Ho-Hum Kimber accuracy.....Updated with long range report

brdeano

brdeano

New member
I picked up a Kimber 84M 22-250 awhile back....for dirt cheap, I should add. Talking new savage prices here. Anyway, after picking it up and playing around with it, it was plain to see why the original owner sold it so cheap. Meanwhile, he was laughing his way to the bank with a few crisp $100 bill's in his hand and I was left looking the rifle over. When I went to shoot it...accuracy was dismal. We're talkin' 2-3" 3shot groups. I looked at it a little harder and seen that the stock was touching the barrel on the right side of the rifle the whole length of the forend.

Here's a picture of the rifle.

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I pulled the barreld action and dicked around with the trigger, soon it was breaking at 3# with zero creep. I opened up the barrel channel to relieve all of the pressure on the barrel. Since it was all apart, a bedding job was a no brainer. Bedded the action and the first 1.5" of barrel and then slapped it all back together the next day. Finally found some free time this week to put a few rounds through it to see just what kind of improvements the "work" did for it. I was happy to say the least.

Here is a group it shot when I bought it...standard load of 36gr. of Varget under a 50 V-Max kissing the lands.

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Same load, after addressing the issues.

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I know they're only 3 shot groups, but I'll stretch it out to 500yds on Monday to see just how well they'll hold up. Long story short, the dude who sold it to me is probably still smiling over the deal....as am I. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Kimber's....sheesh. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Awesome work and sounds like a great buy. Oh and by the way the gun looks awesome. Congrats on the new addition to your family of guns.
 
This sort of thing happens all the time when it comes to bedding. I wish I could find a Kimber LongMaster for 3-4 hundred bucks like that one. Nice Going!
 
That goes to show ya... one man's junk is another man's treasure! All it needed was a little work and you have a tack driver! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
brdeano,

Congratulations on the bargain Kimber and my hats off to you on your skilled work.

I have some Kimbers and I too had accuracy difficulties with them along with feeding problems.

One of mine had a burr in the barrel that Kimber refused to fix. I sold that 260 Classic. The next, a 7-08 Classic, had feeding problems and since its an early one I brought it to the Yonkers plant to have it fixed and a three position safety added. That rifle shoots well now after the right screw tension was found for the guard screws.

I did break the corner on a crown on the 270 WSM Montana. No matter what it would not group until that was done.

All in all I like the Kimbers as I want and need lighter rifles now due to my age.
 
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Why would they let something like that go out the door....



Every gun manufacture is pressured to get product to waiting retailers. Before it was all smaller "mom & pop" shops, but now it is huge retail giants (Bass Pro, Sportsman's Warehouse, etc...) The big retailers have laid the smackdown on the smaller shops for years. With the smaller shops gone the larger retailers demand delivery and get it! Not to mention manufactures are now pushed to make firearms for double the stores they had to before. Unlike the smaller stores the large retailers want the product "in stock"... they don't want to have to order it from the wholesalers. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
I kinda agree, with predburner. For the money that brought new it shouldn't have needed any work at all. Thats a shame.
There are people out there who don't wanna work on rifles to make them shoot. "Not saying I mind a little tinker".
But they wanna pay a premium price for a premium rifle thats ready to go when they bring it home. I always thought that was what Kimber built their reputation on?
 
That rifle was probably 5 years old and has a very low serial numner. The guy I bought it from said he never used it much and it just sat in the safe. I guess that it's possible that it didn't leave the factory like that and the forend warped over time...I don't really know, but would like to think that it didn't leave the factory like that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

Thanks for the comments, I'm pretty happy with it right now. If it hold's up to Minute of groundhog to 400yards tomorrow, I'll be VERY happy!!! I'll run it out as far as I can until the wind eats me up. I'll let you guy's know how it does.
 
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That's a great looking rifle and now a shooter too. You should show the targets to the guy that sold the rifle.




But do not tell him about the bedding or trigger adjustment. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Just let him think he can't shoot worth squat /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
I'd be tempted to show him the target and complain about the accuracy and see if he had ever had that problem with it....Then let him walk away shaking his head wondering what kind of "good" group you expect... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Ok guys...SuperSeal110 and I made it out today to pop some primers. The little Kimber has impressed me, it won't be for sale any time soon. Groups at 2, 3, and 400 were pretty darn good considering I'm running 50V-max's and their issued BC isn't the greatest. I did snap a few pics of how they shot at 5, 6, and 700 yards and most all guys know how those low BC bullets do at those kind of distances. They held some suprisingly accurate groups given the conditions, and their limitations. You can see in all the pics that the groups are just about all strung horizontal with the wind. I topped that rifle with a VX-II 3-9x40 w/M1 turrets so those targets weren't very big at only 9X...plus not being able to dial out parallax didn't help any. All in all, this rifle is joy to shoot.

500 yards.

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600 yards, with a can of paint for perspective.

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700 yards. I was over on the left side of the steel, rather than centered, but that is probably quite a bit farther than these 50grnr's are meant to be shot.

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