Revisiting Kimbers

[JRV]

Context: used to work with a Kimber Master Dealer. 2012-2013 period. Guns were rusting on the shelf, would fail safety checks, constant customer service issues. Flaking finishes, mistimed Swartz safeties, you name it. I’ve been maligning Kimbers for ten years based on those experiences.

Ended up sitting on a bunch of BPS gift cards and in the market for another 1911. Decided to pick up a new 5” TLE II—if it didn’t work, I’d send it in for customer service and sell it off. I was curious—the K6 seems to enjoy a decent reputation, but were the 1911s still problematic?

I checked the obvious QC stuff—thumb safety was fitted well with no overtravel, no rust, grip safety was functioning properly, grip safety was sorta blended okay, mixed mags ejected and fed without issue. Extractor actually seemed to have a bit of a bevel and some tension on it. No clocking, FPS was snug. Slide stop was properly sized and snug in the frame and lug Slide stop was making contact with both lower barrel lugs. Trigger broke between 4 lbs and 4 lbs 2 oz for five pulls. I cleaned and lubed everything.

I took 300 rounds of mixed 230 grain ball, 100 rounds of .45 Federal Punch, and 100 rounds of 230 gr Golden Sabers to the range with a bunch of mixed mags (Wilson, Springfield, Metalform, and the factory Kimber mag).

Zero issues. Shot everything at or near the tip of the front sight. Passed limp wrist tests and multiple iterations of the 10-8 Performance extractor function test. All brass ejected between 3-4 o’clock.

Sample size of one, and still needs more testing, but this was more competent than I expected based on past experiences.

[Robinson]

Context: used to work with a Kimber Master Dealer. 2012-2013 period. Guns were rusting on the shelf, would fail safety checks, constant customer service issues. Flaking finishes, mistimed Swartz safeties, you name it. I’ve been maligning Kimbers for ten years based on those experiences.

Ended up sitting on a bunch of BPS gift cards and in the market for another 1911. Decided to pick up a new 5” TLE II—if it didn’t work, I’d send it in for customer service and sell it off. I was curious—the K6 seems to enjoy a decent reputation, but were the 1911s still problematic?

I checked the obvious QC stuff—thumb safety was fitted well with no overtravel, no rust, grip safety was functioning properly, grip safety was sorta blended okay, mixed mags ejected and fed without issue. Extractor actually seemed to have a bit of a bevel and some tension on it. No clocking, FPS was snug. Slide stop was properly sized and snug in the frame and lug Slide stop was making contact with both lower barrel lugs. Trigger broke between 4 lbs and 4 lbs 2 oz for five pulls. I cleaned and lubed everything.

I took 300 rounds of mixed 230 grain ball, 100 rounds of .45 Federal Punch, and 100 rounds of 230 gr Golden Sabers to the range with a bunch of mixed mags (Wilson, Springfield, Metalform, and the factory Kimber mag).

Zero issues. Shot everything at or near the tip of the front sight. Passed limp wrist tests and multiple iterations of the 10-8 Performance extractor function test. All brass ejected between 3-4 o’clock.

Sample size of one, and still needs more testing, but this was more competent than I expected based on past experiences.

That's a good start, and I hope the gun works out for you.

I'm not sure I would buy a Kimber, but if I did it would probably one of their models without the firing pin safety -- unless it was only for range/target use.

[Artemas2]

I have TLR ii in .45 that I have over 10k rounds with no fuss. It was bought used 15 years ago before getting passed on to me.

Seems like their current QC and factory repairs are...questionable.
There is a thread on enos about it, hopefully dude just got a lemon, but the second post on page 2 is concerning
https://forums.brianenos.com/topic/2...ging/#comments

[JRV]

That's a good start, and I hope the gun works out for you.

I'm not sure I would buy a Kimber, but if I did it would probably one of their models without the firing pin safety -- unless it was only for range/target use.

This isn't a carry gun... I have an old Colt Commander that went through a full rebuild with a 1911/2011 shop local to me. This Kimber may end up being a CDP gun now that IDPA will let me compete with a holster in a location that allows normal clothes, but beyond that, this was just an experiment.

Given that Taurus seems to be trying lately, and I have had some fairly negative experiences with more "mainstream" guns, it seemed like high time to revisit some old prejudices.

[Rock185]

I've had a half dozen Kimbers, all with the firing pin safety. Never an issue with the "timing" of the FPS. With one exception, all were reliable from day one. The one exception had an easily remedied issue. I've just had very good luck with Kimbers. The last, purchased in 2017 IIRC, has been exemplary. Of course, this was a sample size of only a half dozen.

FWIW, I've owned more Colts than anything, along with Heinie, Wilson, Baer, STI, Springfield, Dan Wesson, etc. I've had more trouble with some of the others than with the much maligned Kimbers........

[TOTS]

Thanks for sharing and being willing to revisit the brand. Efforts like this are the only way a brand can overcome a bad reputation. The TLE and series 70 guns have always been a surer thing that the other models. Keep us updated.

[HeavyDuty]

The round butt Aegis Elites have been catching my eye for awhile now. I just don’t have a real need for one.

[Sammy1]

I have a Custom II that has been reliable, about four year old. Not a ton of rounds through it but so far so good.

[45dotACP]

My custom II in 9mm did need a new extractor, but since then has been more reliable than my Colt 9mm commander

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

[RAM Engineer]

I had an old Custom (manufactured circa '99) that I had Novak tritium sights and Spegel cocobolo grips on. It was stolen during a home break in around 2002 and I still mourn it's loss. I have since inherited my father's Custom that he bought at the same time as I got mine. Just need to update the sights and grips to get it back to my dream configuration.

I've been sad about the depths Kimber descended to during the 2000s after bad experiences with an Eclipse II and an original Warrior. Hopefully they can get back to where they once were, and away from the "gun of the week" SIG paradigm.