A discussion on Kimber quality

[Guinnessman]

I owned a Kimber once...Custom II TLE. Ill never own another. That thing could never get through more than 1 or 2 mags w/o FTE's & FTF's. Also, I've yet to see a single Kimber that didn't have rust or corrosion on the barrel. They leave carbon steel barrels in the white. WTF!

THIS!

As a wedding present to myself, I purchased a Kimber Pro CDP II in 2006. Within 6 months, that gun was trade fodder.

It was aesthetically pleasing, had a nice tight fit, and was very accurate. To this uneducated (at the time), new to a 1911, can't wait to own only 1911's aficionado, this Kimber was the cat's meow! Boy was I wrong. It was a $1000 paperweight.

I believe the break in period at the time was 500 rounds. During the first 500 rounds I encountered FTF's, FTE's, and lots of premature slide lockbacks. As I entered the next 500 rounds, the gun was not breaking in (you can't break in shit quality), and Kimber just told me to keep shooting the gun. After trying Wilson and Tripp magazines, my problems were yet to be cured. After some calls to Kimber Customer Service, they insisted that I was limp wristing the gun and to keep shooting it. That was the last straw.

After all of these issues I should have sent the gun to Kimber for work, but at 25 years old I was stubborn and decided to cut my losses early.

The gun was sold and I have never looked back. For the price of a Kimber in 2006, you could have two Glocks that were "Perfection."

[LittleLebowski]

Oh man, I had a Pro CDP II from that era as well. So glad I sold that thing at a loss.

[Guinnessman]

Oh man, I had a Pro CDP II from that era as well. So glad I sold that thing at a loss.

Yeah, that gun wanted to make me cry! It was that day that I realized the reviews in gun magazines are as worthless as the paper they are printed on.

[LittleLebowski]

Yeah, that gun wanted to make me cry! It was that day that I realized the reviews in gun magazines are as worthless as the paper they are printed on.

The barrel rusted overnight. Couldn't feed nor extract. I hated that gun.

[dbateman]

<<- does not like kimber.


Even worse is a lot of people think they are a high quality product and they give 1911's a bad name.

[Tamara]

More specifically to this thread: over the last 3 months, I've looked at over a dozen Kimbers.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but how many were in the second box of the shipment? (That's not a lot.)

Yeah, if you include all the low-end guns from that Certain Other Manufacturer, there's probably a higher incidence of issues, cosmetic and otherwise, with the Other.

However, people who buy a parked GI rep for <$500 don't seem to lose their feces over toolmarks the way people who pay $1,000+ for pretty snake-scale-pattern slide serrations.

And, based on a sample size of many, many hundred over many years, I'll put the quality of the average Other against the average Kimber at the comparable price point. (and take the equivalent Colt over either.)

[Guinnessman]

The barrel rusted overnight. Couldn't feed nor extract. I hated that gun.

Mine too! The barrel had a nice, rust colored, fingerprint on the top side of the barrel. Even a CLP soaked toothbrush did not get rid of all the rust. My Dad is a metalurgist, and when I showed him the barrel he asked me why I bought the gun in the first place! Yep, those were some dark days with that $1000 paperweight.

[wmu12071]

I have a compact series 1 and I have a love/hate relationship with it. The gun runs great for me and always has, however I burn through mags faster than I would like (cracking on the back/top). I started slowly spending more time with my glock 19 about a year and a half ago and the Kimber seem like work with the more frequent cleaning of mags and gun.

[spj]

My first 1911 was a Kimber TLE II. Not a bad gun. One of the only malfunctions it had was pulling a casing back into a powermag, spreading the feed lips and trashing it. Shot around 10,000 through it and sent it away.

A coworker and I then both bought SS Pro Carry II's. Upon arrival the front night sight was dead and the schwarz was mistimed. It would work but if you cycled it slowly it would fetch up just out of battery. Then both of our pistols began to rust. The barrels and the SS slide! Sitting on my darn bureau. Micro pitts in the SS on both of ours. I sent mine to Tripps for chrome and it looked great. I moved it along as I lost faith in a gun that needed a new recoil spring every 600 rounds.

Now it is all HK LEM all the time.