Thread: Kimber 280AI

I received my Kimber montana 280 AI last week and loaded up some 150g Nosler Accubond LR's with 60g of reloader 19 as long as i could to fit in the mag. they shot really poor well over an inch at 100 yards. Im new to reloading so any advice to perhaps get them shooting better or a deferent pill load etc. any help would be appreciated.
cheers.

No one will have a magic formula. You will just have to experiment with different projectiles and powders until you find what suits your rifle.

Talk to @dale who is selling his in the buy/sell section. Sounds like he has loads working well out of his Kimber 280ai.

Start by breaking your barrel and giving it a good clean every five shots or at least every trip to the range with a good copper remover.some kimber barrels are renown to be rough.
Shoot a more simple shape bullets like sierra or hornady flat base in the 150 gr range.that will show you straight away if your barrel is Allright or not.
Do a ladder test with a sample of two bullets per incremental weight charges. ( exemple: 57 gr,57.5,58,58.5,...etc)
Shoot all of these aiming at the same point on a big target at 100 m minimum. When you reach a charge were some of the impacts are kind of grouping close by ,you know you are close to the accuracy load.
You then adjust oal and play with the jump of the bullet to the rifling.

Hope that helps.

It's a Kimber, they can be fussy. Trust me I've had 3 Montanas. 308 loved it all, one 7mm08 I only owned a week, and the 243 loved certain loads and hated others

My mate had one he couldn't get to shoot might take a bit to find a good load

Light rifles jump around when shooting so benefit from some downward pressure. Are you letting the rifle recoil freely like in the below position?



I had this same problem shooting a Forbes until I adopted to holding the forend.

As above comments however I think there is certainly something in the holding/shooting side of things that comes into play with these lighter rifles.
Mine liked the R19 but not too hot.
It hated the Partitions but even at 1.5" groups a partition at 3180FPS equalled dead animals every time so I shot them till I sold it.
To be blunt 1 MOA is ok for a start and for a lightish hunting rifle IMO.

Originally Posted by Friwi

Start by breaking your barrel

Thats a bit drastic!

I know I forgot the IN!

this was 200yrds 60gr of n560 fed210 nosler brass 139 hornady SST.
It was a well finished rifle ,but probably to light for it to be any sort of tack driver.The foam over fiberglass stock meant i couldn't machine it out and bed it with some metal based expoxy to help it either.the action feed excellent and the trigger was fantastic.but for 2k the things should shoot 1/2moa but i dont know anybody who has one that does.

It is a pretty usable group for 200 and if I seem picky I do not think it is the rifle causing any of the vertical element.
I reckon it would shoot 1/2 moa easy if that is the consistent size.

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OK heres some other load development from same rifle. if the vertical element isn't the rifles fault whos responsible for the horizonal

How are ya shooting the groups? Bags, bipod, bench?

Are you doing load development at 200?