Kimber Mountain Ascent

[ssssnake529]

After having used heavy rifles for years, I went on a lightweight kick. Purchased an elk rifle in 300 Win Mag from R Bros.

Enjoyed shooting it so much, I decided I wanted a lightweight deer rifle too.

Ended up with a Kimber Mountain Ascent in 6.5 Creedmoor.

It is a very light rifle. It feels like a toy.

Mounted with a Kahles K624i scope and Blackhawk tactical cheek pad it weighs 7 pounds, 10 ounces.

Shot it today for the first time. Recoil is very tame. It's fun to shoot. After 20+ shots of alternating cleaning and shooting to break the barrel in, I put a few rounds through it to get it sighted in.

I could not for the life of me get more than 2 shots to group well. First and second shot of any group tended to be close together. Starting with the 3rd round, the groups would open up. Not sure if it's my technique that needs help or if it's something with the rifle. After the barrel cooled, the first 2 rounds were generally on target, but not after that. I'm wondering if the light barrel is particularly sensitive to heat, or maybe I'm just shooting poorly on shot 3 plus.

It's not a huge deal, as I will seldom need to string together a long series of shots in the field, but it's something to think about.

Here are my last 2 groups for the day, where I got it sighted in. These groups were similar to most of the groups I shot.

Overall, I really like this rifle. Looking forward to using it for deer season.

 

[Anschutz]

Looks like a shooter to me. My guess is that the barrel heats up quite rapidly and starts to walk as you continue to shoot. Not really a big problem on a field hunting rifle. I'd rather give up a 1/2MOA and lose a few pounds on a rifle that's going walking a lot.

 

[Rick Richard]

You answered your own question. It is the'pencil thin' barrel heating up and beginning to change shot characteristics.

As mentioned, the first and if required second shot is most important. I had a light weight Kimber that would perform exactly like yours.

 

[RevJim]

It wouldn't hurt and can actually help ( how much I can't say) to send that barreled action off and have it Cryogenically treated. I have had some rifles respond well to it, others "some". Although, you will still kill everything with your first shot anyhow, ha. Sounds like a great little rifle for deer hunting!

 

[Sykes]

I also just picked up a mountain acsent in 6.5 creedmoor last week. I love the gun. Like you said fun to shoot and also feels and handles awesome. Here is a 7 shot group at 100 yards wit factory Hornady 140 Amax. I cleaned after every 2 shots except for the last three in the box. The first two are the ones nearly touching You can tell in the second picture how the last three grouped. I'm excited to try handloads

 

[slewis12]

I bought a 270 win in the mountain ascent i'm not at home to take a pic of the target but it puts 3 touching (sub half MOA grouping) each other firing one right after the other, after 3 its starts opening up. It likes a hand load better than factory ammo to get the SD down I had it at 6fps SD difference between shots at 3080fps. 4831 SC was the ticket for powder.

 

[Buzzsaw]

how is you 6.5 creed holding up? still shooting good?

 

[ssssnake529]

how is you 6.5 creed holding up? still shooting good?

So far so good. Going to try some factory 140gr loads this coming week. I'm looking to use 140gr bullets for hunting, so I'm hoping the results are as consistent as they were with the lighter bullets. Would be nice if I can use factory hunting loads instead of having to do load development.

 

[Zerk]

5.32 pounds, got to me nice carry.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

For no particular reason, I am really interested in an < 5 lb Mountain Ascent. I was thinking about a 7-08. The only thing holding me back is the fact that they put all the bolts on the wrong side.

I'd buy a NULA but can't justify $4,000 for a rifle that I just "want".