Kimber Montana 6.5/300 WSM .300 Neck

[longrangehunter]

Ya, that's what I said to the guy that did the work..... and why they'll be buying a 6.5/300 WSM reamer?

Only after he strips it down, does a chamber cast.... and whatever else he'll do to figure out where he went wrong while NOT watching the cutting depth of the neck!

Thanks Scotty

 

[SJB358]

I am sure they will take care of you. Hope you have your rifle up and running shortly. Scotty

 

[longrangehunter]

So I got my gun back from Shilen. After two months of sitting their the guy decided to just turn the barrel back and re-cut the chamber.
He did manage to reduce the neck/chamber length too 2.1445" from 2.1585", just not the length I asked him to cut it too of 2.115". Which is what Dave Kiff of Pacific Tool and Gauge said it should measure if he does his part when he cuts it.
The bad part is since they turned it back, my barrel is now 24 1/2" long. It doesn't fit in the in-letting that was done to free float the barrel in the stock anymore, and they clamped the end of the barrel to re-cut it and it now wears the teeth marks from doing so! :evil:
Am I happy with their quick fix that took two months...... hell no. I own a lot of great guns done by a lot of famous rifle builders, and none of them would have sent a gun back to a customer like that!
Well, I don't have the time now to do any load work because I'm too tied up with building my house before the winter comes. I suppose I'll fire off a round to check the case measurements.

 

[longrangehunter]

Well its been over two years since I last chatted about my Montana Kimber 6.5/300 WSM. Since then I've hunted with it and shot it even more. Most recently on the day of our 2013 opening deer/elk season. I made a 3/3 @ 400 yard sitting position and 2/2 @ 550 yards prone position on a 19 dia. steel target to check for accuracy? This gun has made more first round hits then anything in my battery, but it does it with little recoil even without a muzzle break.

Sometime after I received the gun back from Shilen I switched from 300 WSM Norma brass to using 270 WSM Winchester brass for the ease of forming brass. One pass through the sizing die and I'm done. Some of you asked why a .300 Neck was used and my response is still being questioned?

First off I'm not a big fan of turning necks........ because well, I have better things to do? Maybe I'm lazy, but not when I feel it's a waste of my time since the gun will shoot as small as a bench rest gun at a hundred yards yet it's a hunting rig! Now 100 yards is close range for me just as well for the next guy, but since I can put a first round hit every time out to six hundred yards, which is where I draw the line for shooting at Big game. Turned necks or not, having a no turn neck is Ok with me. :lol:

My once fired Winchester brass still measures .2980" and a loaded round measures .2950". Having a .002" spring back seems completely acceptable to me with a .300" neck. That's hardly a loose fitting neck like a factory reamed gun as "woods" put it but maybe it is? Irregardless the neck dimensions are correct in my opinion. Whether or not having that much room to release a bullet and the brass to spring back from, has produced a tack driver without having a tight neck.

As I said before this is not a bench rest gun. Dust, dirt, moisture, snow could reck havoc in field conditions that could cause catastrophic consequences. It's kinda like the differences between an M4 and a AK 47 or a F-16 and a MiG-29. The Russians know during field use dust and dirt can reck havoc on their equipment, and although having a fine Swiss watch is nice a Timex takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

On another note I own a Sako TRG-42 338 Lapua Magnum which uses a chromed lined hammer forged barrel with a factory chamber. I had mostly heard chrome lined barrels and hammer forging doesn't produce a high quality Match Grade piece of equipment?!? But I'm here to tell you that rifle will place all five round on top of each other at a 100 yards! Factory stock or not I don't think having a tight neck makes or breaks the quality of a gun. If it works, it works, and that's just fine by me!

Cole

PS: Lets not bring up the difference between a M4 and an AK-47 and/or or fighter jets vs. there's.... this is a long gun forum. So lets keep it that way.

 

[longrangehunter]

Oh, I haven't done a lot of load development work since I found a hunting load that worked so well, but I did later develop another load this past spring for punching targets/steel using a Sierra MatchKing.

He's what worked extremely well for me in my Kimber Montana 6.5/300 WSM 24 1/2" bbl:

140 SMK/66.5 gr. Retumbo, F215M, Winchester brass @ 2.3700" ogive length avg. 3052 fps @ 20' from the muzzle.

140 SGK/65.0 gr Retumbo, F215M, Wincherster brass @ 2.400" ogive length avg. 2992 fps @ 20' from the muzzle.

 

[longrangehunter]

So here's a target with the 140 SGK load I developed. First group is lower left, second group lower right, last shot was just left of center.

It seems if you have a forward slash in the file name of anything, like the date or 6.5/300 WSM the web site wont except the file (picture). No wonder I've had such issues downloading photos!

 

[SJB358]

Wow, nothing to complain about there! Great shooting. Love them fast 264's! Mine does real well with the 140 BT and AB..

 

[DrMike]

Looks like an excellent load; there's not much to disappoint in that grouping.

 

[longrangehunter]

Thanks Scott and Mike..... it's always nice when things work out so well without a lot of fuss.