Another railed/optic ready 1911--Kimber Rapide OR

[Tokarev]

https://youtu.be/EaadfNKyIxU?si=HY4jxxh8gN-361XM

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[HeavyDuty]

I’ve never gotten carnal with a Kimber 1911, I know they are widely hated. Is it still earned?

[Elwin]

I’ve never gotten carnal with a Kimber 1911, I know they are widely hated. Is it still earned?

YES.

Sincerely,

The guy who owns two Kimbers, one of which just came back with a new slide and a whole host of problems that I have to fix because no one at that shop knows how to fit parts.

[msstate56]

I’ve never gotten carnal with a Kimber 1911, I know they are widely hated. Is it still earned?

Absolutely. I owned one years ago that needed some tweaking to several internal parts to run reliably. The last demo day I attended, one of the guns came apart during the demo. Their products just feel “cheap” when compared to other mfgs.

[HeavyDuty]

That’s a shame, because they make a couple of guns I find attractive.

[rathos]

Then series 70 guns are ok, the schwartz system guns are known to go click when you need it to go bang.


That’s a shame, because they make a couple of guns I find attractive.

[Exiledviking]

In my circle of friends and acquaintances, we say "friends don't let friends buy Kimber". I've seen a couple of train wrecks from them.

[Ed L]

Even the Kimber Warrior is a problem and it does not have the Schwartz safety.

[JTQ]

Then series 70 guns are ok, the schwartz system guns are known to go click when you need it to go bang.


Even the Kimber Warrior is a problem and it does not have the Schwartz safety.

For those that may be doing research, it is a Swartz firing pin safety.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US2169084A/en

[RAM Engineer]

For those that may be doing research, it is a Swartz firing pin safety.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US2169084A/en

cue the Space Balls jokes.

[HCM]

Even the Kimber Warrior is a problem and it does not have the Schwartz safety.

They are however, easier to fix than the Swartz / Series II models if one were so inclined.

[HeavyDuty]

They are however, easier to fix than the Swartz / Series II models if one were so inclined.

Pull pins, turn upside down, shake to drop all parts and reassemble with quality parts?

[TOTS]

Short answer, yes. Less short answer- some models- TLE, TLErl, Warrior, are pretty good to go.

[Elwin]

Pull pins, turn upside down, shake to drop all parts and reassemble with quality parts?

That’s what I’m gradually doing with mine because I have them, but it’s better to buy something else and avoid this mess.

Blued gun: Needed extractor work and all springs replaced. Had to tune Swartz and grip safety. And the best part, just discovered the hard way that the thumb safety (on a blued gun) is NOT carbon steel, which would explain why it was always an ugly grey color that didn’t match the rest of the gun’s polished blue. “Hard way” because I addressed some oversized parts of it that were hurting my hands and now I can’t cold blue it. So it needs a new one, which I was trying to avoid because eventually I plan on replacing the ignition parts which may require yet another new safety.

Stainless gun: New slide has a firing pin stop that falls out. The extractor may also have problems but I won’t know until I can stop the terrible clocking to eliminate that variable. Kimber also replaced the grip safety so it’s not tuned now, and of course the Swartz isn’t either. I’ve struggled getting it to lock back with mags that previously worked and work in other guns. And the adjustable sight came new with a significant ding in the rear leaf.

That’s the major stuff. There’s also small stuff like absolutely awful checkering (a few lines of it are technically serration because the vertical lines don’t extend far enough), the fact that they for some reason have ambi safeties with levers so different it looks like they pulled each side from a completely different set, plenty of MIM with a poor reputation, the inexplicable decision to use Series 80s firing pin stops that can catch on and damage the Swartz lever, etc.

The new slide and the newly white safety levers are a recent and aggravating set of issues that have me crankier than usual, but the bottom line is still the same. Kimber isn’t work messing with and outside of running these guns that I already have and couldn’t sell for a worthwhile amount (and which do run and shoot well once the problems are addressed), I’m done with them.

[LockedBreech]

About every 5 years, I see a Kimber I REALLY want, and wonder if they've finally improved to where I get excited, and then I do a little reading and there are always tons of stories from credible people about even the newest ones shitting the bed.

It's such a bummer, because their aesthetic designers/marketing people are really, really good at their jobs. All the engineers, QC people, and bean counters need to do is catch up. They just...fail to do so, over and over.

My favorite recent review when I was eyeballing a Micro Carry was "1/5 Stars. Runs so poorly it's basically a single-shot pistol, 1 star because it's a pretty paperweight."

[HCM]

Pull pins, turn upside down, shake to drop all parts and reassemble with quality parts?

Sort of.

Ream Chamber, tension extractor, make sure the extractor and ejector are correct for the caliber. Apparently Kimber used to use 9mm/.38 Super parts in .45s.

Just don't expect Kimber to be competent to do this.

The current warrior I have was part of a batch of Police Duty gun trade ins I picked up from GT Distributors. It had already been touched up a bit by an armorer which is why I bought it.

[HeavyDuty]

Nope, not a risk I’ll take.

[theJanitor]

I had a stainless model from 1997(?). It was a superb shooter, and only needed an extractor tune to be really good. In the end I sent it off to Drake Oldham for a redo. It's actually one that I miss

The only other experience I had was with a good buddy's one. I wanna say it has a short external extractor. It would reliably start choking at 500 rounds after cleaning. So he just cleaned it very 250 and never had problems.

[farscott]

Kimber makes a good base gun for a custom pistol. Toss everything but the frame, slide, and barrel. The frame and slide are good parts. Chuck Rogers has stated he likes building on Kimber frames and slides.

My Warrior with the only Kimber parts being the frame, slide, and barrel. Smithing done by Drake Oldham and Chuck Rogers. Accu-rails by Doug Jones.

[Timbonez]

I’ve never gotten carnal with a Kimber 1911, I know they are widely hated. Is it still earned?

I have two samples: 1) TLE/RL II TFS in .45 ACP purchased NIB in 2022 and 2) TLE/RL II in 10mm purchased NIB in 2023. Admittedly, I don't shoot them that often, but they have worked for me. The build quality for mine have been good. I've never owned a 10mm prior to this Kimber, but it has been enjoyable to shoot.