I'm looking at a Kimber Hunter in 257 Roberts. Anyone have any experience with this model good or bad?

I have no experience with that rifle, I think a member on here maybe GSSP has one, I am probably wrong.
If you like it buy it I have no experience with Kimbers but I hear hot and cold about them, people either get a great one or they aren't happy.
Hard to go wrong with a 257 Roberts in a nice rifle.

I bought one in 6.5CM for my wife this fall and she has taken a ram, one caribou and two blacktails. She let me carry it for another two bucks. We both agree it's a great rifle to carry around and hunt with, being 6.5lbs scoped, slung and loaded. It's also proven to hold its zero and average just over 1MOA for many three shot groups at 100 and 200 yards. It's also soaked up a lot of rain and inclement weather and has been bashed around in the alders and has taken it all in stride.

There are a few things we're not particularly fond of though. On the subjective side, the grip is very open almost to the point that it feels like a straight stock. It's not a game changer but we both would prefer a tighter grip, thinking that it would aid a little in controlling the rifle especially since it's on the light side.

Not so subjective is that the top round in a full magazine box is TIGHT and feeding is stiff enough to disturb your aim. Good news though, is that it does feed reliably and the next two rounds are slick. A slightly more slender round like the Roberts might alleviate that first round stiffness. We're also not fond of the fact the magazine only holds three rounds but the extractor does snap over a round in the chamber allowing 3+1.

The last problem is that ejection is rather lazy and the rifle often doesn't eject, particularly at the range when we're trying to be gentle on our brass. It does kick out the shells every time if you rack the bolt smartly and hasn't been a problem in the field.

To sum it up, the one we have has proven to be a tough, handy, and accurate little hunting rifle but could be a little better in feed and ejection.

Thanks for the responses. I have one coming, hope it shoots well.

Let us know how it works out. I am keeping track of another thread on another forum discussing the Hunter . If you are going to hand load, Roberts brass is expensive. I got lucky and got some of the last run that Cabela's had for a good price. It chaps my butt to see people reselling it on gun broker for 100 bucks a bag. Where'd you order yours from?

Edited to add that I am starting to read of too many problems with these rifles and Kimber customer service. I won't be buying one.

quote:

Originally posted by PaulBarnard:
Let us know how it works out. I am keeping track of another thread on another forum discussing the Hunter . I don't think anyone is having any issues. Accuracy appears to be good enough for hunting. If you are going to hand load, Roberts brass is expensive. I got lucky and got some of the last run that Cabela's had for a good price. It chaps my butt to see people reselling it on gun broker for 100 bucks a bag. Where'd you order yours from?

I bought one of these:
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/603830427

I have a Ruger RSI in 257 Roberts and have some brass I've picked up over the last few years. I also resize 7x57 cases to 257 Roberts if needed.

quote:

Originally posted by Greg K:

quote:

Originally posted by PaulBarnard:
Let us know how it works out. I am keeping track of another thread on another forum discussing the Hunter . I don't think anyone is having any issues. Accuracy appears to be good enough for hunting. If you are going to hand load, Roberts brass is expensive. I got lucky and got some of the last run that Cabela's had for a good price. It chaps my butt to see people reselling it on gun broker for 100 bucks a bag. Where'd you order yours from?

I bought one of these:
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/603830427

I have a Ruger RSI in 257 Roberts and have some brass I've picked up over the last few years. I also resize 7x57 cases to 257 Roberts if needed.

I have bought from them before. They have great buy it now prices at times. How are you going to scope it?

The problem I had with the Kimber 7-08 I had was the bedding.

They bed ("bedded" years ago, and I hope they've changed procedures) not with your action but a form that resembles your action. That means if your action and their form resemble one another properly the rifle will shoot well; if the form and the action do not resemble one another enough, the rifle does not shoot well. Mine grouped four inches at one hundred yards so I sold it, full disclosure.

quote:

Originally posted by PaulBarnard:
How are you going to scope it?

I will probably put a Leupold 2.5-8X on it.

quote:

Originally posted by Jaywalker:
The problem I had with the Kimber 7-08 I had was the bedding.

They bed ("bedded" years ago, and I hope they've changed procedures) not with your action but a form that resembles your action. That means if your action and their form resemble one another properly the rifle will shoot well; if the form and the action do not resemble one another enough, the rifle does not shoot well. Mine grouped four inches at one hundred yards so I sold it, full disclosure.

I believe Kimber has an accuracy guarantee.

quote:

Originally posted by Greg K:

quote:

Originally posted by PaulBarnard:
How are you going to scope it?

I will probably put a Leupold 2.5-8X on it.

Perfect!

That's a nice looking rifle , let us know how it shoots ..

I bought a Kimber Montana in .257 Rob last year and am not very happy with it.

First, and this is just a minor complaint, but the magazine box is so short as to require all bullets to be seated to SAAMI overall lengths. So no seating your bullets out further in a quest for best accuracy. But I can live with this as it's a hunting rifle and reliable feeding is crucial.

Major complaint is the accuracy guarantee. In my opinion it's functionally worthless. The first thing they do is to tell you that the guarantee only covers a 'highly skilled and qualified' shooter. How do you quantify that? In my case, I sent them my Marine Corps training record showing multiple expert awards on the rifle range, with the last one being six months ago. So that allowed me to send my rifle in.

I heard nothing from them, even though I asked to be informed of what, if anything, was going to happen to the rifle. All they did was send it back with a single 3-shot group fired with Remington Express ammo. No info on if they checked bedding, how much torque they put on the action screws, was the crown checked?

The rifle won't group Nosler factory ammo inside 2.5 inches at 100 yards, and my best hand loads average 1.5 inches. I have achieved exactly 3 individual MOA 3-shot groups with my best hand loads. But for each of those small groups, I had 3 or 4 more groups that came in at 1.5-2.0 inches.

I'm out $1200 for the rifle and a couple hundred in Nosler ammo plus all the bullets fired in chasing a useful hand load. I'm still working on it, but it's my first, and last, Kimber rifle.

If a MOA guarantee is important to you, buy a Tikka Lightweight rifle for almost half the money and spend the savings on a scope and ammo.

quote:

Originally posted by Greg K:

quote:

Originally posted by Jaywalker:
The problem I had with the Kimber 7-08 I had was the bedding.

They bed ("bedded" years ago, and I hope they've changed procedures) not with your action but a form that resembles your action. That means if your action and their form resemble one another properly the rifle will shoot well; if the form and the action do not resemble one another enough, the rifle does not shoot well. Mine grouped four inches at one hundred yards so I sold it, full disclosure.

I believe Kimber has an accuracy guarantee.

A guarantee is only as good as the company that stands behind it.

Kimber does a poor job at best at customer service.

I have owen 5 kimbers and have 2 that shoot good, a third that the jury is still debating on and 2 that went down the river.

BTW.....The Kimber Hunter is not bedded but just might be the best designed injection molded stock on a factory rifle available

Had the new Kimber out today. I shot two three shot groups at this target at 100 yds, no wind. First shot from each group was from a cold clean barrel, those two shots are the ones at 9 o'clock. The last two from each group formed a group of four shots that measured 1.065". This is a handload I had worked up for another 257 Roberts that I have.

Nice group Greg , looks like that kimber shoots..

The new Hodgdon annual manual has an article on the 6.5 creedmoor. The load data for that article shows a 140 grain load that prints about .5" at 100 yards from a Kimber hunter. The bullet was a cup-and-core soft point offering from one of the big bullet makers. I can't recall exactly. It seemed like a max load somewhere between 2600- 2700fps.

Kimber are luck of the draw.Some shoot good,most do not.

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
Kimber are luck of the draw.Some shoot good,most do not.

It isn't called Kimber Roulette for nothing. I was very interested in a Hunter in 257, but after researching I just found too many problems. Then when there are problems Kimber pulls a stunt like this.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/...hp/topics/11835069/1

So not only is accuracy a gamble, when your rifle doesn't function as it should Kimber gives you the run around and blows you off.

Things have surely changed. Back when I had problems with Kimber I was met with the six or so people who managed to get good ones all telling me I needed to learn how to shoot. Kimber has neat visuals, but no quality control. Now I won't buy anything Kimber - I learned my lesson.

Like many have said, Kimbers, handguns and rifles, are a crap shoot. I do not handle any of them in my gun store. Several of our suppliers have stopped selling them also because of their problems.

Quality control is seriously lacking and customer service is non existent. If you get one that will shoot, good for you. If you don't, good luck.

Kimber seems to spend all their resources on advertising.

I might have mentioned this before but make a list of possible problems and check each one . My biggest improvement was to increase barrel to forend clearance .a dollar bill or even a business card is not enough for the light whippy barrel .I just put a shim under the front of the receiver which cut group by half !

Ok, having read this, I am now cured