On 7/2/17 I won a Kimber Mountain Ascent at a Backcountry Hunters and Anglers raffle. Having heard many complaints about Kimber QC/QA and customer service, I wasn't too thrilled about the Kimber lotto. A close friend had recently purchased a Barrett Fieldcraft https://barrett.net/firearms/fieldcraft/ in .308 and was extremely happy with it. Reviews of the Fieldcraft on other forums were very positive. I made a deal with my LGS to trade the Kimber for the Barrett straight across. It took until 10/3/17 for the Kimber to show up. I made the trade and took delivery of the Fieldcraft in 6.5 Creedmoor. The Fieldcraft ships with a certificate for Talley rings http://www.talleymanufacturing.com/P...ieldcraft.aspx (1" or 30 mm) in low, medium, or high. I ordered 30 mm low rings which arrived about 10 days later from Barrett.
Weight without rings per the LGS scale is 5 lbs. 2.8 ounces.
Deciding on a scope was a challenge. Of course, I wanted something fairly compact and light. Distances can be very long here in the Big Empty. I like to dial elevation and have been using Mils for several years. I really couldn't find anything that checked all the boxes. I ultimately settled on a Bushnell 3 - 12 x 44 LRHS. http://bushnell.com/hunting/rifle-sc...rhs-3-12x-44mm It's bigger and heavier than I preferred. On the other hand(s), the glass is very nice, it offers adequate magnification, the reticle is sweet, it's in Mils, and the turrets are great. The objective bell clears the barrel easily with the low rings.
I decided to zero a bit high at 100 yards using factory Hornady 140 ELD Match ammo. https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/r...r-eld-match#!/ This stuff runs well in my heavy Surgeon 6.5 rifle - not as well as my handloads though. I fired a few rounds from the bench to achieve my zero. Here is the first three shot group:
I now have only about 50 rounds downrange. My first impression is very favorable. I have had no malfunctions of any sort. The Timney trigger is a smidgen heavier than I like. I may adjust it a bit. Accuracy with factory ammo is quite good. My muzzle velocity averaged 2696 fps. SD was 10. Recoil is brisk, as was expected. I dialed 3.1 mils of elevation to easily ring the 600 yard steel. I have since added a 1" Biothane Rhodesian sling from Andy's Leather. https://www.andysleather.com/collect...hodesian-sling I've not yet had the rifle in the field but, it promises to be a very nice general purpose plains game hunting piece. From the Big Empty, ELN.
P.S. I apologize that a couple of the photos are out of rotation. I'm not sure how to fix that.