2011-12 Kimber 1911 full size .45 acp

Okay guys..I have read in various forums how the Kimbers were jammomatics. I am here to inform you otherwise. I bought a Kimber stainless 2 and a 250 pack of cheap ammo from Academy Sports. I had one failure to fire out of 250 and no jams! I did thoroughly clean all the packing grease before going to the range and I believe it makes a difference. I don't drink any manufacturer's kool aid and I would be more than happy to report any negatives; however, I don't have any! I believe some people just say negative things if they do not actually own the particular brand. I believe in value, not hype! I would sell the gun in a minute if it did not perform! Great job, Kimber! That being said, I am sure there are other 1911's that do just as well. My 2 cents! Brent.

....250 rounds..... wow.

That's a start...gotta order 10,000 tomorrow. Maybe you can give me a name

I guess your not a Kimber guy?

What do you think is perfect?

Brent,

Your review is appreciated, however, you have to understand the people who often review (new) kimbers in a negative light generally have multiple thousands of rounds through them. 250 rounds is like a drop in the bucket for your typical competitive pistol shooter and does not constitute a conclusive review. By comparison, my personal gun has about 3000 rounds through it with I think one fte due to a weak load, I still consider the gun to be "new". Give us an update when you hit about 2000 rounds or more through the pipe and let us know how it runs. I happen to like kimbers, and hope it runs well for you.

Hey Will, I will be glad to give you an update; however it may be a while with those numbers. Seriously, what is your favorite production 1911 and why. I get your point.Thanks, Brent.

2nd ammendment wrote:Hey Will, I will be glad to give you an update; however it may be a while with those numbers. Seriously, what is your favorite production 1911 and why. I get your point.Thanks, Brent.

No offense intended whatsoever. The only experience I have with Kimbers is seeing them at matches occasionally and at the range when I'm practicing. Several times I've seen them have some trouble, even with hardball ammunition. I think a lot of this is due to the magazines that ship with the guns. If you have any trouble, try out some better magazines.

My personal favorite production 1911? I really like some of Springfield's higher end models (TRP, Loaded, and I briefly got to handle a Range Officer recently that I liked) and STI makes a nice 1911 in my opinion.

I didn't mean to insinuate that your gun was a bad one. Where are you located in the state?

Myers wrote:Brent,

Your review is appreciated, however, you have to understand the people who often review (new) kimbers in a negative light generally have multiple thousands of rounds through them. 250 rounds is like a drop in the bucket for your typical competitive pistol shooter and does not constitute a conclusive review. By comparison, my personal gun has about 3000 rounds through it with I think one fte due to a weak load, I still consider the gun to be "new". Give us an update when you hit about 2000 rounds or more through the pipe and let us know how it runs. I happen to like kimbers, and hope it runs well for you.

Brent,

Myers makes a great point. Sounds like some of us are turning our noses up at a 250 round count, but he's right.

The competition CZ I'm currently shooting has 80 thousand+ thru it. One of my Glock-17's has over 175 thousand.

Both still run.

Buy a reloader and you'll see what we mean.

I am in Jackson and obviously a neophyte..It seemed like people were complaining about out the box jamming. I had no idea we were talking thousands of rounds! I take no offense, but I do like to learn from other well seasoned shooters. I know Will is seasoned...just thought I would bust him on the 10,000 round order every week. He is a nice guy as well. Take care guys and keep the advice and info coming!

2nd ammendment wrote:I am in Jackson and obviously a neophyte..It seemed like people were complaining about out the box jamming. I had no idea we were talking thousands of rounds! I take no offense, but I do like to learn from other well seasoned shooters. I know Will is seasoned...just thought I would bust him on the 10,000 round order every week. He is a nice guy as well. Take care guys and keep the advice and info coming!

Come to our match in Byram this weekend and meet all the guys and gals.

Sounds good Cliff..BTW That was me that spoke to you while you guys were breaking down this afternoon. I am still interested in the enhanced carry course. Let me know some open dates. Biq Daddy Q is interested as well. Thanks..Brent.

I haven't heard of nearly as many problems with Kimber's fills size guns as I have the 4" and 3" guns. The 4" guns are shipped with recoil springs that are way too short, and 3" .45s tend to be intimidating and some folks have a tendency to limp wrist them, causing jams. The best solution for the 4" guns is generally considered to be just buying a Wolff XP recoil spring. Kimber uses Wolff springs, but from my understanding the ones they use would be closer to the required length for a 3" gun.

Like PM said, the problem is often factory magazines. I've never had any problems out of my oem Kimber mag, but I choose to use Kimpro Tacmags and Chip McCormick Powermags+ in my 1911s. My OEM Kimber mag, which is made by checkmate for future reference, outperformed several high dollar Wilson Combat mags in my Compact CDP II. Buy yourself some good mags of various types and find what works best. I like Kimpros for the price and the fact that they work great in every 1911 I've ever put them in

I have had my Compact CDP II, which is 4" on a compact frame, for a couple years now, and I'll tell you at first it was a piece. Jammed every few rounds, especially with the Wilson mags, up until just short of the 1000 round mark and then it had a pretty major failure. While out shooting the thumb safety snapped off causing the slide to fall off the frame. Scared the sh!t out of my younger brother who was shooting it. Kimber took care of it very quickly, and took care of the jamming problem. Now, around 5-6k rounds later, I haven't had a failure since, with the exception of the Wilson mags, so I sold them off, and have not had any problems.

A lot of folks problems with Kimber comes from prejudice they reached due to bad word of mouth, then some have problems with so many of the Kimber parts being MIM....which is what caused my thumb safety to fail, and the plastic mainspring housing. And another annoyance is the confusion that Kimber promotes by putting "Custom Shop" on almost everything, leading people to believe that their gun is a custom made gun and that Kimber really does have a custom shop, when really all it is is a designation for various lines with a few extra desirable features.

And now I would inclined to agree with them, why should I pay $1,300 for a Kimber loaded with MIM parts, when I can spend the same amount, maybe a bit more and get something like a Dan Wesson, that is made primarily of Ed Brown parts, and generally considered to be higher quality, and a better bang for the buck in general(as far as being compared to your $1000+ Kimber's, not talking about the plain customs or TLEs)

I still love my Kimber, and trust it with my life about 99% of the time, but I can certainly understand the stigma surrounding Kimber.

And keep your fingers off that barrel and a good coat of your line of choice on it!!! It will rust with a nice little finger print pattern!

2nd ammendment wrote:Sounds good Cliff..BTW That was me that spoke to you while you guys were breaking down this afternoon. I am still interested in the enhanced carry course. Let me know some open dates. Biq Daddy Q is interested as well. Thanks..Brent.

Pm'ed you.

Ah, ok. Didn't realize that was you. Come shoot with us in the match if you'd like. There is a division (Single Stack) for your Kimber.

jakeg823 wrote:I haven't heard of nearly as many problems with Kimber's fills size guns as I have the 4" and 3" guns. The 4" guns are shipped with recoil springs that are way too short, and 3" .45s tend to be intimidating and some folks have a tendency to limp wrist them, causing jams. The best solution for the 4" guns is generally considered to be just buying a Wolff XP recoil spring. Kimber uses Wolff springs, but from my understanding the ones they use would be closer to the required length for a 3" gun.

Like PM said, the problem is often factory magazines. I've never had any problems out of my oem Kimber mag, but I choose to use Kimpro Tacmags and Chip McCormick Powermags+ in my 1911s. My OEM Kimber mag, which is made by checkmate for future reference, outperformed several high dollar Wilson Combat mags in my Compact CDP II. Buy yourself some good mags of various types and find what works best. I like Kimpros for the price and the fact that they work great in every 1911 I've ever put them in

I have had my Compact CDP II, which is 4" on a compact frame, for a couple years now, and I'll tell you at first it was a piece. Jammed every few rounds, especially with the Wilson mags, up until just short of the 1000 round mark and then it had a pretty major failure. While out shooting the thumb safety snapped off causing the slide to fall off the frame. Scared the sh!t out of my younger brother who was shooting it. Kimber took care of it very quickly, and took care of the jamming problem. Now, around 5-6k rounds later, I haven't had a failure since, with the exception of the Wilson mags, so I sold them off, and have not had any problems.

A lot of folks problems with Kimber comes from prejudice they reached due to bad word of mouth, then some have problems with so many of the Kimber parts being MIM....which is what caused my thumb safety to fail, and the plastic mainspring housing. And another annoyance is the confusion that Kimber promotes by putting "Custom Shop" on almost everything, leading people to believe that their gun is a custom made gun and that Kimber really does have a custom shop, when really all it is is a designation for various lines with a few extra desirable features.

And now I would inclined to agree with them, why should I pay $1,300 for a Kimber loaded with MIM parts, when I can spend the same amount, maybe a bit more and get something like a Dan Wesson, that is made primarily of Ed Brown parts, and generally considered to be higher quality, and a better bang for the buck in general(as far as being compared to your $1000+ Kimber's, not talking about the plain customs or TLEs)

I still love my Kimber, and trust it with my life about 99% of the time, but I can certainly understand the stigma surrounding Kimber.

Wow on the safety. I shot 1911's and the hi-cap platforms from 89 to 2000. Springfeild, Colt, Caspian, Sti, Para....all loaded with good parts. Never happened to me, and I would be shocked at seeing that happen with what goes into those guns today.

I have to agree with pretty much everything that has been posted about kimbers. I have a Custom II with about 2k rounds through it. It hasn't failed, but I don't think it's a good value compared to other pistols out there. I got mine for commemorative reasons.

Personally it really bothers me about the MIM in critical parts like the safety and the plastic MSH. I replaced my MSH recently to circumvent problems. I just don't think Kimbers are designed to hold up to routine use under a high round count. I easily put 300 rounds through a pistol in just one practice session.

I have a springfield XD that has over 20k through it and while I've broken two firing pin retaining pins, the grip safety spring twice and the cocking indicator none were critical enough to stop the pistol from functioning. Also keep in mind on top of the 20,000 rounds I probably have 3 times as many dry fires through it.

I've had my CZ since October and already have well over 3000 though it. If I were to shoot regularly (over 1k a month) with an off the shelf gun I would seriously look at the higher end Dan Wesson, Springfield or STI. Personally I'm holding out until my wife gives me permission to have one custom made.

Yep Cliff, there's a thread floating around here somewhere about it.

Excuse the poor quality pictures

No wonder those don't make strong showings at practical pistol matches. We run guns so hard they just wouldn't stand up to the round counts.

One of my gunsmiths, Bob Jones hates MIM parts.

The Kimbers are nice looking, great shapes to them, but with that quality metal...

Cliff Cargill wrote:No wonder those don't make strong showings at practical pistol matches. We run guns so hard the just wouldn't stand up to the round counts.

One of my gunsmiths, Bob Jones hates MIM parts.

I don't run guns as hard as you by any stretch, but I tend to shoot 3-400 rounds per gun if I'm only taking one or two when I go to the range, and at the time I was going at least twice a week and had the money to do it.

Eventually I'll have the MIM stuff replaced but nothing else has shown any signs of weakness since that so that is kind of low on my priority list right now. Plus once I replace the parts it'll have to go back to Birdsongs for those parts to be coated. I've started carrying my Hi-Power and G26 more and more lately though, but the Compact still just feels best in my hand and on my hip.