New Kimber 84M - 7mm-08 expected accuracy?
 

I have a new Kimber 84 Classic Select Grade in 7mm-08. I cleaned the gun prior to use with bore paste to aid break-in. I have shot 3 different brands of ammo so far (~30 rounds total). THe brands were Hornady Superformance 139 gr. SST, Winchester Powermax Bonded 140gr, and Winchester Ballistic Silvertip 140gr. The best group was with the Winchester Ballistic Silvertip, but not by much. The group was 1.5" at 50 yds. I am not real happy with the results. What do others think of the ammo choices and results thus far? Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

jr97

Sorry for your troubles with the new Kimber. I think you really need to extend your range to 100 yards before you try to figure out what might work. Some of these close range targets might be giving you some hopefully false readings. At close range you might be having some parallax problems, as your scope is most probably set to be parallax free at somewhere around 150 yards.

Try heavier bullets too.

Not to alarm you but take a look at this site;

http://www.hillcountryrifles.com/pages/accurizing



My gunsmith says the same thing................Beautiful rifles though !!!

Yesterday I tried some different ammo in my kimber. I tried federal fusions 120gr, federal premium 140gr Barnes triple-shock and federal power shock 150gr soft point. The federal 150gr power shock gave me the best group 5/8" at 50 yards. It looks like the gun likes the bigger bullet. On the next nice day im going to try to see what the groups are at 100 yards.

My Rem 700 CDL in 7mm-08 was a wishy-washy shooter at best with any factory ammo I tried. Handloading really turned it on, however. It is sooo much easier to find a combination your gun will shoot well than being at the mercy of the factory-loaded fodder, which may never perform well in your particular rifle. If you don't load yourself, perhaps you can find someone willing to instruct you on his equipment. It will give you a sense of achievement, and you may get addicted to it as many of us have...

I would like to get into hand loading for this and other guns once I get the funds. It would probably improve my groups.

I was able to go out and shoot again this time I tried shooting at 100 yards. I was useing federal power shock 150gr soft point. I shot a 3 shot group that was 1-1/16. I am pretty happy with the groups considering its a brand new gun and has not had to many rounds down the barrel. With some more shooting and later the down the road reloading the groups should improve.

Not sure if it'll work for you, but my Kimber Montana .308 tightened up when I installed one of those Limbsaver rubber donuts on the barrel.

Reloading to tune a load to a barrel is probably one of the best ways to gain that extra accuracy. But some standard rifle barrel contours are beyond finicky in harmonics.

I would love to explain a list of barrel harmonics and how I fix them but I'd hate to be discredited by all the experts in the gun world. But rubber is a very cool way to fix harmonics vs. stock issues. Also plastic and brass but harder to test and keep in one spot without glue or adhesive. Still waiting on the heat of the summer to run a final test. If it don't change impact then I'll never waste money on having a gunsmith bed in a standard sporting contour barrel again. EVER. But alas waiting on the heat of summer is a long way off and I'm sure once again I'll be proven wrong. Time will tell.