KIMBERS and 1911s...

Status
Not open for further replies.
I have been shooting the 1911A1 platform since 1974 or thereabout. A KImber TLE II is my daily carry gun. No FTF, FTE whatsoever. For my money, the Kimber is a good buy for the money spent. Others may think differently, but I have no problems with them at all.
 
Kimber Quality

I've had my Kimber Custom II for several years ,and fired hundreds of rounds of all shapes and weights. No FTE or FTF or any problems,and it's extremely accurate 1'' to 2'' at measured 50 ft. I did add Novak Extreme Adj. sights to it, since it came with the standard black sights. Can't be more pleased !
 
Kimbers because of the Firing pin block (schwartz safety).
One of the reasons I don't like my Kimber Kimber is all looks no real quality
My Dan Wesson bobtail beats my kimber hands down in quality ,tightness and accuracy .Also no silly Schwartz safety. I will buy more DW's and Colts I will never buy another Kimber. .
 
I don't know about that.

My custom II has a so-so finish, but one of the best triggers I've ever used, and the only direction the slide moves is back and forth.

It feeds any ammunition I feed it and keeps on kicking.

Absolutely no wiggle anywhere but the grip safety.



Only thing that irks me about it is that kimber felt the need to throw blackened stainless steel parts on on a blued gun.
It's not the same as blued carbon steel so it wears differently.


I really love mine.
 
A First.

Hey There:
I must admit this thread is the first time I have ever heard of a Kimber being put down.
I have never heard of poor quality in a Kimber. My Ultra Carry has never failed.
I have never left home without it. My next will also be a Kimber......
 
I must say that I was considering a 1911 purchase a couple of months back and after reading many posts here on THR about problems with Kimber quality I was very leary of Kimber. I wanted a commander size 1911 and went out and inspected a Springfield loaded, Colt XSE, DW bobtail, and a Kimber eclipse pro II. Out of the four pistol mentioned the Kimber seemed to me better put together than the others. I talked to a good friend who sells Kimber, Colt, Sig, and he told me that Kimbers rarely come back with problems. That was good enough for me, so I purchased the Eclipse pro II. I have put 1000 rounds through without a FTF, It is very accurate, with an awesome trigger pull of 4lbs. I would highly recommend Kimber.
 
My first 1911 was a Springfield Armory Defender in 45ACP purchased back in 1985. I have been partial to S.A. ever since, although I have seen some real dogs mfg. by them over the years. Their extended life time warranty takes the guess out of buying one new or used.

Bought my first Kimber, a Pro Carry II 9mm a year and a half ago and have been impressed. I sold a S.A. 9mm target to purchase a fixed sight Kimber stainless II in 9mm. The Kimber slide,frame and barrel fit are well executed and tight. The pistol is super accurate. Most sub $800 pistols will have MIM trigger groups that will need to be replaced eventually.

Between S.A. and Kimber it is a toss up. S.A. has a better warranty and customer service department, but it appears Kimber's are more readily available and show more consistency in manufacturer. Kimber's to me are well configured quality tools. I like the fact that I can run them stock without investing anymore money right away.

 
I think I'm a minority on this thread, but my two Kimbers did not work well out of the boxes, both bought this year (2008).

-the 1st one, a TLE II, mainly had a slide-stop problem (failure to feed; premature slide locking) which break-in didn't remedy. Kimber, by sending a replacement part and a local gunsmith acquaintance cured it.

-my 2nd one, an SIS Custom, is in NY right now, having Kimber figure out and fix why it went full-auto during only the 3rd magazine through the gun. I'm confidant Kimber will cure this.

I believe Kimber's frames, slides, and barrels are fine. Now that I know more, I won't get another Swartz safety gun, hence, the SIS, which doesn't have that feature. If the Swartz safety ever fails me, and I'm still alive, I'll remove it.

With the money spent, I could have bought one higher-priced gun (Wilson, Les Baer, etc.) and I may have had a higher probability of it working out-of-the-box. You'll find people who also have not had 100% reliability on the higher-priced guns, too, however.
 
I read on this here internet thingie that Kimbers suck.

Good thing I bought all mine 'afore I discovered these here "gun forums."

On the other hand, I keep seein' all these folk hereabouts sayin' "Buy a Colt" and "If it doesn't say 'Colt' it's just a copy" ... last two Colts I bought new have been the worst 1911s (in terms of fit, finish and reliability) out of the box I've ever purchased. The Custom TLE II that I picked up, though, has been one of the most accurate, tightest and reliable 1911 I've owned in more'n 30 years of keepin' & shootin' 1911s.

But hey, this is the internet, after all, where one "I had one once and it was a POS" carries far more weight among us loyal websurfers than thirty "Wait a minute here, mine have all been really great."

Did I mention that MIM sucks?
 
several years ago, our local distributor experienced a 40 percent send back rate with Kimbers and quit handling them. things may have improved. I know a guy with a full size one- with the polished slide and blue in the crevasses and a tiney one with about a 3" barrel. Both work just fine.
 
My local distributor Rex's Guns & Ammo in Hendersonville, NC has sold thousands of Kimbers, they get a new shipment in, and a week later most have been sold. Part of the reason behind this is that they are the only Kimber dealer with reasonable prices in Western NC. Any way they sell a lot of Kimbers, and their return rate is almost zero. I am sure there are some bad apples out there, but if you look at the amount of Kimbers sold versus Colt, DW or anyone else besides Springfield the percentage of lemons would probably be small and probably better than or at least on par with Springfield. I would say if you ask most people to trade their Kimber for an equally priced Springfield that most would not take you up on the offer. So again, overall I think Kimber is a good buy!
 
It fluxuates.
Just about every 1911 maker manages to let out a batch of lemons every now and then. crudulent, outsourced extractors can be a big problem.
 
I've got a Stainless II and love it. Accurate as I am and the trigger is perfect.

The gun has fed everything that I've put in it. For practice I occasionally load an empty case in the mag between full rounds. I do this to check to see whether I am flinching or jerking the trigger. The gun has yet to fail to chamber the case.
 
Love my Pro Carry 4"

Never hiccups

It's the only Kimber I own, but that is not by choice. Any manufacturer can make a lemon.
 
I have two Kimbers, one stainless ll, one cdp ll, both are extremely accurate, neither have given me any problems. The stainless ll did begin life sadly by FTE, I took the extractor out, put a little more tension on it, its been good to go since then, probably 500 rounds.

I can't say that for Colt, the last new one I bought required extensive outlays of cash to make it what it should have been before it left the factory.

I'll be buying more 1911s and have my heart set on a Ed Brown Kobra Carry, I just need to rake up a few more piles of $100.00 bills. If anyone has some that is in the're way, send them to me, I'll put them to good use!!!:D Until then, I'll keep banging away with my Kimbers!
 
I bought a black Custom TLE II two weeks ago. I just shot 300 rounds in one range session yesterday. I posted this on another gun forum so I'll copy and paste here, the rest of my story, to get other's opinions:

I bought 2 Chip McCormick 8 round mags as well. I used Remington, Blazer, and Magtech ammo, 300 rounds through it.

I experienced over a dozen fail to feed and one fail to fire. I used the two 8 rounder mostly, then switched to the 7 round Kimber mag to see if this made a difference. I only experience a couple FTF and one fail to fire with the 7 round mag.

The fail to feed: the round is in the magazine when it fails to feed and the slide is locked back. After the fail to feed, I take out the mag and re-insert it back in and rack the slide and fire away again. I had only once instance where the it failed to feed twice during one shooting interval with the same mag ( loaded the mag in, shot it, had a fail to feed with the second round and with the slide locked back, I dropped the mag, re-inserted it, racked the slide and fired 2 more shots then had another fail to feed with the round still in the mag and the slide locked back).

maybe it's the slide stop?

is this break in period like this? If so, this really sucks. But this is my first experience with 1911s so I guess I just need to get use to it.

Also, after shooting, I let my gun cool for 10 minutes before I had to pack up and leave (since my time was up). The gun was still hot but I put it back into my kimber case. When I got home, I noticed some gold/brown specks on the slide right behind the ejection port. What is this? Surface rust? Or surface scrapes from the brass? Is there serious damage to a gun when you put it back into a case still hot?


I'm pretty 'effin pissed because I just think for this amount of money the gun should work flawlessly, but then again I'm as novice shooter so maybe I'm doing the limpwrist thing and screwing up the whole function of the gun. I did take apart the gun before my first range session and re-oiled it but I didnt overlube it, as the manual stated not to do.
 
Call Kimber and ask for a new slide stop. They have a slightly different cut on it and it should stop the failures to feed.
The specks behind the ejection port are from brass hitting there as it gets tossed out. I had on of my Kimbers do the same thing. I had the extractor adjusted and it solved that problem
 
Which price range is it that Kimbers are at the top of?

I have carried MANY pistols, from Glock to Sigma to Beretta, etc. I have a Kimber Custom II, and I will probably be buried with it. It is the least problematic gun I have ever owned.

I shot a $2700 Nighthawk at Impact, just to see what the big deal was about, and I was at a complete loss. Very nice, but not 2k nicer than my Kimber.

Statistically, you will be very hard pressed to prove that Kimbers are any worse than any other 1911 in the price range. One must remember, they have more sheer VOLUME than other 1911 mfrs, and therefore will have more problems, but not necessarily a higher RATE of failure than other 1911s.

Some complain about MIM parts, but I have yet to see a problem. I would say never, but then someone will post a pic of a snapped slide stop or something. If you are into 1911s at all, and it concerns you, you can always switch them out with higher grade parts as you tinker and detail strip. All I've done to mine is to drop the FLGR, add night sights, and some hogue finger-groove grips. Between the .45 and the .22 kit, I've fired over 20,000 rounds through it.

Any gun company can send out a lemon. Any gun company can have a bad customer service experience. No gun or company has treated me better than Kimber, and I've done some looking.
 
My Only Kimber

In defense of Kimber, the only one I currently own is a 3" Stainless
Ultra Carry II .45 ACP that has performed flawlessly-right out of the
box. I guess I got lucky with this series II pistol; as I have read all
the complaints posted here on THR. At one time, I did own a full
size (5") Kimber Raptor as well; but ended up using it as "trade
bait" in upgrading to a 5" Les Baer Thunder Ranch Special, and
have NEVER looked back~! :uhoh: ;)
 
My fav & my daily carry is an SA, but my Daughter has a Kimber Raptor II, she loves it, & it has yet to do anything but go "Bang!" repeatedly when the trigger is engaged.
 
I have a Custom CDP II and I love it!

I had a couple FTF's in the first 350 rounds, but after that it swallowed everything.

I do have a complaint, but it's specific to my situation. I cast a 230g TC from a Lee mould. I find that the chamber on my Kimber is cut tight, so while it feeds factory ammo perfectly, I have to set the Lee bullet back so the ogilvie doesn't get wedged into the chamber before the bullet seats properly. I set the bullet back, problem solved.

I can shoot this pistol for a one ragged hole group at 15 yards, so for me, it's perfect.

Mine has the internal extractor. Quality is very good overall and everybody that shoots it says the same thing - "I'm gonna get one of these."
 
Had no problems with my stainless II, after the 500 round break-in. During the break in period, I only experienced a couple of failure to feeds (attributed mostly to magazines...it didn't seem to like Wilson 47Ds). It is more accurate than I am. I would recommend them to anybody.
 
I'm a big 1911 fan, have been for nearly 30 years. Had a bunch through the years. The one I still have after all these years is my Kimber Classic Custom. I will always have this Kimber. I currently have some Colt's in my collection and none of them are as well fitted, machined, and finished as my Kimber. My Kimber will also out shoot them accuracy wise.

Kimbers are not "high end" guns. But they are worth their price in most cases.

When my daughters drunk boyfriend (they were breaking up) called and said he was coming over, I told him not to. When he pulled up later that night on his loud motorycle, I called 911, and reached for my Kimber Classic Custom. Nothing serious happened, but the point is, with about 30 pistols at my diposal, I instinctively went for the Kimber.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

elktrout
  • Locked
KIMBER 1911s
Replies
21
Views
584
Lone_Gunman
L
E
  • Locked
Need Top End 1911
2 3
Replies
55
Views
2K
Quack
Q
B
  • Locked
Kimber 10mm question
Replies
16
Views
516
JFrank
JFrank
L
  • Locked
best all-steel Commander?
Replies
21
Views
1K
TL1234
T
AZGlock13
  • Locked
Sig GSR 1911s
Replies
6
Views
558
AZGlock13
AZGlock13
Back
Top