Well I just bought me a Kimber of Oregon 375 H&H. I rarely see the quarter ribs with sights for sale. I'm paying $1750. Not sure if I got a good deal or not? Anyone who has a similar rifle or got a Kimber BGR 89 375 H&H a lot cheaper please feel free to chime in. Not sure how it will shoot next to my Win 70 Classic Safari 375 H&H.


Brad

The Oregon Kimbers were in general great rifles, ought to shoot well, all three of mine did.

@ $1750 ya dun good

Nice looking rifle ... is the wood light/blonde or just the lighting ..??

I have one with much better wood but no quarter rib sights. My stock and your metal work would be primo. My gun has always been 1.5" or better except with failsafes for some reason. I have the Kimber QR rings and a 1.5-5 Leupold on mine and love this gun. There was a problem with some of the extractors so James Wisner made me a new one and no more problems. My gun works best with RL 15. You bought a great gun at a good price. Have fun with it and don't full length resize the brass,

That's a very good price. I have never seen a 375 H&H (with or without Q rib) for much under $2,500. Most other chamberings will bring $1,500 - $1,800. Lou

Thanks so far for the input. I live in Oregon and I am excited about hunting with a made in Oregon rifle-Kimber, Made in Oregon Scope mounts-Warne and made in Oregon scope-leupold. Kinda of nice to have/had all these great companies locally.

Brad

Reminds me of of my Ruger .416 Rigby "Ol'Purple."
The bluing took differently on that heat treated action than it did on the barrel and quarter rib.
Plum purty!

Nice buy!

A good buy, but its not the Supergrade version. They sell for a few grand more, have better express sights, are square bridged (integral sight bases) and have much better wood. But, a decent rifle for the money paid. I have a Supergrade Hunter (Supergrade barreled action in a very nice factory made laminated stock ) in 300 Winny that I bought just before they went out of business. The Kimbers are starting to wain in pricing lately though and there are very good bargains to be had right now.

quote:

Reminds me of of my Ruger .416 Rigby "Ol'Purple."
The bluing took differently on that heat treated action than it did on the barrel and quarter rib.
Plum purty!

The bluing is blue to start with but the investment cast receiver ages to the Plum Brown color. Most investment cast parts do the same.

It has something to do with the metallurgy of the casting process.

My Ruger RSM is doing the same.

Nice rifle, I hope you have very good experiences with hunting him. You enjoy long and healthy.

Greetings,

That's a great looking BGR. I always wanted one but couldn't find one.
The RSM purpling is, I believe, due to silicon in the steel which makes for easier casting, see it on Kimber 22 rifle bottom metal also. This is attributed to Larry Wilson's book, "Ruger, The Man and His Guns". Cheers, Chris

I have seen some purple Whitworth/Yugoslavian Mauser actions too.
Are they cast also?
Thanks for the explanation of casting as a factor in this.

Lets see, if you had a custom build to those specifications you would be way way over 1750.00. Great looking rifle.

I know where there is a similar gun with the square bridge receiver and a shadow line cheekpiece (375) @ $2,800.00. I think you found a nice deal. I have two of these guns; I like both very much!

Thanks again for the input. I guess I just wanted a little nicer 375 than my stock Win 70 Safari Classic. I briefly considered the new Caprivi but I can't see going $2700 for a new Kimber. The Winchester is a real nice 375 however, the fit and finish are a little rough. It shoots straight and handles fine. A good friend of mine who runs a local machine shop told me the receivers came from precision cast parts here in Portland and that they should be quite strong. He has a kimber BGR 89 in 270 and is very pleased with it. I originally wanted an (Old model Original) Dakota 76 and saw an African 375 H&H slightly used change hands for 4k on the list a while back but I missed out on that deal. I think the kimber will work out just fine for now. The gun is on its way so I'll hopefully get a first hand look real soon. I'll call this one my Oregon born 375 H&H. Now that Remington has bought out Dakota I'm much happier that I bought this Kimber since, I know what I'm getting and where it came from.
Thanks Brad

Nice gun and a good buy. If you tire of the purple/plum color you can always have it rust blued and then it will match and not go back to purple.

Michael J

I have had a couple Sakos turn plum as well. I heard that it is caused by the bluing process. Lou

Michael:

Whats involved in the rust bluing process? Do they reblue the whole gun or just the receiver ? How much do you think it would cost? Not sure how it would affect the value of the gun? If I really like it I might go forward with the blueing and maybe darken up the stock a little. Just a thought? I won't mess with it unless I plan to keep it forever, I and don't care about resale at that point.

Thanks Brad

Brad,
You would do the whole gun so you would have a uniform finish. It would run between $250-400 depending on who you used. And it would not hurt the value if done correctly. It is the finish on most custom Guns and is more durable than the hot blue on most factory rifles and when done correctly is quite handsome. Hope this helps.

Michael J

Michael:

Thanks for the info. I think for the time being I'll just hunt with the rifle and see how it goes. I took a second look at all the Dakota's today and also found out Remington just bought them out. That's sure a lot of money for a nice piece of wood. One of the reasons I bought the kimber was because I wanted to get some use out of it. Maybe I'll eventually get a few fancy rifles once I give up walking in the woods but until then I think I'll stick with shooters. I think that there is also some excessive mark up of 375's since I bought a very fancy Kimber 325 WSM with great wood (french select walnut) for $1200 and the Caprivi's are $2600 go figure.

Thanks Again Brad

One last note. I went and looked at my RSM and R Exp rifles and sure enough I saw the magic purple blue on the receivers. If it had not been for Kimber I would not have given it much notice. I guess it really does NOT bother me that much. What can you really expect for 10k mass produced custom type rifles selling for less than 2k I look forward to the Kimber and may post a follow up photo once I get it in hand.

Thanks Again Everyone

Brad