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Kimber mountain ascent won't shoot

msinc said:
I have that same rifle and yes, I had a lot of trouble getting it to shoot. I have barreled, tuned up and shot a lot of rifles in my time, but this was my first rodeo with a lightweight "mountain" barrel. A fellow member of the forum suggested that I try checking "first shots" out of a cold barrel only. Made sense because that is the one that must count. If I tried to shoot for group in the standard way it would kind of bounce around like the scope or bedding was bad.
I should drop back a second and tell you that first I adjusted the trigger down below 2 pounds. Then I bedded the action. I don't believe there was a pressure point in the stock for the barrel so I want to say it floats.
I was so sure I had a bad scope {new Night Farce} that I swapped it for a known good M1 Mark 4...no change.
I will also say that this particular rifle would not shoot any factory ammo worth a darn. The way I finally ended up checking it was to shoot one round out of the completely cold barrel and put it away for a while. About an hour later I would get it back up on the bench and fire again, shooting other guns in between. To my surprise I was able to shoot some nice 1/2" and 3/4" 3 shot groups when I did it this way. It took 3 hours, probably could have done it in less, but I was happy to be able to shoot that good and now had confidence enough to actually take it to the woods.
One other thing I did was try Berger 140 grain VLD Hunting bullets. I followed the way they say to dial them in seating depth wise and found that they liked to be .030" off the lands. There are no other bullets that this thing shoots as good as these. I can get 1 1/2" groups out of a few other types/brands.
I guess the bottom line is that you just cant check accuracy with a pencil thin barrel like you would with even a sporter barrel.
As far as "special" break in...maybe, but I didn't do it, what ever it is. Kimber went from using Douglas barrels to making their own and the Mountain Ascent is the newer Kimber made barrels. What I noticed when I scoped it was that they are using a Sunnen barrel hone and then doing cut rifling. The land surface is perfectly smooth and tool mark free. You can see the honed cross hatch pattern on the lands. The grooves are different. They are very rough in my bore, yet for as bad as they look I have to say the bore does not foul hardly at all. You see what looks like copper in the grooves, but it brushes right out without having to go to JB or other extreme cleaning methods. Just some Shooters Choice and a patch will clean my bore easily.
You do need a good scope for sure. The combination of a very light rifle and a pretty powerful recoil will shake up a lesser scope. Good luck and good shooting.

Edit: I just remembered I left out something pretty important...I had a bad chamber to start with. There was some "galling" in the chamber that made the fired case try to stick. I doubt this affected accuracy, but I had to set back the shoulder and re-chamber the thing. I lost about 1/2" of barrel length. I also found mine shot better with the solid thread protector instead of the brake.
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Thank you for the great advice. Chamber was bad in this one as well ,had to get it honed out. Pencil barrel is more in likely the problem but one would like to feel a bit better about the follow up shot or two. I will try the shoot and wait and see what happens. I have another .280ai with light Pacnor fluted barrel that will keep grouping. Guess I'm spoiled..lolThank you
 
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muleman69 said:
Thank you for the great advice. Chamber was bad in this one as well ,had to get it honed out. Pencil barrel is more in likely the problem but one would like to feel a bit better about the follow up shot or two. I will try the shoot and wait and see what happens. I have another .280ai with light Pacnor fluted barrel that will keep grouping. Guess I'm spoiled..lolThank you
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Theres 2 mountain ascents on clearance sale at field and stream on gulf freeway in houston. One is a 7mm08 and the other is a long action not sure of the caliber. The tag says 1750 and theres 35% off on them right now
 
Dusty Stevens said:
Theres 2 mountain ascents on clearance sale at field and stream on gulf freeway in houston. One is a 7mm08 and the other is a long action not sure of the caliber. The tag says 1750 and theres 35% off on them right now
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Wow, sweet deal if they would shoot. That would put them in the $1100 range
 
I am surprised to hear about the 1911's and the Solo...I have a TLE/RLII and it has been perfect since day one. Never jams and even with me at the trigger just about never misses. Two deputies used it to qualify and I have a nephew with a Kimber 1911 that has had good luck with it too. I carry a Solo and it is equally flawless. I never realized I was so lucky!!! I have referred several happy customers to Kimber. I have a Super America in 325WSM that is one heck of a nice rifle too.
 
msinc said:
I am surprised to hear about the 1911's and the Solo...I have a TLE/RLII and it has been perfect since day one. Never jams and even with me at the trigger just about never misses. Two deputies used it to qualify and I have a nephew with a Kimber 1911 that has had good luck with it too. I carry a Solo and it is equally flawless. I never realized I was so lucky!!! I have referred several happy customers to Kimber. I have a Super America in 325WSM that is one heck of a nice rifle too.
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I really like the design of the Kimbers, I think there is a bad apple in every cart no matter the the brand. I went to Sig Sauer for my carry and range pistols, very happy with Sig. As far as hunting rifles I have had the best luck with Sako,can't remember every having a problem of any sort with the Sako. I will not give up on theAscent as it is such a lite rifle and a great looking one as well
 
my buddy has a Kimber 7WSM and it sucked. sent back and they said i met their spec! rebarreled and still sucked!
3" maybe at 100yds. on a good day.
 
muleman69 said:
As far as hunting rifles I have had the best luck with Sako,can't remember every having a problem of any sort with the Sako.
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I have had my eyes on a stainless Sako Forester {model 85???} in 223 for about two years now. Two things are holding me back...the short little 22" carbine barrel and the fact that everyone I know that messes with Sako all says the same thing..."buy a Tikka, they are better rifles and they all shoot." Aren't they all made by the same outfit???

hogpatrol said:
No dog in this hunt but it seems like you hear more bad than good about them. Not what is needed to hear about an American made firearm. Aside from that, Cabela' is advertising a Kimber rifle for 799.99 and advertising sub MOA accuracy.

https://www.cabelas.com/product/KIMBER-HUNTER-BOLT-ACTION-RIFLES/2318549.uts?slotId=0
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Well, you really gotta read the sub MOA warranty on Kimber rifles.....it aint worth the paper it's written on.
 
msinc said:
I have had my eyes on a stainless Sako Forester {model 85???} in 223 for about two years now. Two things are holding me back...the short little 22" carbine barrel and the fact that everyone I know that messes with Sako all says the same thing..."buy a Tikka, they are better rifles and they all shoot." Aren't they all made by the same outfit???



Well, you really gotta read the sub MOA warranty on Kimber rifles.....it aint worth the paper it's written on.
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From what I hear Tika is made by Sako and yes they are great rifles and they shoot lights out. I'm thinking that Tika is Sako's entry level rifle ,not sure what corners they cut but it sure was not in the accuracy or design. (only if they had a .280ai. I do have the .223 ,it has a set trigger and is a real hard one to beat at the turkey shoots running deer target. It goes off before I have a chance to flinch....lol
 
In my experience, Kimber has always been a company that touts high quality, charges for high quality, but produces a less than quality product. I own a Kimber 1911 complete with the plastic main spring housing - what's up with that? I also owned a .22 hornet Kimber and it lost the rifling from the throat forward to about 4" in 300 rounds or less. I sent it back and to their credit they re-barrelled it. And the new barrel did the same thing, but in less rounds. They re-barrelled it and my gunsmith had them send the bad barrel back. He had a friend who worked in metallurgy for the military, who ran some tests on the steel. It turns out that the steel was equivalent to that used in .22 rim fire barrels and was soft. I sold it and quickly realized that Kimber can do just fine without any more of my money.
 
Kimbers are like brownings and coopers- they look good at the store, cost extra money for their reputation among the yeti type people that go for that type stuff but are made for those that value name recognition over actual performance. Its up to the standards of most customers and does just fine for them. The fine print is whatll get you like a test target from 13yds or whatever it is
 
hogpatrol said:
No dog in this hunt but it seems like you hear more bad than good about them. Not what is needed to hear about an American made firearm. Aside from that, Cabela' is advertising a Kimber rifle for 799.99 and advertising sub MOA accuracy.

https://www.cabelas.com/product/KIMBER-HUNTER-BOLT-ACTION-RIFLES/2318549.uts?slotId=0
Click to expand...


While I was looking at you link and noticed the Mounta Accent model, the same one the OP is having trouble with, listed for $1,899

Is that right?

If I bought a rifle that costs close to 2 grand it sure as eff better deliver accuracy or Kimber would get it back in their lap in sort order
 
Nature Boy said:
While I was looking at you link and noticed the Mounta Accent model, the same one the OP is having trouble with, listed for $1,899

Is that right?

If I bought a rifle that costs close to 2 grand it sure as eff better deliver accuracy or Kimber would get it back in their lap in sort order
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I have Kimber and Cooper. I did get cooper to shoot under .5 at 100 yards.
 
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