[taylorce1]

Took this from another forum about curing some known issues with the Montana rifle.

I get several PM's asking questions about what I do to improve accuracy with Kimber Montana's. I've decided to start a thread detailing the steps I take and the things I look for shortly after buying one.

First and foremost, I'm not a gunsmith. These "improvements" weren't mine by design. I asked several questions to several guys on here that assisted me in the process. I'd love for those guys to chime in and add value to the thread too. Everybody has their own methods.

This isn't intended to be a Kimber bashing platform. I'm a huge fan of the rifle. To be perfectly honest, I had some troubled rifles in the beginning of my journey and swore them off a few times. I kept going back because NOTHING feels as good in my hands as the 84M Montana. I learned a few tricks and the rifles soon started to perform up to my expectations. I've owned a few -- my 20th is in route.

This isn't a thread of arrogance. Several guys on here have more rifle knowledge and experience than I possess. I just want to explain in detail what I learned through others and tinkering. I'd rather do this here than go through the process many times via PM.

More to follow...

The first potential accuracy robbing issue hides inside the stock. The last several Montana's I've owned have an issue with the mag box. The mag box has been longer than necessary and this creates undo stress and torque on the action.

The Kimber mag box has three protrusions (223 has three plus the spacer). The protrusions bottom out and won't allow the magazine to "float". The picks below are from a Mountain Ascent. Same insides, just painted a different color.

Note the black spots in the bottom of the stock. This is where the protrusions bottom out and remove the paint/dig into the stock.



The pics below are of the bottom of the mag box. Notice the paint residue on the protrusions.





The binding mag box creates several issues. Besides the oblivious, I think it creates a bigger issue with Kimber rifles.

The action is small and doesn't have much beef in the metal underneath. I believe the action flexes under recoil and a binding mag box amplifies the problem.

More pics from the Ascent below, but the white paint really shows rubbing well. With the mag box bound, the barrel shank wasn't fully seated against the slave bedding -- which is another problem, but we'll get to that in a bit.

Note the rubbed spots in the shank area of the stock, barrel and tang.







This action was moving upon recoil. You'll never achieve any level of acceptable accuracy with the action moving around in the stock.