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.