Looking at a Kimber 84 with French Walnut. Will use it for deer, antelope, maybe varmits. I have other rifles in 308 & 338. I'm a sucker for French Walnut stocks and I like the semi custom features of the Kimber but never owned one. Any opinions on the caliber or rifle selection?

Love the cartridge!

Kimber? Nahhhhh, THIS is what you REALLY want...

Robert,

Love the Remington 7MS. I have a Ruger RSI in 308. I'm a big fan of mannlicher stocks. What caliber is yours?

I have two .257 Bobs and really like the round. There are a lot of reloaders dedicated to this cartridge so you can find a lot of folks who have very good recipes for the Roberts.

I also like the layout and feel of the Kimbers that I have handled. There seems to be a lot of trash talking about the Kimber rifles on the Medium Bore forum lately though. See, Browning Ti vs Kimber Montana I know that at one point Kimber had a number of rifles were being sent back to the factory to have the muzzle recrowned. In most reported cases this turn mediocre shooting rifles into good shooters.

I would take some of the reports with a grain of salt but on the other hand eleven Benjamins is quite a bit to throw at a rifle that may or may not put together good groups.

Mort

maybe one like this...

Robert,

Showed the photo to my wife and said "Dear, that's exactly what I'd like for my birthday".

She said, "You already have a nice cutting board and set of knives".

This woman CANNOT take a hint!!!

Mike

257 Roberts=EXCELLENT chambering.
I have four rifles chambered for the Bob.
Not sure about Kimber rifles however. Others will have to advise you on them.

I know nothing about Kimber rifles; however the 257 Roberts is one of my favorite deer rounds. I just chronographed my load for this year this A.M. 38.5gr of Varget,100gr Partition,Remington brass,and CCI primer chronied 2943fps avg. for 5 shots SD was 9. Not too shabby for a re-chambered Stevens 200.
GOOD LUCK and GOOD SHOOTING!!!

Yep. Exactly like that. Is that a VX3 scope? What size?

quote:

Originally posted by .404:
maybe one like this...

.404....love it. What size Leupy is yours wearing?

I started out with a 3.5-10x40,then switched to this 2.5-8x VXIII and the rig balances much better.I am setting up a 6x42 as a back up for travel.I also have a Mannlicher 1952 carbine in .257 Roberts.I still shoot a lot of the Hornaday 117 RN,cause they work...
I don't post here alot,hang out a Campfire mostly. AKA... rifle
I see a lot of interesting rifles here,so I'll be in and out.

I too love the Roberts.
I have 2 my favorite load is 46 grains of H-414 under a 100 grain bares tripple shock.
I also love my french walnut kimber in .308.
Not all Kimber owners are happy, I am very happy with mine and would buy another in the Roberts in a heart beat.
...tj3006

I have had over the course of life been able to find a bad rifle from almost every major manufacturer, you can preselect for a bad rifle more often by buying used rifles and there you have a better chance of buying someone’s problem child.

The Kimber short action select classic mag box length is 2.815, IIRC the leade is at 2.9, I forget because I do not try to reach it! While it might take 3-4 different loads to get a 308 figured out, you probably will burn more powder to figure out the Kimber Roberts. Mine finally decided it liked 100 grain bullets and 117 grain Sierra's. The 100TSX and 46.5 grains H4350 is what I am shooting this year at deer. I had I thought a better IMR4350 load but some suggest the IMR4350 is more temperature sensitive. In general IMR4350 and H4350 seem to work in almost everyone that I have read about and they work in mine. If you’re looking for a hunting rifle that will regularly shoot 3 into an inch or less this is your huckleberry, if you’re looking for a target rifle that will shoot 3 into 3/8 of an inch please look somewhere else.

I'll be off to shoot some test loads with a Ruger 77 Mk II in 257 this AM, as soon as it warms up.
It's 32 Degrees F here now, and the frost is on the Punkin..

I have the Kimber 257 Roberts and love it. Great trigger and balance. Shoots an inch at 100 yards with Winchester power points.

Higly recommended.
Seeker

I bought my Kimber yesterday. It's the one I've been eyeballing. 257 Roberts with French Walnut. The stock is really nice with a light color and a little figuring on the butt. The fit and feel is exceptional. The trigger makes me realize I need trigger jobs on my other guns. I've very pleased, I just hope it shoots straight.

Now I need to decide on a scope. I think I'm going with the Zeiss Conquest 2.5-8X32. It seems like a streamlined scope that will work well with the kimber. I've never owned a zeiss and at $399 retail, seems like a good buy.

quote:

Originally posted by scottfromdallas:
I bought my Kimber yesterday. It's the one I've been eyeballing. 257 Roberts with French Walnut. The stock is really nice with a light color and a little figuring on the butt. The fit and feel is exceptional. The trigger makes me realize I need trigger jobs on my other guns. I've very pleased, I just hope it shoots straight.

Now I need to decide on a scope. I think I'm going with the Zeiss Conquest 2.5-8X32. It seems like a streamlined scope that will work well with the kimber. I've never owned a zeiss and at $399 retail, seems like a good buy.

Scott, Well done! I hope it's the dream rifle you've always wanted.

I got a bit sidetracked from this thread - my rifle is a .257 Roberts. It absolutely loves H4350. 47.0 w/ 100gr. SGK, 44.0 with a 117 SGK. So far it shoots sub 1" with about 5 different loads.

PS: I put a Leup VXIII 2.5-8x on my rifle and it might just be the perfect scope for that caliber. The Zeiss would do you just fine.

PS: MIchael - that's HILLARIOUS with your wife!

Scot from dallas and R-Novi,
You guys have great tastes. 1st scott. I have the ziess you mention on my french wood kimber .308.
It is an excelent scope. My Ruger M2 ultra light in the Roberts has a 2.5X8 leupold.
I don't think you could do much better than either of those scopes.
The leupold has been upgraded since I bought my 2.
And with the factory being about 25 miles from my house, I urge you to take a good look at the american product before you buy the half american product.
If you prefer the Ziess by all means buy it.
But I think it's a good idea to take a good look at the american product.
Leupold treats there workers prety well.
...tj3006

Thomas/Rnovi,

Thanks for the feedback on the Kimbers and scopes. I actually have 2 Leupolds on my other rifles...both are VX2 2-7. The one on my 77RSI 308 has a #4 reticle. I looked at the VX3 but thought the Zeiss would look a little better on my Kimber. I'm a big fan of Leupolds though. If I can find the cable to my camera, I'll upload some pics.

ScottfromDallas,

I have the conquest 2.5 x 8 on my Kimber select bob as well mounted in talley lw low mounts! Good choice! If you need any help with load development let me know!

Hope this works. Here some pics.


http://www.imageurlhost.com/im...pmrzz70p_kimber1.jpg

http://www.imageurlhost.com/im...mfhth6u0_kimber2.jpg

nice rifle. interesting I have the Ruger 308RSI as well! Mine has a 3 x 9 diavari on it for now. Amaizingly enough I produced a load that shot 3 into less than an inch! I must be lucky regards that RSI as many say they cannot get them to do that well because of the FL stock.

Most of the Ruger RSI's are shooters,their enemy is heat and barrel contact.I own a bunch of 'mannlicher'style rifles from all over the world and it's the same.Shoot slow and correct spacing between the bags....
Cheers,.404

I agree. Mine would consistently shift POI when heated so I could never get it to shoot. I had the action glass bedded and the barrel free floated to the muzzle cap. Works great now. I shot a 3/4" group yesterday using Fiocchi factory 165 BTHP. That well exceeds my expectations for a hunting rifle.

Scott,
How about a range report on the Kimber 84 when you get it put together?

quick post...I'll post more later.... I shot it..it sucks....it's going back to Kimber tomorrow. I just got off the phone with them.

quote:

Originally posted by scottfromdallas:
quick post...I'll post more later.... I shot it..it sucks....it's going back to Kimber tomorrow. I just got off the phone with them.

Oh Wow. That's not good.

Interesting. I have been keeping an eye open for one of these Select french Walnut Kimbers in 257R. I have seen one really nice one (wood wise) but the rest I really didn't think were worth the money. Then I started hearing about Kimbers variability in terms of accuracy and I backed off. I would be very interested in hearing how this all works out. The 257R is a rather finicky cartridge IMHO in terms of easy of finding a good load.
Peter.

Ok..The best way to give you a visual of how bad this shot is well....it groups much worse than a 15 year old mini-14 with open sites firing wolf ammo.

There is something seriously wrong with this rifle. It was literally all over the target. I had a new zeiss mounted at a gun shop with warne rings an bases. this was beyond a bad grouping. the rifle was literally spraying bullets.

In addition, I had feeding and extraction problems. I know how a Mauser extractor is supposed to work as I have 2 rugers. The Kimber simply could not get a good grip on the case.

On the way home I took it to a gunsmith I trust for his opinion. he said just by looking at it he could tell it was a poor bedding job and the action was binding. He suggested I send it back to Kimber and make them fix it.

It's unreal how a company can market their rifles with a match chamber, match barrel, & glass pillar bedded action...and...put out such a poor quality product.

They must have some terrible quality control. Kimber said they would look at, fix what they need to and have it returned in 3-4 weeks.

It's really a bummer because I love the proportions, weight, look and feel of the rifle. I've just never shot a rifle that could not hold any semblance of a group.

Even my Ruger RSI (prior to glass bedding) would group 1-2 inches before sending a flier out when the barrel heated up.

By the end of the range session, I waited for my barrel to completely cool and fired a 3 shot group with 10 minutes between shots. The result was it strung the shots horizontally for a 5" group.

I'll keep sending this rifle back until Kimber either makes is right or replaces it.

Look forward to hearing back as to just what Kimber does to solve the problems with your rifle. Local fellow who has pretty much two of everything recently told me how proud he was of his recent Kimber rifle purchase and when asked how it shot for him, he had not done so at that time. Few days later he called me and wanted to know if I wanted to buy his "new" Kimber??
He then advised that the performance was terrible w/ much of what you desribe. Heard later that he was returning to the factory for "repairs." I know the store well that sold the rifle and they stock Kimbers and upon asking them about the problems, they said that the subject rifle was the first complaint they had had on Kimber. As always, time will tell.

very interesting regards your Kimber roberts. The not pulling the shell out thing would have been the last straw for me as well.

MY Kimber roberts was selected between two at the gunshop. I picked the one that had the best inletting and wood to metal fit.

I shot it with 7 different types of bullets, probably 6 or so types of powders, usually starting at near max loads and going 3 shots at a time to max.

It sprayed 110 grain Accubonds all over the map 3-4 inch groups with all I tried, it likes 100 grain bullets of most any variety and it likes the Sierra 117 pro hunter. It likes IMR4350 and h4350, I seat the bullets to the maximum 2.815 magazine length in all cases.

The TSX shoot better if its shorter than maximum magazine length.

Want to make the gun shoot worse or variably? Just pull it down into the front bag with a harder sandbag front rest! I do believe you can make the wood flex into the barrel its so darn light. Put a folded wash cloth under the foreend and pull the gun lightly into the front bag but mostly into your shoulder like you are shooting off hand. Mine will produce routinely 1 inch or better this way. Also you do have to hold it behind the front bag it will not shoot like a benchrest rifle.

It does not shoot as well as my Kimber 300WSM however.

I recently took 3 of my rifles to the range just to make sure the zero was on for deer season. I did not shoot for groups but simply drew some 2 inch circles on white paper and shot each of them 2 times, everyone put 2 bullets into the circle at 105 yards, except the 300WSM which put two touching. No more load developement time this year. Its almost deer season!

Try some 100 TSX bullets and seat them until you almost cover the last friction reducing ring.

Mine loves 100grn NP. I want to try the 110 NAB's next.

This is mine.It appears that the 1st coldbore is always a little high left.However the more I shoot it,the better it's getting.....404

404 if you let it cool for 30-40 minutes does it shoot into the top hole again? Also your comment its getting better, how so?

Yes,it's repeted this type of grouping several times now.The rifle has close to 60 rounds thru it now and I can see it grouping tighter.Also,the bore is smoother to the patch in clean up.The gun does not like 85 grain bullet,however has handled 100,115 Partitions and my fav 117 Horny RN's.
Kimbers are a little light in the bags because they are so small.Maybe I'm getting used to it,but overall it appears to be "settleing" down.I shoot alot of .24,25,26 bore,they'll do a lot when you feed them proper.....404

good point, they do seem to settle in after about 2-3 boxes of 100 bullets!! That is very similar to my 300WSM Kimber classic which is probably half way to a new barrel right now! I also used that JB bore paste (the red one) a few times that seems to have helped in the process.

It may be that if Kimber folks would spend maybe 30 minutes more and lap the barrels,some of the "issues" would go away...

did you tighten or loosen any of the screws holding the stock in place?

Jimmmy, not sure if that was directed at me. I never removed the stock from the action and I did verify they were tight when I was on the phone with Kimber.

Anyway, the rifle is on the way to them now so I'll let post when I get it back and they tell me what is wrong.