Embarassed and frustrated

Do some dryfire practice at home. When you're at the range load some snap caps in with your live ammo in the magazine. If you catch yourself flinching on the snapcap, unload and dryfire at the target a few times.

Point of aim issue possibly? If the sights are set to have the front dot on point of impact & you are used to the top of the sight blade being point of impact, that will drop your impact point quite a bit.

....I think.

Just something to try out. That was the first idea I had.

Aim higher.
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John,

Job 1 is to see where you are shooting. Use a BIG target like a full size silhouette. If you are still having issues move it closer.

Also bring another handgun which should give you a good indication if it is you or the pistol.

My guess is that it shoots low and it isn’t you. (BTW, same thing happened to me with a new Smith 686. Ended up sending it back…they apologized and said they had to reset the barrel. Now it's a tack hammer)

Hang in there

I'm assuming your sights are not adjustable. Your gun is shooting low so you need to lower your front sight or make the rear sight higher.

BBJ,

What loads are you shooting? Bullet weight?

When in this situation, I shoot from a rest. I've found me to be the culprit a few times, and a Rohm 38 to be the problem once.

Are you shooting your revolver SA or DA? If you are used to shooting DA, then you need to work on how different a M1911 trigger works. Because the trigger is probably travelling less than .25" on the Kimber, you may be exerting too much force on the trigger because you are used to working the double-action pull of your revolvers.

Try lots of dry-fire exercise with your m1911. Classic one is by balancing a dime on the back/rear site of your cocked (& unloaded) Kimber. Practice firing the pistol without disturbing the dime.

If the dime falls off, it is your trigger work.

You can also try to start your shooting at 7 yards, then move to 10 before 15 yards. When you can put everything into a fist sized-hole at 7 yards, then move back, repeat.

on the army pistol team we took a pencil with eraser,wrapped the pencil with tape till it fit tight in the barrel.
draw a dot on the wall,stand at arms length,and fire the pencil at the dot using the hammer force. you should be able to put a second dot below the first ,its good practice and its cheap.make very sure the gun is not loaded.

Everyone uses sights a little bit differently. The gunsmith's sight picture may be different from yours. If it's not flinching/pulling (don't think it is) which is the problem, then there are two solutions.

1. Change the gun to fit you. File down the front sight or get a shorter front sight. This will bring your point of impact up.

2. Change YOU to fit the gun. Fiddle with your sight picture relative to the bullseye until it hits.

Option 1 is the better option, because option 2 will probably involve adopting a sight picture that obscures your bullseye - not what you want. But if you do choose otion 2, then this *may* involve having to get someone to watch you and help you hands-on at the range - someone experienced.

P.S. Also, as mentioned, the ammo can make a difference. A heavy 230 grainer will hit with a higher point of impact due to the bullet being in the barrel longer while the muzzle flip is occurring. If the gunsmith shot 230s and you're shooting 185s, that could easily explain it as well. So then you have to ask yourself: (a) What WERE you shooting? and (b) IF you were shooting 185s, then do you WANT to swith to 230s or do you WANT to stick with 185s? If the answer is that you want to switch, then try some 230s to see where they hit. If you want to stay with 185s, then go back to 1 and 2 above. I could make a flow chart - really.

In addition to all of the suggestions above, you might let someone else try shooting it to see what they think. When I took my Springfield 1911 Mil-Spec to the range the first time, I was all over the place. I lucked out and there was a Marine Corps armourer there who had a ton of experience working on 1911s. He fired it one time and grimmaced. With a chuckle, he said that of all the thousands of 1911s he had fired and worked on, mine had one of the top 5 crappiest 1911 trigger's he'd ever felt . I knew it needed some work, just not that much ! Lots of creep, extremely rough and gritty with a sloppy let off.

For $50 he replaced the sear (which was a total piece of crap) and polished all the contact surfaces (especially the trigger bow/magwell surfaces). The pull weight dropped in the process from 7 lbs to 4.5. It is still a 2 stage trigger (it still has the stock GI style short trigger), but the pull is nice and smooth with a very clean break. Not quite the proverbial "glass rod breaking", but very good for a fighting handgun. BTW, my groups shrunk by about 2/3s.

Trigger quality can have a HUGE impact on shootability. And it's not all about dropping the pull weight. I much prefer a slick, clean breaking DA revolver trigger to a rough 3 lb SA trigger.

Just as you pull the trigger you tighten your grip antisepating recoil and it pulls the muzzle down...Practice dry firing at the TV until you pull the trigger without seeing the muzzle dip paying attention to your grip...Insure it does not change until it becomes a habit...

Do you know if you are right eye or left eye dominate?

John,

Seriously...best of luck. We have all been frustrated at the range.

I am still betting the pistol is at fault. You know how good of a shot you are.

Let us know.

Find yourself a good firearms instructor and listen to him.

It's because of the .357.

I have a similar problem, no need to death grip the .45 like the .357..... After 30 rounds I correct it, but still working on it too...

I have a Kimber Custom II with flat stock trigger, hammer, barrel, and bushing. I have had two different sets of sights on it, and it was 1" or better at 25 yards with both. I once plugged a standing jackrabbit center mass at over 50 yards with it. It outshoots me by far.

If the barrel/bushing/slide/link are all tight, the only hting I could think of is one of the sight pieces being terribly out of spec. While this isn't impossible, it is highly unlikely. I would rest it on a sandbag and test fire it for sure.

I shot a Nighthawk, and while yes, it is nice, I have absolutely no idea what is you are getting that's worth an extra $2k.

Good show. But yes, you can get an adjustable rear, OR file down the front so that the front sight is shorter. Unless you want to "stick with" that technique.

To me is sounds as if he got "Combat sights" instead of the "Target sights" he's used to.

Had a similar experience with a student

It turned out to be a case of where he placed his finger on the trigger. For single action try for only the pad of the trigger finger; for double, the first joint or beyond; but the main thing is to place your finger in the deepest part of the trigger curve & make sure you pull d-i-r-e-c-t-l-y back.
HTH

/cap