Good news is I fixed it, (so you don't have to read all this to find out) but I'm bummed nearly every (big name) new gun I've purchased in the last couple years has had factory produced (slipping by QC or?) functional issues with the exception of believe it or not a Taurus revolver. It is as functionally and cosmetically perfect as I could ever want, and the least expensive new pistol of any I'm griping about here. Anyway I've dealt with (or am dealing with) and corrected or accepted most of the issues, but man it gets old and frustrating. Okay, rant over.
So on my brand new Kimber Stainless Target LS 10mm, I mentioned in another thread this was my first Kimber and I had not had any interest in them until I saw this particular model with a more 'basic' look and also being a long slide version. I had read the good and bad web stories on Kimber pistols and figured even if something went wrong out of the gate, (my continuing bad luck..lol) it's a 1911 so it couldn't be impossible to fix after all (right?).
It came with only one factory magazine, and I had a new in the package Colt 10mm mag from previous 10mm pistols (I'd had and regrettably sold), but I also just received a brand new Tripp Cobramag as well. I also had ordered and received an assortment of different 10mm ammo like Blazer Brass, Underwood, S&B in many different configurations figuring some combination would have to work great or hopefully well enough anyway. I also have some really nice dummy ammo sized correctly from back in the days of original Norma ammo when no snap caps were available in 10mm, but we still needed to tweak/test out older pistols in those days.
So with all that said, and having stripped, cleaned and properly lubed my new Kimber 10mm I made note that the feed ramp had some lame azz tool marks on the left side, and the ramp top and chamber mouth sides were crazy sharp and not broken or smoothed at all, but hey the factory makes these all the time, right? Anyway, I decided to start right up with the new Tripp Cobramag and my dummy rounds for test cycling it. Only loaded a few in the mag and inserted it in the magwell with the slide closed/in battery. Racked the slide properly for loading as I've done thousands of times over the decades and .. oops.. 3 point jam? seriously? Okay just a nudge to the rear of the slide should go into battery, but no she's locked up tight. So, hoping I had messed up somehow I cleared it and tried again but this time from slide lock position, and same thing. Well, I was not terribly surprised (you know that bad luck I keep having) but I did get that quick sinking/frustrating feeling that accompanies such things.
Still hoping it was the mag, my dummy rounds, etc. I switched to the factory Kimber mag and my dummy rounds and I fully loaded the mag. Same thing times 8 rounds jammed. Well now this is fun. It had to be the dummy rounds so I went to live ammo (yeah I know..) and FMJ Blazer with all 3 new mags, and same thing with all. Not one round could I get to chamber from any ammo/mag combination, oh my this sucks now. While I'd noticed the rims didn't seem to be much in contact with the extractor, I still checked the tension, shape etc., to my minimal skill level and it seemed fine. I still removed it and tried the same loading/cycling exercise as before, with exactly the same jamming results. I'm also seeing now that all these testing ammo cases look like they've been in a sharp food processor, and the bullet tip edges dinged and flattened. Time to focus my attention to the ramp and chamber mouth edges etc. I love to modify my pistols cosmetically, but I am not one to go messing with the internals polishing this and that unless I have to. While I've been lucky many times altering internals on many different guns through the years, I really don't like (probably fear of messing it up) doing it. I know about now, many of you are thinking I should send it back to Kimber, and yeah I could but I haven't had a great deal of luck with that option over the years either, but ymmv of course.
What I ended up doing was just taking the barrel and trying to manually recreate the jam by hand just pushing the rounds in the barrel at the approximate angle the mags do, and oh my it was really easy to jam the rounds by hand in the same 3 point type position. No doubt in my mind at this point the sharp ramp top and outer chamber edges are really an issue to some degree here. I decided to just go really slow and test frequently breaking the edges, rounding and smoothing in tiny increments just enough to get anything to load for three reasons.
1.) I believe this type of modifying the gun (may/does) voids the warranty.
2.) If I take away too much material, I cannot put it back on.
3.) I know the gun will break in more over the first several hundred rounds, so I want any extra internal clearances/tolerances to come as natural as possible buy just firing the pistol. Problem in this case was I couldn't load even one round to shoot it!
I found a short piece of 3/8" round poly rod and wrapped the top with #400-2500 grit, and broke and rounded, and polished the edges at as much of a 45 degree (radius) as I could judge it to be without proper measuring tools..lol. So, as mentioned I did this in small increments and tested often, which ended up taking me at least a couple hours, but I ended up with about a .010" rad on the side mouth edges, and about a .020" rad on the ramp top edge as best as I could measure it. I also tried to lightly polish the ramp itself, but there were tool marks left over from the factory on the left hand side only I just didn't want to go any surface deeper and remove. Lastly I also lightly polished the inside upper chamber just past the hood where the bullet nose was stopping in the jam.
I cleaned and lubed the barrel for the 10th or so time now at this point, lol, reassembled the gun, and went through the same exercise manually loading/cycling the exact same ammo (dings and all) in the same 3 new different manufactured mags and what a difference. No jams, and barely a 'ka-chunk' if I went too slow purposely riding the slide to watch what was happening. I'm hopeful the jamming issue is now permanently resolved, and I know I'll only really find out at the range after shooting it. But at least now I can get the first round (actually all rounds) to feed/load to even be able to shoot it!
In any case I'm way happier with my new Kimber now than I was when I first tried to load it several hours ago!
Sorry if this was a too long read, but I'm still dealing with my neck herniated disk/pinched arm nerve so I have a bit more time on my hands until I have surgery. Thanks for reading it!
"
So on my brand new Kimber Stainless Target LS 10mm, I mentioned in another thread this was my first Kimber and I had not had any interest in them until I saw this particular model with a more 'basic' look and also being a long slide version. I had read the good and bad web stories on Kimber pistols and figured even if something went wrong out of the gate, (my continuing bad luck..lol) it's a 1911 so it couldn't be impossible to fix after all (right?).
It came with only one factory magazine, and I had a new in the package Colt 10mm mag from previous 10mm pistols (I'd had and regrettably sold), but I also just received a brand new Tripp Cobramag as well. I also had ordered and received an assortment of different 10mm ammo like Blazer Brass, Underwood, S&B in many different configurations figuring some combination would have to work great or hopefully well enough anyway. I also have some really nice dummy ammo sized correctly from back in the days of original Norma ammo when no snap caps were available in 10mm, but we still needed to tweak/test out older pistols in those days.
So with all that said, and having stripped, cleaned and properly lubed my new Kimber 10mm I made note that the feed ramp had some lame azz tool marks on the left side, and the ramp top and chamber mouth sides were crazy sharp and not broken or smoothed at all, but hey the factory makes these all the time, right? Anyway, I decided to start right up with the new Tripp Cobramag and my dummy rounds for test cycling it. Only loaded a few in the mag and inserted it in the magwell with the slide closed/in battery. Racked the slide properly for loading as I've done thousands of times over the decades and .. oops.. 3 point jam? seriously? Okay just a nudge to the rear of the slide should go into battery, but no she's locked up tight. So, hoping I had messed up somehow I cleared it and tried again but this time from slide lock position, and same thing. Well, I was not terribly surprised (you know that bad luck I keep having) but I did get that quick sinking/frustrating feeling that accompanies such things.
Still hoping it was the mag, my dummy rounds, etc. I switched to the factory Kimber mag and my dummy rounds and I fully loaded the mag. Same thing times 8 rounds jammed. Well now this is fun. It had to be the dummy rounds so I went to live ammo (yeah I know..) and FMJ Blazer with all 3 new mags, and same thing with all. Not one round could I get to chamber from any ammo/mag combination, oh my this sucks now. While I'd noticed the rims didn't seem to be much in contact with the extractor, I still checked the tension, shape etc., to my minimal skill level and it seemed fine. I still removed it and tried the same loading/cycling exercise as before, with exactly the same jamming results. I'm also seeing now that all these testing ammo cases look like they've been in a sharp food processor, and the bullet tip edges dinged and flattened. Time to focus my attention to the ramp and chamber mouth edges etc. I love to modify my pistols cosmetically, but I am not one to go messing with the internals polishing this and that unless I have to. While I've been lucky many times altering internals on many different guns through the years, I really don't like (probably fear of messing it up) doing it. I know about now, many of you are thinking I should send it back to Kimber, and yeah I could but I haven't had a great deal of luck with that option over the years either, but ymmv of course.
What I ended up doing was just taking the barrel and trying to manually recreate the jam by hand just pushing the rounds in the barrel at the approximate angle the mags do, and oh my it was really easy to jam the rounds by hand in the same 3 point type position. No doubt in my mind at this point the sharp ramp top and outer chamber edges are really an issue to some degree here. I decided to just go really slow and test frequently breaking the edges, rounding and smoothing in tiny increments just enough to get anything to load for three reasons.
1.) I believe this type of modifying the gun (may/does) voids the warranty.
2.) If I take away too much material, I cannot put it back on.
3.) I know the gun will break in more over the first several hundred rounds, so I want any extra internal clearances/tolerances to come as natural as possible buy just firing the pistol. Problem in this case was I couldn't load even one round to shoot it!
I found a short piece of 3/8" round poly rod and wrapped the top with #400-2500 grit, and broke and rounded, and polished the edges at as much of a 45 degree (radius) as I could judge it to be without proper measuring tools..lol. So, as mentioned I did this in small increments and tested often, which ended up taking me at least a couple hours, but I ended up with about a .010" rad on the side mouth edges, and about a .020" rad on the ramp top edge as best as I could measure it. I also tried to lightly polish the ramp itself, but there were tool marks left over from the factory on the left hand side only I just didn't want to go any surface deeper and remove. Lastly I also lightly polished the inside upper chamber just past the hood where the bullet nose was stopping in the jam.
I cleaned and lubed the barrel for the 10th or so time now at this point, lol, reassembled the gun, and went through the same exercise manually loading/cycling the exact same ammo (dings and all) in the same 3 new different manufactured mags and what a difference. No jams, and barely a 'ka-chunk' if I went too slow purposely riding the slide to watch what was happening. I'm hopeful the jamming issue is now permanently resolved, and I know I'll only really find out at the range after shooting it. But at least now I can get the first round (actually all rounds) to feed/load to even be able to shoot it!
In any case I'm way happier with my new Kimber now than I was when I first tried to load it several hours ago!
Sorry if this was a too long read, but I'm still dealing with my neck herniated disk/pinched arm nerve so I have a bit more time on my hands until I have surgery. Thanks for reading it!
"
Good for you, well done.
