Lightweight Mountain Rifles - How does yours shoot?

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Alright guys. How does your lightweight mountain rifle shoot?

Some details about your gun, what you shoot and how it groups would be awesome. Better yet, pictures ;) Feel free to post about your production rifles or your custom rifles it doesnt matter as long as it's a lightweight rifle. Call it, under 7 lbs ish?

I've had a few "mountain rifles" over the years, everything from Tikka T3 Superlite, to Rem 700 Mountain SS that all shot around MOA ish. Some 1.5ish and some just under sub moa reliably. All of the Kimber's I've had have shot very well.

Went out today and shot 12 rounds to sight in a new gun. Was really curious to see if this rifle had more than just good looks. The ammo is also expensive at $90 / box and hard to find so I shot sparingly. I am also going to use the brass to work up some hand loads.


Rifle/Caliber/Scope/Ammo:
Kimber Mountain Ascent in 280AI paired with a Leupold VX-3 4.5-14X40 Boone & Crockett shooting factory Nosler Trophy Grade 140 NAB @ ~3150fps


Sight in:
just a visual bore sight at 100 yards. Hit the target 5" left and a little low. Dialed it up, shot 2 more rounds and then moved out to the next target.

1st and 2nd group 3 shots:

Saw a 4ft X 4ft plywood target stand in the distance. Someone was kind enough to haul it in and leave it up so I drove down to it and stapled up two targets. I drove back as far as I could and put the laser on it - 340 yards. First two groups were about 4" - not stellar, but not bad.

Final 3 shots:
Settled in with rifle at this point and squeezed off the last 3 rounds allowing 5 minutes between shots for cool down.

My MOA calculation is simplified (1.931/3.4). I'm not a great shooter but this rifle made it pretty easy. I'm impressed with these tiny barrels. Need to clean the rifle, and shoot another 100 or so rounds before fall hunting season. Will see how it shoots once broken in.

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This is my lighter weight rifle, a Remington 700 Ti in 270 / 08.
It is 6lb. 4oz. as pictured.
Originally a 260 Rem., it came out of the box with a dud barrel and I wanted something different hence the 270 / 08 chambering.
Best groups to date are a 130 Accubond at 0.30 " and a 160 CIL Kling-Kore at 0.60 ".
Those bullet weights pretty well cover my needs so I have looked no further.
 
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[/URL][/IMG]These two groups were my first groups with my ascent. I was using 130 gr burger bullets. I have trouble with this photo bucket thing. I cant seem to resize the pictures.
 
Well I don't have any pics right now.....but I took the plunge on a Forbes 24b in 30-06!! Was a lot of bad reviews with these rifles but since it's a rem 700 clone "just smaller" i figured what the hell.......could always get a gunsmith to tweek it.

So far zero issues with feeding and ejection.....had a bit of an issue with the extractor but got that ironed out quickly with a few swipes from a file

So far the rifle has proven to be well under 3/4 MOA. Have three loads that will be tested tomorrow to see what load will go sheep hunting this year.:
168 Barnes TTSX at 2840 fps
165 hornady sst at 2790 fps
165 North Fork ss @........3065 fps

All loads will shoot 2 rounds under 1/2" and if I shoot the third round she'll open up to 3/4" @100! Figure that I only need one and the second for a backup " just in case" lol!!!

Oh ya almost forgot with a Leupold 2x7 and talley rings she's sits at an even 6lbs!

Can't wait to get at it in the morning!!! Will try posting pics tomorrow!!
 
My mountain rifle that I've never taken to the mountains is a Kimber Montana in 270 WSS. I sorta stole it (thanks Davey). On a calm day I can easily keep them all under MOA on my 650 yard targets, aiming with the infinity pin of a B&C reticle. This is with 130 Ballistic Tips and Accubonds driven to 3400 fps with a bunch of 7828. I'm a little reluctant to use up the barrel wondering what else it shoots, but 160 grain partitions are a closer range option that I can use whithout a sight change, it has a 200 yard zero when the rifle is zeroed for 300 with the main load.
 
My mountain rifle that I've never taken to the mountains is a Kimber Montana in 270 WSS. I sorta stole it (thanks Davey). On a calm day I can easily keep them all under MOA on my 650 yard targets, aiming with the infinity pin of a B&C reticle. This is with 130 Ballistic Tips and Accubonds driven to 3400 fps with a bunch of 7828. I'm a little reluctant to use up the barrel wondering what else it shoots, but 160 grain partitions are a closer range option that I can use whithout a sight change, it has a 200 yard zero when the rifle is zeroed for 300 with the main load.
I have the same rifle but mine is a 7mm wsm. I have a 4.5 - 14 leupold with b&c reticle mounted on it.
 
My mountain rifle that I've never taken to the mountains is a Kimber Montana in 270 WSS. I sorta stole it (thanks Davey). On a calm day I can easily keep them all under MOA on my 650 yard targets, aiming with the infinity pin of a B&C reticle.

That rifle wasn't even broken in yet when you got your paws on it. Dad decided he wanted and 84L after seeing and shooting mine. Glad it is shooting good for you, I knew it would :cool:

Three Montana's here now and they are here for good!
 
My mountain rifle for the prairies is a 6.5-284 Savage Lightweight Hunter. I only have a 2-7 on it but she does half inch all day with reloads. Like it so much I searched a long time to get my boys the exact rifles. 5.75 pounds and 750 bucks. Works like a charm and it's taken several moose and elk already.
 
My mountain rifle for the prairies is a 6.5-284 Savage Lightweight Hunter. I only have a 2-7 on it but she does half inch all day with reloads. Like it so much I searched a long time to get my boys the exact rifles. 5.75 pounds and 750 bucks. Works like a charm and it's taken several moose and elk already.

Not a Savage fan but for the money Im really liking that rifle.
 
Here's my best group at distance (300m) I've had from my m700 300 savage, firing 130gr ttsx at 2950. I don't try that hard but it seems to shoot sub MOA farther than I can. I've struggled with 400m (440y) groups so I limit myself to 350m, where I haven't grouped it on paper but can regularly whack a 10" gong.
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That rifle wasn't even broken in yet when you got your paws on it. Dad decided he wanted and 84L after seeing and shooting mine. Glad it is shooting good for you, I knew it would :cool:

Three Montana's here now and they are here for good!


Sounds like your dad knows what he wants, and doesn't waste a bunch of time getting at it. Life's too short to waste time hemming and hawwing.



As an aside, the single most important thing I've found for getting a Kimber to group tightly off the bench is just to hold the grip a lot harder than I would normally. Holding the forend might shock and offend the 10+ pound flat bottom crowd but that can help too. Everything about a Kimber stock shape is to make it fit in your hands like it was born there, and none of it was made to ride a sand-bag. Another is to pay special attention to keeping the cross-hairs level; for pretty much the same reason.
 
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