People ask a lot, and I don't mind repeating. My Custom II is the best handgun I have ever owned. It is in a fanny pack in front of my laptop right now. It has had so few malfunctions of any kind I can't even recall them. (I bought it in 2003 or so for $630.) Many thousands of rounds, several different magazine types, including Kimber factory mags. I have no idea how many .22s I have shout through a conversion kit, tens of thousands. I carry it openly when I'm out in the desert, I carry it concealed in a variety of holsters, if I were allowed, I would carry it to war tomorrow. I have carried Glocks, Berettas, Sigs, S&Ws, Paras, Colts, etc. None of them work for me as well as Kimber. I am a fanboy because I tried everything else.
Several of my friends and family have subsequently bought 1911s, mostly Kimbers and Springfields. None have told me of significant problems. My best friend bought his wife a Kimber with the external extractor. Theyhaven't had any problems. I told them about the reports, and that Kimber will replace it for free, but he said he will wait until he sees a problem before he gets it fixed. My dad bought a Springfield Mil-Spec, and I like it just fine, but when we shoot, he says he really wishes it felt and worked more like my Kimber. I reminded him that he wanted a customizable entry level gun, and he will need to do some tweaking to make is better.
See, I call it Ford Taurus syndrome. Ford sold enough Tauruses to fill the Gulf of Mexico. Just about everyone I know has owned one at one time or another. Therefore, I know a lot of people who have had weird problems with them. This does NOT mean they they are more LIKELY to have a problem than other cars. It just means that there are MORE of them. Kimbers are the same way. They sell several TIMES more 1911-pattern pistols than their nearest competitor. This means there may be more reported problems in the marketplace. (Particularly on the internet, where people with guns that run just fine usually don't say anything, but people with problems shout them from the cyber mountaintops.) This does NOT mean there is a higher RATE or LIKELIHOOD of failure than other pistols.
I shot a Nighthawk at a rental range, with a $2700 price tag. Great. Probably better than a Kimber. But not three times better. And it jammed on me twice. All mechanical devices fail eventually.
I can only speak to the experience of myself and the guns of my friends and family I have personally shot and worked with. I had a terrible experience with a S&W Sigma that was so bad I wouldn't trust it to hold papers on my desk. When I detail THAT experience, I am sneered at for failing to recognize that I just got a lemon, and that doesn't mean that all Sigmas suck. Hey whatever. That is my experience. Take my, and ALL internet advice for exactly what you paid for it.
