Kimber mountain ascent won't shoot
- Thread starter muleman69
- Start date
I don't have one, but what have you tried?
1. all screws tight
2. is crown ok
3. Different scope
4. Stock pressure - or not - on barrel
5. Call Kimber
I had a kimber Montana in .308 that would not shoot anything. 2” 3-shot triangle groups at 100 yards no matter what load. Sent I back to Kimber and they said it was “within spec”, but replaced the stock for some reason. It came back performing exactly the same way, so I got rid of it. Not impressive for a $1000 rifle, and I wouldn’t buy another Kimber based on that experience.
Over on 24hourcampfire there was a write up on tricks to get them to shoot.
Hi, Were a master Kimber dealer here at Performance Shooting, Inc...we have found with the light weight Kimber's that you need to keep the barrel cool for them to shoot well....not sure if you are or not but if you let the barrel cool in between shoots it seems to really help with some of them....and I mean take your time in between shots like 5 mins.
Prose
Silver $$ Contributor
It's called "Kimber Roulette" for a reason....
Sell it, buy a different one. You can also try a fieldcraft as they are building a good reputation and are not known to have the same inconsistency issues as the kimbers.
You'll notice as this thread goes how many different problems people have with the kimber.
Sell it, buy a different one. You can also try a fieldcraft as they are building a good reputation and are not known to have the same inconsistency issues as the kimbers.
You'll notice as this thread goes how many different problems people have with the kimber.
Last edited:
Clancy
Silver $$ Contributor
Varying degree of action screw torque got mine down to an inch.
C. Nichols
Gold $$ Contributor
Check to see if the barrel has been bedded in front of the recoil lug. If so hog it out. If the recoil lug has bedding in front of it take it out too. I’ve seen this many times. Be sure the barrel is floated all the way and plenty of room as well. Small barrels flex a lot. Especially in a larger caliber. Just my 2cents.
Chris
Chris
After the normal stuff, i.e. screws tight, scope verified, different bullets tried; I'd look to the bedding. Also, in my experience, light weight rifles with thin barrels tend to drift as they heat up. These guns are not designed or intended for sustained shooting from the bench or producing tiny groups under these conditions.
If this is a hunting rifle which I assume it is, the only shot you're really concerned about is the cold barrel shot. Keep a record of cold barrel shots and if this meets your needs you should be good to go.
If this is a hunting rifle which I assume it is, the only shot you're really concerned about is the cold barrel shot. Keep a record of cold barrel shots and if this meets your needs you should be good to go.
john pruitt
Silver $$ Contributor
for what the cost you should not have to do any of the above heck a cheap salvage will beat that
I had a kimber in 300wsm. It would not shoot better than 1.5 moa 5 shot groups. I sent it back, they said it was fine. I never could get it to shoot, I sent it down the road.
They tried to say that it was my shooting, because of recoil. Except that around that time I shot a lot of 50bmg. Having shot under 1moa at 1000 yards with consistency, I was pretty sure it was not because I was recoil shy.
They tried to say that it was my shooting, because of recoil. Except that around that time I shot a lot of 50bmg. Having shot under 1moa at 1000 yards with consistency, I was pretty sure it was not because I was recoil shy.
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.
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.
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
I had one of the extreme light kimbers (cant remember the model) but if it ever shot less than 5”@100yds i would have thought i had a talisman around my neck. Absolutely the worst rifle i ever shot but i loved it so much and wanted it to shoot so bad. Put a normal size #3 barrel on it and it got well under 1” but wasnt the abnormally lightweight it was before. I couldnt even sell it as bad as it shot til i fixed it
I feel your pain. I have a 84M that came with a pencil thin barrel and had several other problems.
The barrel problem was fixed by replacing the factory barrel with something between a 2 and 3 contour, 21.5 long. The bolt lugs were lapped and the receiver ring face squared up. Other problems included fail to fire caused by weak spring tension and/or inadequate firing pin protrusion.
It is all fixed now. The result is an under 7 pound .308 that will shoot .5 or better. When Leupold fixes my 6-18X40 VX2 it goes onto the 84M.
The barrel problem was fixed by replacing the factory barrel with something between a 2 and 3 contour, 21.5 long. The bolt lugs were lapped and the receiver ring face squared up. Other problems included fail to fire caused by weak spring tension and/or inadequate firing pin protrusion.
It is all fixed now. The result is an under 7 pound .308 that will shoot .5 or better. When Leupold fixes my 6-18X40 VX2 it goes onto the 84M.
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