Kimber Ultra Carry II / Reliability Issue

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whatnickname

whatnickname

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I've been around handguns all of my life and have been reloading for 40 years. I have a number of Kimber .45 ACP pistols...both full size as well as what I will call "Commander" format with 4" barrels. I recently purchased an Ultra Carry II as it was more easily concealed than the other pistols. I had read that the technical difficulties with the really short 3" barrels were significant but figured that Kimber would surely have the solution based on their reputation and my experience with the five other Kimbers I own. Well, Kimber makes it clear in their owners manual that this pistol is designed to run with ball ammo and advises in their owners manual that a break-in period of 500 rounds is required to ensure complete reliability. I'm at the 300 round mark now and, while the reliability has improved, I'm still seeing one or two failures to feed toward the end of the box of ammo, so I know fouling is the cause...the pistol runs just fine when it starts out clean. My questions are as follows:

Has ony one else experienced this problem? If so how did you resolve it? (yes I have polished the feed ramp...didn't seem to make that much difference.) BTW Metal Form magazines work much better than those supplied by Kimber!

I intend to carry ball ammo in this pistol as expansion and reliability with hollow points are questionable with this short barrel. Yes, I know that ball is not suppose to be that good in a gun fight but so far, I have yet to see anyone that wanted to volunteer to step in front of a 230 grain ball round! The law here requires anyone with a CCW permit to carry factory ammunition. Does anyone know which brand of ball ammo is cleaner?...Like I said, I'm a reloader and don't care to buy any large quantity of factory ammo. BTW...my ball reloads function better than the brass cased ball marketed by Speer...go figure.

Should I keep shooting at this point or return the pistol to Kimber to address the reliability issue?

The black oxide finish on this pistol is showing accelerated signs of holster wear. I'm thinking of having the slide and barrel hard cromed. My concerns are that this may cause additional problems in functioning requiring me to break the pistol in all over again or, worst case, render completely and permanently unreliable. Does anyone have any experience or observations on this issue?
 
Should I keep shooting at this point or return the pistol to Kimber to address the reliability issue?
Click to expand...

Maybe go ahead and shoot the remaining 200 rds through the gun to get to the recommended 500 for the break in period and see how it's working then.
 
whatnickname, The small 1911 type pistol is not as reliable as a full size 1911. None I have seen were reliable as a full size, be it a Colt,SA, and the others. orchidhunter
 
I have nothing constructive to add, but I have to ask. Where do you live that you have to run factory ammo? I've never heard of that before.
 
Reliability / Extractor

Extractor tension???...hadn't thought about that one. I'll check it out thanks. I know that the short barrel guns are less reliable. Mine acts like it wants to shoot and has gotten better. I like the gun and want to keep it if possible...just don'r need what amounts to a $750 paper weight!
 
Yep, check the extractor's tension and give it a proper cleaning. My Ultra Eclipse had a too small firing pin stop that allowed the extractor to clock so I prepped and installed an EGW oversized FPS and tensioned the extractor and all was well. Good mags are a must and it sounds like you've taken care of that already....I replaced the factory's magazine follower with a dimpled one...I ordered some Springfield Armory 6 rd mags and the dimple is at the rear of the follower???, so I use them for range mags, they work well but one mag sometimes has ejection problems with the last rd's empty brass getting out, maybe a little more tweaking will get it right. I ordered another factory mag and it has a skirted follower to prevent tilting forward, it works well but has no dimple...I prefer the dimple for all of JMB's original reasons. My slide stop was getting nudged by the bullets and required a little dressing there too, I also had to smooth out some tool marks in the very bottom edge of the frames feed ramp (steel) and take a sharp point off of the side of the barrel's throat...after doing all of this "final fitting", my short stroker now runs well...:)

I'm presently using some old stock of Winchester 230 FMJ, I was told by a Kimber tech (about a year and a half ago) that they used Federal American Eagle ammo...PMC or S&B should be good as well. As you said, it's a short barrel and it's already a slow slug to begin with so no overpenetration worries. I'm not going to count on a hp for expansion with any chance of adequate penetration, even lighter weight ones, and especially +Ps I do not think are productive and adds blast, recoil and different timing to an already "on the edge" short strokin' 1911 style pistol...yep, I'll stick with standard 230 ball....although I did get good accuracy with the Winchester SilverTips I ran thru it - chalked up a one shot stop on a renegade armadillo too..:D For practice I've had good luck running 4.6 grains of Bullseye under a 230 LRN with an OAL of 1.25, think I'll try 4.5 next....checking the OAL of the factory ammo you will be carrying might be a good idea too..;)
 
I hope to not jinx myself, but I have about 200 rounds through my Ultra Carry and have not had a single hiccup. Hope it continues on that way.
 
I think after you verify the extractor tension is not too tight you need to try a different first rate mag such as a Wilson or McCormick. Metalform makes a good mag but that doesn't mean they will work well in your particular 1911. I guess what I'm getting at is try to exhaust all options before sending it back to Kimber.
 
I've seen people that claim to have run thousands of rounds through their UCIIs/3" Kimbers without a single hiccup. Then there are the ones who swear they are unreliable. I guess it depends on your luck:)

I recently bought my own UCII, but haven't shot it yet. I'm waiting to order some Wilson magazines (unless someone has a better suggestion) before I shoot it. I heard the factory Kimber magazines suck so I'm not even going to bother shooting it with the factory mag.

I'll be sure to post a range report once I shoot this little guy.
 
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Reliability

All good points guys. Thanks. I use McCormick in my other Kimbers. Someone recommended the Metal Form mags to me especially for the short barrel 1911. I'll order some McCormick mags via my sources... hadn't thought about the firing pin stop being too small either so I'll check that too. My sense is that I'm almost there as the pistol runs with no problems at all the first few mags after a good cleaning. This isn't a recreational pistol. I travel out of state via car quite a bit. We've had some pretty bad things occur in places like rest stops on the interstate highways in the mid-west...you never know just what you might encounter in the dead of night...out in the middle of no-where. I would have quite a bit of skin in the game should it not work when I need it the most!

I have no idea why Kimber builds such a first rate 1911 and then uses mags that are such trash. My guess is that they get them from some jobber and then do what they can to weed out the crap.

Does anyone have any observations about the idea of hard chroming the slide and barrel?
 
CPshooter and whatnickname, the last Kimber magazine I ordered for my short stroker had a skirted follower instead of the McCormick style split level shooting follower that came with the pistol. I presumed that they went to the skirted follower due to complaints of the aluminum frame's feed ramp getting dinged by the split style follower....in any event, the skirted follower mag works in my pistol, I just prefer a properly dimpled follower...
 
I use Wilson combat mags in mine and it runs fine. I've past the 500 rnd mark and havent had any issues after about the first 200. I do not like the factory mags. I've never ran more than 250 rnds at a time but my UCII works just fine when its dirty.
 
I've had a UC II

for 5+ years and thousands of rounds. After the first 500 rounds i found which ammo it likes and which it doesn't. Mine feeds flawlessly on Hornady XTP 200 gn (SD) and Blazer aluminum 230 gr ball at the range. I also use Kimpro-tac mags and have no problems. I also shoot a full size Kimber Custom II and both are very accurate and reliable firearms. Considering all you read on the Internet about what POS Kimbers are, I guess i just got lucky with my two!
 
Ya know, with the custom guns is USPSA--like Bedel or Brazos--the maker recommends that the owner go 2000+ rounds without cleaning the gun. The carbon and grit becomes a lapping compound, and, yes, accelerate wear, but in those cases it is desirable wear.

After that point, they are hard chromed or ion bonded, and cleaned 'normally' to arrest the wear.

I am not a fan of Kimbers, period, but that process may be an answer for you.

Dan
 
I have an UCII without about 1000 rounds throught it. During the first 400-500 rounds I would occasionally have a fail to feed properly and a coupld of stove pipes. But lately I have had no problems. I have used WWB, GA Arms 230 and 185gr, Magtech, Independence and a couple other kinds of ammo I had to buy at the range. It eats it all with no problems. I have one Kimber mag and 2 McCormicks they all work.
 
I have a few wilson mags that I like to use with my ultra carry, havent had any problems at all, probaly have about three thousand through it..
 
I hear the problems with 3" 1911s, but never had any. I have a Colt Defender and a Kimber Covert Ultra II. When I hear the reports of FTF problems, I think, maybe I need to get shed of these, but then I go to the range and they go bang every time. I think it's the gun you get and the extractor adjustment along with the mag quality.
 
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