Springfield vs Kimber for 1911

[mljdeckard]

If Kimber quality is like flipping a coin, I must have lucked out. My Custom II is the best handgun I have ever owned. I honestly think that people who have had issues with their quality have been victims of the law of large numbers. Meaning, Kimber sells (by far) more guns than the competition. If you sell more guns, you are going to have more guns break. All guns break sooner or later. As for the customer service, I wouldn't know. Never had a reason to talk to them.

I overheard a shop clerk pushing Springfield to a customer one day. I waited until he was free, and started a conversation with him, asked him which one he would recommend. When he started leaning toward SA, I asked him if he had ever seen a Kimber break. No. Has he had more customers bring Kimbers back to the shop? No. Did he know which parts or manufacturing processes were better in SA? No. He would not say out loud that it was nothing more than personal preference that made him favor SA.

 

[TurboFC3S]

I'm no expert on either - own one Springfield TRP and 2 Kimbers, a TLE/RL commander and a CDPII govt. But the TRP has been 100% reliable, never the slightest hitch. And both Kimbers needed a few tweaks and some smith work to get to 100%. If the SHTF tomorrow, I'd grab the Springfield.

 

[texas bulldog]

if i were limited to those choices, i would probably go with springfield, though the kimbers are pretty. i just don't have as much confidence in their QC and customer service.

but i will join the chorus of folks telling you to take a serious look at dan wesson as well. i don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

[woad_yurt]

My very limited Kimber experience:
Knowing zero about .45s, I was at the range with a friend who had a very expensive Kimber. He let me shoot a couple of magazines. While it very easy to hit my my target, it wasn't very easy to get the friggin' thing to cycle reliably. It was a total pain and that thing cost more than what I paid for my car. I was disappointed.

 

[wtfd661]

My Kimber has also been 100% out of the box reliable, no complaints from me. Great gun, so I would recommend Kimber based on my experience with that.

No doubt in my mind that Springfield makes a great gun also, so I would buy one from them with no worries, if I saw one that had the features I was looking for.

As far as the post about Springfield making better quality guns than Kimber, it cracks me up. If you go to 1911forums.com and look at both brands forum site you will see almost the exact same complaints about Springfield as you will see about Kimber. The only difference that you might see is a slight increase in the frequency of them. Of course that could be because that Kimber sells a ton more pistols than Springfield (according to the 2007 stats published by BATFE shows Kimber manufacturing over 55,000 and Springfield manufacturing over 13,000).

What does that mean, well to me it means that there have been 10's of thousands (if not 100's of thousands) satisfied customers of both brands. Go and buy the one that has the features that you like best, and then go shot it with confidence. Enjoy and happy shooting.

 

[kamagong]

Kimber makes a good gun. The problem with them lies in the fact that they use the same parts in all their guns. The Custom II's MSRP is $828 and the Gold Combat II's is $2223. True, the Gold Combat II has a touch more hand fitting in its construction, but it still has the same barrel, plastic mainspring housing, and MIM parts that the Custom II has. That's ridiculous given the fact that Gold Combat II costs $1400 more.

Contrast that with Springfield. The Loaded is Springfield's answer to the Kimber Custom II. They share similar features and both pistols contain MIM parts. Both are fine guns and good enough for most shooters. For those that want better quality though, take a look at Springfield's lineup. You can use my Custom Carry as an example. It is built by the Springfield Custom Shop, which does work equal to the finest semi-custom houses. The Custom Carry uses better parts than the Loaded, like a Nowlin barrel and Novak sights. The MIM parts have been taken out, and tool steel parts substituted in their place. In fact the Custom Carry only has a couple of MIM parts IIRC (i.e., slide stop and firing pin plate).

 

[NGIB]

I have 2 of each and all of them are reliable and great shooters. My 2 Kimbers are from different eras, I have a first generation (circa 97) Classic Gold Match and a late model Tactical Pro II - I like them both. My Gold Match is probably a bit more accurate than my Springer Loaded but realistically it's a toss-up. The Kimber is prettier as I'm a sucker for a real nice blue gun. It really boils down to what you want to spend and what tickles your fancy. Here's the Kimber: