From today's range session. Only shot the Garrison and TRP though...
Attachment 88945
Attachment 88946
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From today's range session. Only shot the Garrison and TRP though...
Attachment 88945
Attachment 88946
I'm pretty sure all Kimber 1911's were made in Yonkers, New York. The early guns were stamped Clackamas, Oregon, as that was where Kimber's headquarters were located, but they were all manufactured in the old Jericho plant in New York.
Kimber eventually moved their headquarters to Yonkers, and all their 1911's were marked Yonkers, New York, until their move to Troy, Alabama.
Yes, they were all made in Yonkers.
The original Kimber was a custom/semi custom rifle maker which was essentially Bankrupt.
Jericho was making 1911s and 1911 frames / slides in Yonkers as an OEM for multiple companies and prior to "Kimber" had tried to sell their own 1911s (which were essentially the same as the Kimber series 1 guns) under the Ithaca brand.
The owners / new owners of Jericho bought Kimber for the name and it's association with the American West for marketing purposes as most 1911 fans don't associate the 1911 with Jewish businessmen in the suburbs of New York City.
"Kimber" didn't move their HQ to Yonkers, rather the owners of Jericho in Yonkers moved the "Kimber" name from OR to NY.
The Oregon marked guns were simply a byproduct of the time it took to formally transfer the manufacturers FFL.
45dotACP
Very much like the looks of your Colt.
At some point in the process, Chip McCormick was brought in as a consultant and he got some CMC branded slide and frame kits as part of the deal.
Attachment 89132
Before he became known for his AK work, Marc Krebs made a name as a competition 1911 builder. He got some of those CMC frame and slide kits and built <20 of these Pointman model 1911s in the mid to late-90s. They were supposed to be accurate enough for IPSC/IDPA competition and reliable enough for EDC.
Attachment 89134
Attachment 89135
I need to get new pics. Those were from when I was learning to use my light box...
Yup, Jericho Manufacturing of Yonkers NY - which later rebranded as Kimber was OEM’ing for several other companies. I would bet money that those slides in frames were made a Jericho manufacturing in Yonkers New York for chip McCormick. Weather chip McCormick was a consultant first and an OEM customer later or vice versa I can’t say.
I recall when the first Kimbers came out the rumor was that the Kimber’s were built by the same OEM who was providing the first OEM slides and frames for Wilson combat. Which would have been Jericho. Keep in mind this was in the mid to late 90s.
I remember both crabs and rock River arms when they were 1911 builders who started dabbling in rifles as a side line.
Chip told me that they first went to Colt but they couldn't provide a good enough product based on the equipment they had. The UAW union would not allow Colt to invest in CNC equipment. That's when Kimber teamed up with Jericho.
Chip had a line of parts at the time, knew a lot about 1911s, and had been involved in the original 2011 design. They ended up collaborating on the final product. If you look at the early Kimbers, they used the McCormick polymer trigger, and hammer. I'm sure there were other items as well.
I’d seen the Kimber/Jericho rumors but never found anything concrete.
I’m friends with/distantly related by marriage to someone who shot with Chip, the principles of STI and SVI and was at STI from the beginning until the employee buyout. Next time we cross paths I’ll try and remember to ask what he knows and remembers about it.
Here is an American Rifleman article
https://www.americanrifleman.org/con...r-rifle-story/
There is this https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/722249