Buy one used that's broken in? May be an entirely different ballgame....
I'm going to share a personal anecdote to address this. I've hesitated to post this because it's actually about somebody that does occasionally frequent this forum. Hopefully, he won't mind my sharing this....
Right before the Christmas holiday break, a gunnie that I know decides that he wants to buy a bunch of 1911 pistols (all 5", in 45ACP) to put away as future gifts for his not-yet-shooting-age kids. He didn't want to gift the pistols right away, but he'd come into an end-of-year windfall and wanted to spend it while he had it. He decided to buy the pistols and put them away until the time was right to gift them. His one concern was putting them away unfired, since if one/some provided defective he might have issues years down the road in getting them serviced under warranty. He decided to buy them now and shoot 400 rounds ('break-in') through each of them before putting them away. He elected to buy Kimber pistols - many of the Kimber models met the price/feature point that he wanted. In the end, he bought a passel of pistols and started to prep them for break-in and subsequent storage in the back of his safe. Over the last six weekends, I have been helping accomplish this break-in.
To date, I have shot 400 rounds each through:
- Kimber Custom II Stainless
- Kimber Custom II Blued
- Kimber Custom II TLE Stainless
- Kimber Custom II TLE Stainless
- Kimber Custom II TLE-R Stainless
- Kimber Custom II CDP
That means that I fired 2400 rounds of ammo through six (6) NIB Kimber pistols. Ammo used was predominantly S&B 230gr FMJ, with a smattering of 230gr FMJ Aguila and Blazer Brass.
During this break-in shooting, I experienced two (2) stoppages (other than running out of ammo). One of the TLE's and the one TLE-R had one instance each where a round failed to load, and wound up with the rim not quite slid up under the extractor hook in what almost looked like a 3-point jam. (I was moving fast and didn't stop to really examine the jam..) A simple malf drill ejected the offending round, and the round was subsequently fired in a later string without issue. I was using a CMC PowerMag+ magazine and S&B ammo when both malf's occurred.
The only things done to the pistols before firing them (other than oil/grease) was replacing the mainspring housing with a Colt arched unit and replacing the FLGR with a USGI-spec guide rod and plug. (In the FWIW department, C&S is the only outfit that I know of that makes a true USGI plug, and that is what was used in these pistols...) We also used a smattering of magazines; I used my standard and well-used CheckMate/Colt hybrid 7rd units initially but mostly used a bunch of new CMC PowerMag+. We did not make any effort to use the provided Kimber magazines. The pistols were not cleaned during this shooting; they got an initial break-down and lube and then a final clean and lube when the shooting was completed.
So there you have it; I can personally vouch for a sample size of six (6) new 5" Kimber's, none of which needed anything special to get them through their first four hundred rounds. Four (4) of these Kimbers shot 400 rounds without a single issue at all, and two (2) had a single malf. Maybe the shorter barreled variants would provide different results, but I'm pretty well settled on the notion that the 5" variants represent a decent package for the money spent.
Oh, and yes - I got the keep the brass.