George Hill
Member
I had been very impressed with my Kimber. It has been a very good companion and a shooting workhorse every since I got it. I didn't think the Kimbers would be as rugged as the Springfield guns. I didn't think they would stand up. So I purchased a base Custom II and fitted it with tritium night sights and set about testing it. 2000 rounds later I found the Custom II to be better than it was new. It smoothed up a great deal as it wore in. Accuracy never degraded. Reliability was 100% for those two thousand rounds. I couldn't ask any more from it. And this was their base entry level gun. If the base Kimber was this dang good... How good could their other guns be?
I'm going to say just as good or better. Something interesting happened the other day... interesting and an opportunity. A certain fellow wanted to buy my gun. Not a gun like mine, but my own Custom II. The cash he offered was greater than what I had invested in it, and sufficient enough to facilitate a slight upgrade. So as my Custom II drove off into the sunset, I purchased its replacement.
A Kimber Tactical Custom II.
The TCII has some nice upgrades that I wanted that the CII didn't have. Ambidextrous safety, fine checkering on the rounded front strap, a mag well funnel, with a nice two tone finish that has a black slide on top of an ogrish slide with nice dark wood double diamond grips. It is a gorgeous pistol. But it gets better... it isn't just cosmetic. I went through the TCII's we had in the shop and I selected this one. The trigger pull right out of the box is better than my CII's was after wearing in. The slide to frame fit is free of any play... it is one solid built gun. I've not fired much through it yet. Only 200 rounds... four boxes of Blazer 230 grain FMJ's.
My initial observations have been promising. It fed and fired all rounds with no indications of potential failure. Accuracy was Dead Nuts On. This is one flat out fantastic 1911. I wouldn't change a thing on this gun, I don't need to. This marks two points that have me shaking my head.
First off, this is the first gun I've ever personally owned where I don't want to do anything to it. I don't want to change the grips, I don't want to get a trigger job... nothing. This gun is Good To Go.
The Second point is even more remarkable... we are selling these guns for only $999.99. A cool Grand. I've never owned such an expensive handgun before. While I've never owned one this spendy, I have spent a lot of time reviewing expensive 1911 guns... Rock Rivers, Wilson Combats... I've check out the Nighthawks and STI's... You know. The TCII is that Sweet Spot gun... To get a better 1911 than this one, you have to spend a hell of a lot more money. I really love the Wilsons which are 1800 and up, the Rock River which was what? 1700 bones? Then there is this Kimber which has it going on and puts forth a solid argument that you don't have to spend a ton of cash to get a great gun. I'm not saying this is just as good as those higher end guns, but it is very close to that level of quality for about seven hundred bucks less.
The one thing that the TCII lacks in the minds of some is a light rail. They think that because the gun has the word “tactical” in it, it has to have a rail on it. Rails are not ideal on every gun... weapon mounted lights are not even that great of an idea even for law enforcement. In some cases it works but in others... well for example:
Say you are covering a suspect with your weapon and its mounted light. The area is dark. You see some movement in the shadows to your left. With your weapon mounted light, to put light on the movement you turn the muzzle from the subject to the movement. Now your suspect is no longer covered and you just scared a cat. Or you just pointed your weapon at a child or something else you don't want to be pointing a weapon at. Then you bring the weapon back to the suspect but now the suspect is either gone, going for a weapon, or going for your weapon. Not cool. Weapon lights make you break one of The Four Rules. I still prefer to use a regular light which has just as bright output but better battery life. But that is just me.
So as I said, it's only lacking in the minds of some. I would rather that it didn't have the name “Tactical” but it does and I can live with it knowing that I didn't get it because of the name. Some guys are drawn to “Tactical” as if that makes something better in some magical way.
Maybe I should get “+3” engraved into the slide.
I'm going to say just as good or better. Something interesting happened the other day... interesting and an opportunity. A certain fellow wanted to buy my gun. Not a gun like mine, but my own Custom II. The cash he offered was greater than what I had invested in it, and sufficient enough to facilitate a slight upgrade. So as my Custom II drove off into the sunset, I purchased its replacement.
A Kimber Tactical Custom II.
The TCII has some nice upgrades that I wanted that the CII didn't have. Ambidextrous safety, fine checkering on the rounded front strap, a mag well funnel, with a nice two tone finish that has a black slide on top of an ogrish slide with nice dark wood double diamond grips. It is a gorgeous pistol. But it gets better... it isn't just cosmetic. I went through the TCII's we had in the shop and I selected this one. The trigger pull right out of the box is better than my CII's was after wearing in. The slide to frame fit is free of any play... it is one solid built gun. I've not fired much through it yet. Only 200 rounds... four boxes of Blazer 230 grain FMJ's.
My initial observations have been promising. It fed and fired all rounds with no indications of potential failure. Accuracy was Dead Nuts On. This is one flat out fantastic 1911. I wouldn't change a thing on this gun, I don't need to. This marks two points that have me shaking my head.
First off, this is the first gun I've ever personally owned where I don't want to do anything to it. I don't want to change the grips, I don't want to get a trigger job... nothing. This gun is Good To Go.
The Second point is even more remarkable... we are selling these guns for only $999.99. A cool Grand. I've never owned such an expensive handgun before. While I've never owned one this spendy, I have spent a lot of time reviewing expensive 1911 guns... Rock Rivers, Wilson Combats... I've check out the Nighthawks and STI's... You know. The TCII is that Sweet Spot gun... To get a better 1911 than this one, you have to spend a hell of a lot more money. I really love the Wilsons which are 1800 and up, the Rock River which was what? 1700 bones? Then there is this Kimber which has it going on and puts forth a solid argument that you don't have to spend a ton of cash to get a great gun. I'm not saying this is just as good as those higher end guns, but it is very close to that level of quality for about seven hundred bucks less.
The one thing that the TCII lacks in the minds of some is a light rail. They think that because the gun has the word “tactical” in it, it has to have a rail on it. Rails are not ideal on every gun... weapon mounted lights are not even that great of an idea even for law enforcement. In some cases it works but in others... well for example:
Say you are covering a suspect with your weapon and its mounted light. The area is dark. You see some movement in the shadows to your left. With your weapon mounted light, to put light on the movement you turn the muzzle from the subject to the movement. Now your suspect is no longer covered and you just scared a cat. Or you just pointed your weapon at a child or something else you don't want to be pointing a weapon at. Then you bring the weapon back to the suspect but now the suspect is either gone, going for a weapon, or going for your weapon. Not cool. Weapon lights make you break one of The Four Rules. I still prefer to use a regular light which has just as bright output but better battery life. But that is just me.
So as I said, it's only lacking in the minds of some. I would rather that it didn't have the name “Tactical” but it does and I can live with it knowing that I didn't get it because of the name. Some guys are drawn to “Tactical” as if that makes something better in some magical way.
Maybe I should get “+3” engraved into the slide.
