Help me spend my money! Kimber vs Christensen (2 YEAR UPDATE)

[quiksilverhill]

Sounds like you've made up your mind but I'll give a +1 to Seekins or Tikka. I've got 4 PH2's and an Element and I'd grab them 100x over my Ridgelines. Every Tikka I've ever owned was Sub MOA out of the box.

 

[Shallowpockets]

I would go Christensen for sure

 

[bigbassfish]

Wow does time fly...wanting to get more active on here and figured this would be a great place to start with an update. I ended up going with the Ridgeline in 308 as i was able to get it out the door right at 1k so hard to pass up. For glass, I scoped it with a Razor HD LHT 3-15x50 Mil, and it has been a pretty sweet shooting setup. I had some concerns with the action bedding as it looks like the barrel sits a little crooked in the stock channel, but the handful of times I was able to shoot distance, I was hitting a 10in plate at 500 no problem. Considering the terrain I hunt, I'd be lucky to get a clear shot much past 60 yards so I try not to worry about it.

Deer season of '22 I was fortunate enough to harvest my first deer unassisted, (only other big game hunt was a doe with my buddy off his feeder back in Kansas) , and it was a nice 8pt buck on public land, 15 yards away 30 minutes after shooting light on opening day.

Boiled the head for a Euro mount which turned out phenomenal, and processed the meat with my girlfriend. To stubborn/stupid/cheap to stop once we started, we ended up doing all of the grinding with my great grandmother's table clamp hand grinder. That was miserable. Probably took 6 hours of bending over slightly because the table was too low, stopping every 5 minutes to clear out silver skin, and the frequent beer break, lessons were learned that weekend.


Hunting season of '23 went nothing like I imagined. Following the luck I found in 2022, I decided i was going to get serious about one of my bucket list hunts, a Public land bear in Arkansas, specifically with a bow. As many of you may know, there is no baiting allowed on public land in Arkansas so this was going to be a monumental undertaking for someone who hadn't touched a bow in 10 years. This story probably deserves a post of its own, so without dragging this out, i was amazingly lucky to harvest a 4 year old male bear, in the last hours of the last day of my 7 days I had taken off of work. Something like 50 miles I had hiked that week, 12 of which were on the last day. Scouting every weekend from May to season opener. Shooting my bow every other day. Man that is a hunt i will never forget. In fact, my rug will hopefully be done in the next week.

After all the work put into bear season, i was a little burnt out so I didn't put much effort into deer, but i did manage to take a decent wild boar.




As for what's next? Planning a trip to Montana for spring bear '25, this rifle will be the one I take. I would love to get a Seekins Element in either a 6.5PRC or a 7, but that's not really in the budget for this year considering the rest of the western hunting gear I need to accumulate between the girlfriend and I. I've also been eyeballing a TBAC Ultra 7 pretty hard, and would likely pick this up before getting a new rifle.

I will eventually end up with a Nightforce, but everytime i get close to pulling the trigger, I get cold feet between the NXS 2.5-10 and NX8 2.5-20. Really not a fan of the G4i BDC reticle in my Razor LHT, but in actual use its been fine I guess.

 

[LightFoot]

Wow does time fly...wanting to get more active on here and figured this would be a great place to start with an update. I ended up going with the Ridgeline in 308 as i was able to get it out the door right at 1k so hard to pass up. For glass, I scoped it with a Razor HD LHT 3-15x50 Mil, and it has been a pretty sweet shooting setup. I had some concerns with the action bedding as it looks like the barrel sits a little crooked in the stock channel, but the handful of times I was able to shoot distance, I was hitting a 10in plate at 500 no problem. Considering the terrain I hunt, I'd be lucky to get a clear shot much past 60 yards so I try not to worry about it.

Deer season of '22 I was fortunate enough to harvest my first deer unassisted, (only other big game hunt was a doe with my buddy off his feeder back in Kansas) , and it was a nice 8pt buck on public land, 15 yards away 30 minutes after shooting light on opening day.View attachment 772408

Boiled the head for a Euro mount which turned out phenomenal, and processed the meat with my girlfriend. To stubborn/stupid/cheap to stop once we started, we ended up doing all of the grinding with my great grandmother's table clamp hand grinder. That was miserable. Probably took 6 hours of bending over slightly because the table was too low, stopping every 5 minutes to clear out silver skin, and the frequent beer break, lessons were learned that weekend.


Hunting season of '23 went nothing like I imagined. Following the luck I found in 2022, I decided i was going to get serious about one of my bucket list hunts, a Public land bear in Arkansas, specifically with a bow. As many of you may know, there is no baiting allowed on public land in Arkansas so this was going to be a monumental undertaking for someone who hadn't touched a bow in 10 years. This story probably deserves a post of its own, so without dragging this out, i was amazingly lucky to harvest a 4 year old male bear, in the last hours of the last day of my 7 days I had taken off of work. Something like 50 miles I had hiked that week, 12 of which were on the last day. Scouting every weekend from May to season opener. Shooting my bow every other day. Man that is a hunt i will never forget. In fact, my rug will hopefully be done in the next week.

After all the work put into bear season, i was a little burnt out so I didn't put much effort into deer, but i did manage to take a decent wild boar.
View attachment 772411



As for what's next? Planning a trip to Montana for spring bear '25, this rifle will be the one I take. I would love to get a Seekins Element in either a 6.5PRC or a 7, but that's not really in the budget for this year considering the rest of the western hunting gear I need to accumulate between the girlfriend and I. I've also been eyeballing a TBAC Ultra 7 pretty hard, and would likely pick this up before getting a new rifle.

I will eventually end up with a Nightforce, but everytime i get close to pulling the trigger, I get cold feet between the NXS 2.5-10 and NX8 2.5-20. Really not a fan of the G4i BDC reticle in my Razor LHT, but in actual use its been fine I guess.

Good write up. Congratulations and good job!

As far as between the NF NXS and NX8, it would be hard to go wrong with either. I went with the NX8 and I’m glad I did. There has been no need for 20x. Neither the 2.5, for that matter. The scope stays comfortably between 6 and 16. I like the capped windage on the NX8, otherwise the lighter NXS might have been my choice.

Good ballistic data and a NF optic (mil or MOA) will get you out further than your 308 has any business poking big game.

Again, I enjoyed reading your write up.


>>>——JAKE——>

 

[bigbassfish]

Thanks! One of these days I'll sit down and do a full write up of my bear hunt, literally couldn't have written it any better than how it went down. Initially when optic shopping i was fairly set on FFP but i actually don't mind the SFP, especially in the thick Arkansas timber. The eye box on the NX8 scares me a little, i've gotten to mess with one on a rifle and its not nearly as bad as when you're just trying to get a look through it in a store, but man it is definitely one of the smaller eyebox scopes i've looked through. The 4-32 is much better eyebox wise, but way over kill on magnification for 95% of where i hunt.

When started this thread, I was pretty dead set on the lightest setup i could get away with, with a little bit more long range practice under my belt, I think I'm more than happy to take an extra pound for better shootability.

 

[Thegman]

Nevermind...I didn’t notice this thread is 2 years old...I'll go back and find out what you ended up with. The suspense!

Personally, I think your first instinct was pretty darn good, probably in 6.5CM. That's a good basic do-everything rifle, which I think can drop another 1/2 pound or so with cleaning out the insides of the stock, if you want a really lightweight mountain rifle, around 5#.

Even though I haven't needed it for a couple of years, my old Montana (308) remains my favorite overall rifle despite having and liking a couple of Tikkas, which are great as well. I'd check both out and see which you prefer, but I'd go with either before a CA. Not that they're bad, I just prefer the Kimber and Tikka actions, triggers, and locking bolts.

 

[bigbassfish]

When i worked at a firearms dealer, Tikka was probably our most popular make of hunting rifle outside of the entry level savages and rugers. They are kind of like the glock of bolt actions, boringly reliable, the bare minimum of what you need in a hunting tool. While i would never steer someone away from a Tikka, i want something that makes me a little more....excited.

I have come into a Mesa FFT in 308 which i haven't gotten a chance to shoot yet, and if the recoil is still manageable for my girlfriend, i would likely sell my Ridgeline in search of a better suppressor host than a 24", maybe working a little backwards as we got the Mesa for her specifically in 308 to share ammo.

 

[bigbassfish]

From what i know, bears are not tough animals at all, I currently shoot Federal Fusion 165gr for deer and it's worked well, granted most things would at 20 yards dead broadside LOL. Have not tried to shoot this any further than 200yds so i don't know what to expect at distance.

I would like to try the Nosler AB 165gr for my upcoming spring bear hunt, it seems like this is one of the better options for stretching the effective range of a 308, not that i would feel comfortable much past 300. I would love to be able to shoot distance more, but since moving to Arkansas that has become a challenge.