lighten it up?

Very nice. Barrel length?

@4.1 lbs ..You might just have the lightest rifle on the campfire...

Nice shooting!

Wheres that 358 barrel????


=]

Dayum, that shoots fair good IMO.

I have one of those mutant light rifles with a plastic stock that does OK, but it's maybe a little heavier? Longer barrel and it only has a Weaver K2.5 from El Paso; weighs about 5.5# (loaded). Oh yeah, it's a .30-30.

And what would ya take for it? PM Me

That is crazy lite! My Forbes 260 hits 6.4 with a Leupold 3.5x10 CDS, and I think that is a tough critter to shoot well from the bench. Can't imagine trying to hold that wisp steady. Nice work, Sir!

Kaiser Norton

Nice!!! Whose barrel did you use?

16 inch barrel?

Jerry

Hey Luke,

What can is that?

That thing is ridiculous.

Not just "ridiculous", pretty bad azzed as well.

It’s an MPI microlight. Last Frontier Custom guns did the inletting and bedding.

This one is finished at 16.5”.

Likley be up for sale along with a bunch of brass and bullets here soon.

Very well done!!! Always fun to see it fall together no doubt.

This is a lilja barrel with the slightly heavier contour than OEM Kimber barrel.

Reamed and fitting was done by Alyeska Precision.

Rarely do I shoot from a bench anymore. Off a bipod, bags, or pack prone is how I work up loads anymore. I agree you def have to have your form and sun here dialed in to consistently make a lightweight rifle shoot.

Haha back when it was a 358 win it weighed just over 3.5 pounds and 4.3 pounds with a leupold 2-7 on it.

Did a bit of shooting and loading yesterday.

147s and 143s at 2565 fps both sub MOA for 5 shots.

130s at 2750 fps

Likely just roll with the 147s as 2565 fps MV isn’t exactly taxing any bullet and it stays over 1800 fps way beyond where I have any biz hunting with such a lightweight rig.

Hope to see how they work in a Grizzly this summer.

You are certainly set with your 338-06 and 6.5 creed lightweights.

Thanks, thats what I thought, What is the weight of just the stock?

My very light custom .284 (5.7 lbs scoped) also doesn’t shoot very well...just like yours. Was it T Whelen who said “only accurate rifles are interesting?” How about very light, accurate rifles?

What, no 358 anymore? That was a pretty sweet gun.

Not sure if this qualifies as light...8.15lb as pictured.

Tikka 6.5CM in a Southfort Labs Carbon Stock, Bushnell 4.5-18 LRTSi, 20' barrel. 147gr ELD Handloads at 2650fps.
Three shots holding .3 Moa @ 500 meters.

Basically cause I couldn’t shoot it at my house due to not being able to suppress it. I like having rifles I can shoot and tweak loads at the house so that’s why I went that route.

358 win is a fun great round no doubt but setup like this it’ll simply get shot more.

Nice!! I would like to hear about your setup no doubt.

Very nice!! It’s all a sliding scale. Compared to my rifle above yours is over 50% heavier Compared to my 7 wsm chassis rifle with 27” barrel and 7-35 NF aim it yours is almost 4 pounds lighter.

That said I have a 300 wsm tikka in the same stock as yours and it is 8.2 pounds with a NF 4-16 on it as well.

Light is relative as this 6.5 cm above was legit 3 pounds 9 oz before optics and 4.4 pounds scoped so like I said it’s all a sliding scale.