Kimber. 1911s. Kimber. Mountain rifles? When you have a strong brand, offering your loyal customer base line extensions like this makes perfect sense. Financially. In the short term. In the long run you run the risk of becoming Porsche, a legendary sports car maker that now bases three-quarters of its business on pug-ugly trucks. Then again, Kimber actually started out making rifles. And Kimber’s new Mountain Ascent isn’t aesthetically challenging; it’s a traditional hunting piece. And here’s the kicker: the Mountain Ascent’s built from decidedly non-traditional materials, making this a gun light enough to carry all day long. . .
Thanks to Dan Hall at GunUp, TTAG got the nickel silver dollar tour of Kimber’s new products from Dwight Van Brunt. Van Brunt was blunt (although he wasn’t smoking one): it’s all about the weight, or lack thereof. The Kimber Mountain Ascent weighs a scant 4 lbs., 13 oz. Holding the gun, it feels like Van Brunt’s erring on the side of avoirdupois. Carrying this gun over hill and dale will be about as physically taxing as watching Chip and Dale.
Kimber’s trimmed every quarter ounce out of the Mountain Ascent’s heft. They’ve fashioned the stock from Kevlar-reinforced graphite. They’ve hollowed out the handle for the spiral fluted bolt. Thanks to the Kimpro II coating, the Kimber Mountain Ascent’s action is as smooth as Candice Swanepoel’s thighs. If it’s all too much (the rifle not the South African supermodel), you can remove that muzzle brake from the long gun’s 22” partially-fluted, tapered barrel.
In case you had trouble making out the gun in the photo at the top due to that high tech camo pattern . . . oops. Dwight was very specific: the pattern isn’t camo. Oxymoronically enough, it’s called ‘open carry concealment.’ In addition to the .308 caliber model, Kimber’s set to offer the Mountain Ascent in .270 Win, .30-06 and the esoteric .280 Ackley Improved.
Kimber says the Mountain Ascent will start climbing the sales chart in about three months. MSRP: a cool two grand. We’re hoping to get our hands on this non-1911 Kimber product for review before too long. Watch this space.
The Savage Edge (now Axis) is a bolt action .308 that weighs (with scope) just over 6 pounds. It is the most unpleasant firearm I’ve ever fired. There is not a chance in hell I’d buy this in .308 nevermind .30-06. I wouldn’t mind one if I was varmint hunting and going to be in the field all day and wanted an uber lightweight .204/.223/.22 Hornet/.22-250/.25-06 or something. But a .30-06 with anything smaller than the Barrett .50 BMG muzzle brake, no thanks.
My 5 and 1/2 pound kimber 308 sporter in walnut is a joy to shoot. Last time I took it out I came home home with a 170# whitetail. Carrying that and an FN-45 16 round as a sidearm, as well as my usual kit, wasn’t bad. A couple of beers and a night cap back at camp had a larger toll on my 160 pound frame than the 6 hour hunt. That being said, the kimber 308 has a kick you notice, but nothing I’d call punishing. But then my first real hunting rifle was a model 94 30-30 when I was ten, and Dad gave me the 30-06 model 70 when I was 13. If I had the money to buy one of these new lightweights, I might. Not likely though.
Seems to me there is a lot better caliber selection (like, everything) at a significantly lower price point in their Montana rifle. (MSRP 1359 v. 2040 for this new rifle). Stainless instead of kimpro, and no brake, but only 5 ozs. more.