Kimber 82g From The CMP

After visiting RimfireCentral.com few times back in the fall, I found out about these Kimber Model 82G 22RF Target Rifles. I had heard about them a year or two ago, but at that time I had only been aware of the $600 version of the 82G. The boys on this site were talking about a version called “Rusty”…..

Let’s back up a bit……There is this quasi-government entity called the “Civilian Marksmanship Program” where believe it or not the USA government endorses the sale of surplus firearms to the general public. Amazing….But true!

So anyways, over to the CMP site I go. Sure enough, for $200 less, you can get a Kimber 82G RUSTY. I check out the qualifications and I had everything I needed in the way of qualifications so I decided to buy one. For $400, how bad could it be?

Like anyone, I was VERY concerned that I’d get something that looked like it came out of the hold of a battle ship. All kinds of nasty rust and a real piece of ca-ca. A friend of mine and I were driving to Missouri from Massachusetts to do some deer hunting in November. I decided to take a detour up to Ohio and stop in at CMP North and pick out a “Rusty” with my own eyes and hands.

Well by the time we got to the point of turning off the highway and heading to the CMP, we were so  jonesing about hunting that we decided to hit it on the way back……Sure…..after a week of hunting we just wanted to get home because WE were getting Rusty..(If ya know what I mean…:cool:)

More checking on this site, and no reports of horror shows, I took the plunge and ordered a Rusty, sight unseen. Charged it to my Cabelas credit card…Got $4 in Cabelas Bucks!

My order went in on December 17 and I received the rifle today, February 7 .  Something about a bunch of WWII collectors wanting to get there darn bayonets held up delivery of my 82G! Don’t they know who I am! 😡

A few days ago I got an email from CMP telling me the “box” would be delivered last Friday before 12 noon. I stayed home all day and waited. At 4pm the FedEx tracking site had a notice that the bad weather had delayed shipments……………”We’ll get it to you when we get it to you…..!

Today Monday it arrived. I had to go on a client call so I wasn’t home. My wife called me about 11am to tell me it came and she signed for it. Since my wife is only 12 years old, she had to convince the FedEx driver that she was much older………..:rolleyes:

So, I get home from my 200 mile trip and what do I find…………

THE BOX!!!!!!!!  Even when I was a kid, I loved mail order. I bought everything from the back of comic books and couldn’t wait for the REA truck to show up. I bought a chicken once from Sears through the mail, but the box was VERY quiet. When I opened it, the chicken was dead……..So my father roasted it and we had it for dinner!  I was hoping the Kimber experience was better……

Upon opening this box, here is what you find….

ANOTHER BOX!…..and some really nice paperwork…Bill of sales, CMP inspector general check list and this………..

Suitable for framing………

So, with knife in hand (Kershaw “Ken Onion”), I decided to get with it. It was not unlike the birth of my first child! The anticipation was killing me. (But I used a much cleaner knife that day….)

And in the second box…..more paper!

Lets look at the accessories and the bolt first. I know you are all sitting on pins and needles waiting for this……….

First I removed the sights……………Oh-oh……

Yup, that would be rust………But I;m not going to use them anyways, so this doesn’t bother me.

And more here….

Time to take the bolt out of the womb…I mean plastic bag…

Just a very little bit of surface rust on the bottom. Everything else you see that might appear to be rust is some type of red-yellow preservative! One point for me!

The top side even looks better! I’m in love!

Now for the dreaded “Pvt Slingblade” issue. The cut plastic bag with the “gash” in the stock.

You see, somebody decided to use a Bowie knife to cut open the plastic bag on all these rifles to check serial numbers, and just about every Kimber 82G has a gash in the butt stock….Let’s see how bad mine is….

Wow! Not bad at all. Barely scratched the stock. A bit of sandpaper and a refinish and it will be beautiful!

But………….

My rifle has TWO scratches………but this one is the same depth as the butt stock scratch, no big deal! This stock is going to be unrecognizable when I’m finished with it. Ken Onion and I are going to whittle it down to a nice benchrest profile…Stay tuned!

Otherwise it has a great piece of wood…

The action has zero rust, just some more nasty preservative.

The bore is pristine! The rifle was stored with a paper straw in the bore saturated with some kind of oil

So other than a pair of nice yellow hands that makes me look like I have a two pack a day habit  (I don’t smoke), I couldn’t be more thrilled with my purchase of a rifle from CMP

So…Time to take the bolt apart. The horror stories have been told! Some folks report that getting these bolts apart for inspection and cleaning is the biggest issue with these Kimber 82G rifles. It is suggested to read the threads in the Kimber area at Rinfire Central, especially the stickies at the top of their page. Lots of great info there about taking the bolt apart etc.

I went down into the shop and before I started filling bags with Kroil and soaking bolts, I did what I always do…Try it first!

I took a small drift pin that fit into the socket head of the “cam bolt”……a couple taps of a small hammer to free up anything that might be stuck…….inserted allen key and with very light pressure, boom! It threaded right out!

As you can see here, the bolt is in perfect condition. Not a spot of rust anywhere…

Here is the disassembled bolt. That top extractor looks like it is rusted, it is actually case hardened with the nicest blue swirls you ever saw. All the other “marks” are preservative that whipped of with Break-Free and some 0000 steel wool.

The action within the stock was just as clean as everything else…

I love the engineering in the safety mechanism…

And lastly I filled all the holes in the barrel as I’ll never be using these scope mounts or the front sight….

Too bad the barrel is threaded. If it was a press fit, it could be removed and reinstalled upside down so all these screw holes would be on the bottom.

I bought a beautiful Kimber sporter stock off Ebay and the action fits right into it. I just might buy a third Rusty and turn the barrel down to remove the screw holes and shorten it to 22″. A nice Single Shot sporter Kimber!

Here’s the finished product for now…

Well……If you know me, I can’t leave anything alone….I have a desire to farkle just about anything I get my hands on……….The stock for the Kimber 82G is no exception.

So…..Here’s what it looks like now!

Here is the article on the full stock modification:

http://www.rvbprecision.com/shooting/kimber-82g-stock-modification.html

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Thanks