Kimber 84m 6mmCM & 7mm08 - hacking up barrels to fit.

I recently purchased a second hand Kimber 84m with the intention of fitting my tikka 6 creedmoor barrel to fit it. Luckily because i bought 'as good' but it was a .308 16" barrel that was poked in the last 1/2inch from a previous owner leaving the suppressor on and allowing it to rust pitt badly in the bore and on the muzzle thread.

The kimber 84m is a small diameter action allowing me to repurpose other barrel tenons to fit without having to recut the chamber.

Here is the .308 kimber barrel, an unknown 7mm08 barrel (given to me to as a chop up scrapper) and my tikka trueflyte 6mmCM barrel. You can see the different tenon sizes here.
Attachment 266041

I practiced first on the 7mm08 barrel. All went well with my measurements and only a minor early threading hiccup caused by me not having a gear engaged 100%.
I also chopped the barrel to 19", recrowned and threaded the muzzle to 1/2 x 20.

Re cut tennon to Kimber spec. I also faced off the "feed cone"(?) like a tikka tenon after this pic.

Attachment 266045

I worked out the boltface to tenon shoulder measurement for the headspace, which turned out good = 0.003" longer than new brass but smaller than my mates tikka fired brass by 0.001".

"Go gage" case in.

Attachment 266043

"No-go gage" in.

Attachment 266044

Assembled ready to test shoot.

Attachment 266047

It shot well with a thrown together load. Scope adjustments between 1st bottom group and also corrected parralax for 2nd top group. 150gr eldx @ 2.8" 2550fps.

Attachment 266048

All went well for the test so I've pulled that 7mm08 barrel already. Its a spare now.

Time for the 6mm creedmoor barrel to go on...

Tikka barrel in the lathe.

Attachment 266054

Barrel chop from 24" to 18.75", crowned and m14x1 threading.
Attachment 266055

I made a bushing to go between the old tikka tenon shoulder and the recoil lug to fill the gap. Assembled on the action.

Attachment 266056

In my DIY barrel vice. (brown sugar used as rosin :XD:)
Attachment 266052

Headspace set to the existing loads for this barrel from when it was on my tikka action. I got this perfectly the same. Fired brass is an identical 0.002" longer than loaded size, the same as the tikka fired brass.

It shoots fkn great! 4th shot was pulled high by me, from the butt held just up off the rear bag. Otherwise the first 5 rounds of the group would have all been stacked in eachother. Shots 6 and 7 everything was hot and mirage was screwing my sight picture, plus im not a perfect shot with such a light rifle. Eitherway a great 7 shot group.

Attachment 266057

Just loading up some more ammo for it now. Im not tweaking that load at all.

The 6cm kimber is a match made in heaven. My kimber will be a 22cm soon

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Originally Posted by Gkp

The 6cm kimber is a match made in heaven. My kimber will be a 22cm soon

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Exactly what i thought. The 2.82" magazine is perfect for the 6Cm which is optimally seated in the neck above the "donut" @ 2.800".
Yeah man a 22 creedmoor would be perfect on the kimber.

Awesome stuff!
I just finished the stock for my daughters 6creed, built on a tikka LSA55. Load development will get done late this month

Fantastic work, well done.

This is the sort of project that UK 'gunsmiths' will claim to be impossible or dangerous in their attempts to tell you that a rebarrel job must be £1-1.2k when their barrels don't cost £250... :ORLY: :wtfsmilie:

What bolt nose to tennon clearance measurement did you use?

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Originally Posted by robhughes-games

What bolt nose to tennon clearance measurement did you use?

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I didn't. I just made sure that the extractor didnt touch the tenon or other interference. Luckily the tenon face om the tikka barrels allows about 0.010" clearance to the ectractor nose.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roarless20

I didn't. I just made sure that the extractor didnt touch the tenon or other interference. Luckily the tenon face om the tikka barrels allows about 0.010" clearance to the ectractor nose.

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0.25mm is a good number to aim for. Headapace is one thing. But the clearance on the bolt nose is very important too

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scott Cowan

Awesome stuff!
I just finished the stock for my daughters 6creed, built on a tikka LSA55. Load development will get done late this month

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I'm up to final forming and finishing Dad's Tikka M55 stock. This is the one i rebarrelled using a tikka t3 ctr 6.5 creedmoor barrel and a spacer bushing to set headspace.

I do recall that rifle of your fathers, had some mild lightening done to the action, looked great. Yes they are a fantastic action.

First blood for the kimber with the 6cm barrel.
Kaimanawa redstag @ 120ish meters and a young sika stag @ 320m.
Attachment 268632
Attachment 268633


The dog resting with his pack loaded with meat.


Attachment 268634

Good stuff!

Would love to have half the skill you do. Nice work.