Tikka vs Kimber, what would you do?

[dotman]

You may want to hear from both those with crappy kimbers and the people that have a tack driver, findout their timeframes of ownership vs the ones without problems. To only hear from a few guys that had issues will not give you the entire picture. I still think the guys with major Kimber issues are in the minority vs the guys with tack drivers.

 

[Dromsky]

^^^^^^^^ good point^^^^

 

[wapitibob]

My problems were several years ago. I have no idea if they have changed, I'll never own another Kimber.
My current rifle is shooting 1" @300 so I won't be switching any time soon.

 

[SJ-AK]

My Kimber issues were several years ago as well. I bought mine knowing some had issues but I wanted to see for myself. Maybe the newer ones are better, I hope they are because they have a lot of nice features.

The only issue you ever hear about with a T3 is the plastic bolt shroud. $50 and 5 minutes remedies that.

 

[dotman]

Tikkas have had some issues but overall not that much and can't argue they are accurate. My kimber is a 2012 model and is a tack driver, currently setting it up to shoot out to 1000. Nothing has been worked on just changed the stock to a McMillian from the wood, mine is the classic 8400 300wsm.

 

[Richf]

I have been shooting a tikka t3 lite in 270wsm for 5-6 years I think. With factory federal 130 soft points I'm getting 1/4" or better at 100 yards. The gun didn't like Winchester ballistic tips at all. I don't understand the issue with the stock and plastic parts. It is what it is for the price you pay.

 

[GKPrice]

Of the two brands I have worked with (as in mounted a scope and sighted in with factory ammo AND worked up handloads for) many were Tikka T3's - of the many the ONLY rifle of any make or model to put 4 factory rounds (130 W-W ballistic silvertip) into one symmetrical hole at 100 yds was a CM T3 in 270 WSM and I was cussing it as I walked the 100 yards to the target to figure out WHERE the second hole was (can you imagine how nervous I was on #'s 3 & 4 ?) - most have been 270 WSM and all of those have been absolute tack drivers, my son, my son in law, my son's best friend, 1 in "layaway" for my grandsonand the one I use as a back up and antelope rifle, they ALL shoot sub MOA and do it consistently and trouble free, I also have a superlight that started as a 7mm RM and is now an "ultralight" 338 Win Mag - I only have 24 rounds through it so far but it threatens to be a tack driver too (and it does not kick all that bad either, thank you much for the excellent design !) ALL of that said, I do like my Kimber Montana's - they are engineered to be a "huntin' rifle" pure and simple
"bang for the buck" I'd have to vote for the Tikka superlight

 

[JFKinYK]

Not unsurprisingly, that 2 sentence description does not outline Kimber's full policy in regards to the MOA Standard - and speculating absent a more thorough understanding is not constructive. Per a discussion I had with a Kimber Customer Service rep, its rifles are tested with factory ammo prior to shipment and not shipped unless they shoot MOA. If the gun will not shoot MOA for the buyer given certain criteria are met, there is a process for returning the gun to the company for independent testing, etc. The word "guaranty" was mentioned unsolicited in the explanation of this.

Thanks for diggin deeper MattB. Since Kimbers run about $1899 in Canada, I haven't given much time or thought to owning one, but was curious about this new guarantee. They should certainly be talking that up on their website more!

 

[AZ Vince]

If Kimber has improved their QC I'd get the Kimber.
If not then I'd go with the Tikka. I'm a fan of the CRF and I like what Kimber offers so if it shoots accurately that would be my choice.

 

[AXEL]

ANY repeat ANY rifle can-may have accuracy issues and after owning about 150 rifles over 50 years, this is ONE constant that I DO totally agree with. I have had custom pieces from BIG name US makers that were pathetic until I figured out the loads and the barrel seasoned,the first of my two Dakota 76s in .338 took me 4+ years to save for and when I first shot it, May, 1994, it shot patterns not groups.

I had it back to Dakota twice and worked on it and THEN, it commenced to shoot my favoured 250 NPs at max into 3 shot groups of .65 average. That, IMO, is VERY good for a light .338WM wearing a 1.75x6 scope and weighing maybe 8.7 lbs, all up. Now, at 68, with serious spinal issues, it will STILL do .8 inch average and I can no longer shoot field positions well enough to worry about this.

My second Dakota, bought for my 68th bday, was tuned and slightly used when I got it and shot sub-moa from the get go, it is even lighter, Magna-Ported and not at all bad to shoot. In fact, I sometimes wish I had the self discipline to just sell all the others and use these to hunt everything.

To me, the first consideration in a new hunting rifle is functional reliability in sudden situations involving Grizzlies, then fit and feel and lastly accuracy in terms of small groups. I often hunt with my Browning OU .308Win-12ga. combo which does about 1.2 at 100 with Nossies and have never found a shot at game that it would not make.....then, there IS the big Blacktail, that bounded onto a trail 15 yds. in front of me that I missed clean from surprise one lovely Sept. morn, but, well, we wont go there, eh!

 

[16Bore]

About the only way to decide, regardless of others experience, is to buy both and see WTF. I'm currently sitting on a 270WSM Montana that's a fine shooter and a XCRII in 7mag. Basically it's Thunderdome; 2 rigs enter, 1 rig leaves. Out of the gate the Kimber has the weight and stock advantage, which is easily cured by McMillan. I'm not worried about the 1# difference. So now it's a matter of which one I like to shoot. The 7rm has yet to be fired, but for me I'll throw some advantage to it because of 162 AMax's, which are hard to beat. Once the smoke clears, one gets sold and I'll live happily ever after.

So I might lose a few bucks on transfers, burn a little powder, and waste a little time at the loading bench. Ain't no thing. I trust my judgement.





At the end of the day, it's the only way to find what floats your boat......

 

[mtluckydan]

The love-hate relationship with Kimbers should be your first clue. I loved my three Kimbers. I still pick up Kimbers when I see them in a shop or at a show. However, I wouldn't ever buy another one and I no longer have any of the three I used to own. They were older guns, but the Montana's haven't been out that long. They all started out shooting well and I had a 7-08 that was my favorite rifle. It went from shooting good to shooting bad in one day and I spent three years trying to get it to shoot well again with base & ring changes, scope changes, and glass bedding. I didn't rebarrel it because I was tired of spending money on it. They have had accuracy issues, feeding issues and their firing pin springs are noted to fail. I know of at least a six people I know personally that had firing pin springs fail on elk. I rarely say bad things about products like this and I know many on here love their Kimbers as I did, but you can make up your own mind. There are other choices in the same weight category for slightly more money that work just fine.

 

[16Bore]

You know 6 people that had Kimber firing pins fail while shooting at elk, and your name is lucky?

 

[mtluckydan]

At least one of them wasn't me. I replaced all mine with new wolf springs. They were popular here so many guys had them for awhile. Most gun shops don't stock them here any more and this is why Kimber is probably having to go the route they are going with the guarantee. Kimber has/had an office here in Kalispell and they sold many rifles because of it. When you spend alot of time around like minded people the word is going to get out when there is a problem. You can easily find the customer service issues with respect to accuracy by doing a little research on the net. I know gun shop owners that got into screaming matches with Kimber trying to get their customers guns fixed and they just quit selling them. Any time you piss people off at that level your sales are going to be hurt. Kimbers focus seemed to be on their 1911 platform because they had more orders than they could fill - they may still have that problem. The Montana is a great rifle if it works for you. However, I want to know without reservation that when I squeeze the trigger there will be a bang and that the round is going to go where it is suppose to if I do my part. Thankfully I don't know anyone who had to pull up on a grizz and not have their gun go bang because that is a reality where I walk around.

 

[aclawrence]

Well just as a spectator of this thread I haven't seen any post where somebody said they bought a Tikka and it didn't shoot right. I did have a friend several years ago that got rid of a Kimber bc of accuracy issues but I'm not sure if it was a Montana model or not. What about Savage they seem to be pretty good shooters too?

 

[GKPrice]

First 2 Kimbers I dealt with, my son and I bought 325 WSM Montana's for an impending moose hunt - my son's shot factory W-W 200 Accubonds initially into sub MOA @ 100 yd and then the groups just opened up and that was it (under 40 rds), went to Sierra 220 SBT's in his (and mine) and they shot 3/4" groups all the time with IMR 4007 at consistent 2800 fps, not bad at all for a 220 - we killed 2 moose, I killed "several" wolves at 400+ and we moved on - I was perturbed because I never could get either one to shoot 200 AB's to my standards -3rd, Montana 270 WSM, broke in the barrel TEDIOUSLY, set the gun up carefully, it would shoot 140 Accubonds into under 1" 100 yd groups up to 5 shots for 12 - 15 shots then it was anyone's guess what kind of groups I was gonna get, clean the barrel and 12 - 15 shots and the same story, that went on until I was concerned I was going to shoot the barrel out - 4th was an 84L 280 AI and I went through the same long prodedure and never could get a decent group from that rifle, I pedaled it (and I was honest about what I'd experienced to the buyer) and then tried an 84L 30-06 which shot 165 Accubonds into 3/4" pretty quickly and I thought I'd "arrived" then ... rotator cuff tear, surgery, complications, another surgery, bills, sold that 84L to a buddy who had JES rebore it to a 338-06 that ended up being a tack driver, my buddy passed away unexpectedly (and tragically) and gun gone - I've also had 3 Montana .308's that I briefly owned and resold and all of them were very accurate with 165 Accubonds and TSX being the best BUT all three had what I saw as slow barrels - I talked numerous times with Kimber CS and I still have 2 FP springs in the package that were willingly offered up (unsolicited) for the .308's, no feeding problems, no FP problems, no broken at the pistol grip Kevlar stock problems,BUT what I perceived from all of this is that Kimber has CONSISTENCY ISSUES and from what I've read here it appears true - I know the 1911 line well and own a couple, as well I'm good friends with a factory dealer shop owner, same takeaway ..... draw your own conclusions - Kimber has a good line of products - "it would appear" that they are taking short cuts in the area of production, whether that is manpower or whatever is not for me to say - IMO, for the $$ in comparison to what one must pay for comparable products it "might" be worth the gamble that you get a good one

 

[GKPrice]

wife called me for dinner ... Tikka's ... first one's story posted earlier - I've lost track of how many since - some were "good" shooters which I categorize in the 1" +/- @ 100 yd class, most have been what I'd call STELLAR shooters - had a SS 338 win mag that I could not get to shoot anything, no matter bullet weight or ANYTHING, sold it on gunbroker with a disclaimer in the description - bought a SS 300 WSM intending to set it up shooting factory ammo for my son in the event that if something happened to me he would have a decent rifle to hunt with (he doesn't handload) it was easily one of the most Inaccurate rifles I've ever had in my hands, it is now a PacNor SS 270 WSM (barreled by the late John Noveske, a close friend) which shoots quite nicely - a SS 300 Win Mag superlight which shot 200 Accubonds into VERY consistent 3/4" groups @ 200 yds, (cannot explain WHY I sold it) - numerous 270 WSM's and each and every one has been a "shooter" - of ALL the Tikka T3 rifles I've had the pleasure to work with, the good and "bad" shooters all, not a single one has ever failed to feed, have the magazines ever fallen out of accidentally, no safeties have failed, EVERY trigger has been right at 3 lbs OUT OF THE BOX, bedding has been right, scope base holes were inline with threads perfect, not a big fan of the stock scope rings but they seem to work well enough if carefully installed, aside from the absence of a 3 function safety I personally can't see a single thing wrong with the quality or design of these rifles (I have a burning urge to own a superlight in 30-06 that will not go away ...) OH, and those "plastic" stocks ?? just try and tear one up, I dare you ......

 

[husky390]

My Kimber Montana in 300wsm shoots great, as long as I can get it to feed properly. I had a great conversation with a very nice and friendly Kimber CSR about it and he said he would send me a new magazine spring to try and fix the issue. That was a month ago and I've yet to see the spring.

 

[lcxctf2000]

aclawrence - my savage shoots lights out. It's not pretty. It's not super light. It doesn't have nearly the aftermarket goodies available for it that say Remingtons or Tikka's do. But it will stack bullets on top of each other any day. I've had the same accuracy when fire forming cheap factory rounds to my fine tuned handloads. In fact it made me feel foolish for investing in my reloading press it's so good with factory loads!

 

[husky390]

aclawrence - my savage shoots lights out. It's not pretty. It's not super light. It doesn't have nearly the aftermarket goodies available for it that say Remingtons or Tikka's do. But it will stack bullets on top of each other any day. I've had the same accuracy when fire forming cheap factory rounds to my fine tuned handloads. In fact it made me feel foolish for investing in my reloading press it's so good with factory loads!

LOL, it pissed me off something fierce when a cheap $20/box of Federal 180gr SP would out shoot any of the handloads I made for my Savage 110 in 300wm. It took me awhile to figure out that once I seated the bullet out farther I could finally get my handloads to shoot as well as the factory stuff.