Well here's a question for y'all

[skeet]

Now we all really like nice rifles..I mean NICE. Here is my dilemma. I have found a pretty rifle for sale locally. Fellow has a pretty Kimber 8400(I guess). It is a really nice rifle not a scratch on it. The wood is pretty. Not gorgeous..pretty. It is impeccable as far as condition...BUT it is in 300 WSM. I am not a fan of the new fangled umpity humpity maganumbs but this is a really nice rifle. I can probably buy it for 700 bucks. I think that is a pretty good price for a Kimber like this. Oh and one other thing..it is NOT a very heavy rifle. Probably not much fun to shoot...A friend just called..told him about it and his comment was..gee the ammo is REALLY expensive! Maybe he is right. What say y'all if it a buyer or a leaver??

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Not to sound like the rifle's father, but....what are your intentions?

Do you plan to hunt with it? If so, I think I would pass.....you've said it's not a heavy rifle, so it will probably kick like a mule with attitude, and as you already said, ammo is expensive (and probably hard to find to boot).

Also, it may be pretty now, but after hunting with it a few seasons, I'm pretty sure that it's going to be....well, not so pretty. One thing I hated was hunting with my buddy when he brought along his Browning Citori.....he was so afraid of scratching the finish that he held the gun under his coat while hunting....needless to say, he never, [I]ever[I] bagged a grouse or woodcock with that gun.

Are you just going to use it as a shooter? The rifle might stay pretty, but your shoulder will probably need a heavy dosing of Ben-Gay after a range session, not to mention that the ammo (and probably reloading components, dies, ect) are expensive and hard to come by.

Finally, are you buying it as an investment? MIght not be a bad deal....you can probably get your money back out of it, and then some.....but in this economy, there isn't a whole lot of buyers (at least in my neck of the woods), and they are ALL looking for bargains......

Just my thoughts and point of view.....yours may vary!

[Evan03]

I would not touch it with 10ft stick.
ive handle them lots and theyre not that great in my opion. in my opion you myswell just buy ruger/remington/savage and have a rifle thats just as good in caliber you like

[skeet]

I don't know my intentions at this point.. But I may just baqck off. I once had a Kimber 89 BGR in the Super America version. Sold it like a fool. Worth 3-4 grand now..more if new in box... Alas..it is gone long gone. I'm gonna think on this one ovrnight and see how i feel about it tomorrow in the light of day..

[dovehunter]

Originally Posted by skeet

I don't know my intentions at this point.. But I may just baqck off. I once had a Kimber 89 BGR in the Super America version. Sold it like a fool. Worth 3-4 grand now..more if new in box... Alas..it is gone long gone. I'm gonna think on this one ovrnight and see how i feel about it tomorrow in the light of day..

As I recall, you are a handloader. This may sound dumb, but if you really like the gun otherwise, couldn't you just get a set of dies and load it to .308 and/or .30-06 velocity or (more importantly) recoil levels?

[Evan03]

how bought rebarrel it with 6.5 or 25 tube and called it a 25wsm or 6.5wsm

[muskrat30]

I have an A-Bolt in 300WSM. I have not shot it to much but load all my ammo & usually load it at about 30-06 +p levels. My 180 grn loads were 2812 fps across the chrony. Of course as a reloader you would have a wide spectrum of data available. I usually use a little smaller cartridge when hunting. As to buying it or not I have little to offer. At least the 300wsm has some pretty good traction & should be around for awhile.

[GoodOlBoy]

I would have to walk away from it unless you were thinking about throwing more money at it to get it rebarreled. Like you I have little use for the modern manglums. I can kill anything walking on this continent with a 45-70 and it don't try to beat me to death when I pull the trigger.

GoodOlBoy

[toxic111]

I have no comment on the rilfe itself, bu tht e .300WSM is not that bad to shoot, I have shot one out of buddy's Tikka, not a heavy rifle at all, and it was not much worse than my .30-06 for recoil, and much less than a .300mag I have tried. This was shot with factory 180grain loads, no reduced recoil reloads.

That said, I agree that anything can be taken with a .270 if you really want too. Also remember at one time the .30-06 was one of those new fangled calibers. Things move on, and things change.

[rainydays]

Of all the new WSM's, I really like the 300. I load for it and shoot one alot. My son and a couple of friends have them. There Savages are lighter in weight than my Rugers. I find them similar to an 06 recoil wise. One of them in a Kimber would be very nice for someone.

[muledeer]

If you like it and it's priced fairly, buy it! Sell it later if it's more gun than you can handle and hopefully for more than you paid for it. I know you have a good eye for value. I have three Weatherby's (all magnums) 270,7, and 300 and haven't been in the hospital yet All are fun to shoot. I just don't fire 50 rounds in a shooting session. As you know when you're hunting you never feel recoil anyhow (if that's what you intend to use it for). Did I tell you about my Barrett M99 50 cal? BTW skeet I'm over 60.
muledeer

[GoodOlBoy]

30-06 isn't a new fangled caliber not even remotely compared to wsm wssm wsssssssmmmmmuphsouchouchouch.

That being said Skeet said it was a very light rifle. I don't care if you are recoil sensative or have a shoulder like a nerve dead rhino you are going to get the malarky kicked out of you with a 300 anything in a cery light rifle. I don't even wanna shoot a 270 or 30-06 or 25-06 in some of the real light rifle configs. You don't have enough mass for the amount of recoil.

GoodOlBoy

[GoodOlBoy]

by the way for those at home the 30-06 was finalized in 1906.

the 300 WSM was introduced in 2001.

Don't think that makes the 30-06 count a new fangled caliber for the discussion at hand. I believe we can discount anything over 50 years old as no longer being new fangled.

GoodOlBoy

[skeet]

Actually I have a few Maganumbs. And one or two is Newfangled or thereabouts. Have a 300 Win Mag a 300H&H a 257 Weatherby mag..oh and an oldfangled 375H&H. Not scared to shoot'em or anything just don't have much use for these new maganumbs with the short fat body and the shorter action(by a whole half inch. To get the higher velocities they holler so loudly about they work at much higher pressures to get a whole(maybe 100 FPS) more than say a 300 Win mag. Then they tout the short action with the shorter bolt throw..like you actually notice it. Sure they do. 2 ounces and a half inch. wow. The thing I like about the Kimber isi it is a really nice remake of the pre64 Winchester 70 rifle. Better fitting and steels. And did i say they are pretty?? Notwithstanding I actually enjoy shooting most of them. The only one I haven't included is an old Weatherby 300 built on a flat top Mauser action. MAde in the 50's sometime when Weatherby got actions wherever they could. That thing is the nastiest shootin gun I have ever shot. Specially for its size.

Muledeer I also have a Barrett 50. One of the older semi auto's. Bought a few years back from a DEA agent. It was probably a confiscation. I didn't ask as the price was right. He actually had a couple IIRC. and a bunch of other guns. Some I actually wanted..badly. But he didn't want to sell darn it. He had one of them German MP 40s or whatevers. Ugly but..neat at the same time. I probably couldn't afford to shoot it anyway... My father in law said he captured one or two of them in the late lamented WWII. he said he shot a few rounds out of it.. Said everybody shot at him. It had a distinctive sound...or so he said.

[muledeer]

Well have you decided yet? Will you (do you) have an opportunity to fire the Kimber before you purchase? You have some stout calibers in your locker. I don't think a 300WSM will rattle you at all.
muledeer