A few months ago someone on here drew my attention to a bargain brand new Kimber Hunter in 257R down south for sale. Ryan maybe. Anyway, I bought it. Its taken a few months of mucking about getting scope mounts, components and a load sorted but finally yesterday it was ready for its first outing. 115grn Nosler BTips at 2930 fps in the magazine. They shoot little groups.
Earlier in the evening I had seen 3 reds on a little clear ridge a good distance away so as a last chance I decided to stalk through the bush to where they had been in the hope I could get onto them. I was quietly bush stalking my way around a face towards the spot when I spotted a big hind watching me at about 70 yards. She was on the alert and broad side on. Partly obscured though. The sound of the Kimber rattling one up the spout set her off and I just had time to get what I thought was a good shot into her.
I waited a few minutes and then followed her up, following her skid marks in the soft soil. No blood. After about 20 yards there she was piled up with a fair bit of blood splattered about. Centre of the shoulder shot and the bullet had gone right through and done a good job.
She was a big girl and she took a bit of man-handling to get her into a position where I could disassemble her.
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Attachment 206768
It took about an hour or so to butcher her and to get her back to where I had started from. It was quite a load and as I dumped my pack at the quad I looked up and there were 2 hinds in the gloom unaware of me. I scurried a hundred yards or so in a hurry to get to a shooting spot but it was too dark to see them. Back to the bike, grab a torch from my pack, stick it on the rifle trying not to make any noise and back to the shooting spot. Light on, and there were 2 hinds at about 150 yards. Whammo and one staggers around the face 20 yards and tips over. Hit in the shoulder and the bullet exited out through the flank.
I gutted her and was able to drag her down the hill right to the quad. That was cool.
Attachment 206769
So an impressive start for the Kimber 257R. A neat little rifle and caliber.
