As many of you know, I got shot by a fool playing with one of my pistols while I was driving. I am attached to the weapon and as it’s a Kimber Series I that is very accurate and reliable, I decided to have it upgraded for reliability primarily with a few cosmetic upgrades as well.
The weapon was rusting after carrying for a couple of day and the stock Kimber protective coating was gone. I also wanted a carry melt along with having the butt/MSH rounded a bit to avoid printing.
So I contacted my good friend Rob Bonacci and told him my intent. Rob is a school trained gunsmith and former Marine grunt; capable of doing anything from building a SPR type AR15 that shoots sub 3" groups at 600 yards to hand fitting an entire 1911. He’s innovative and has exacting attention to detail. He is also the official LRI gunsmith and in our classes has fixed everything from an AR10 to a 22-250 to 1911s. Rob is based in Denver Colorado and a sort of not so closely held secret (at least now!) amongst the circle of shooters I hang out with.
Rob bead blasted the frame and the slide, applied a Teflon/Moly coating to them after he finished his painstaking checkering of the front strap at 20 LPI, serration of the top and rear of the slide at 30LPI, checkering of the bottom of the trigger guard at 30 LPI, and even matched the checkering on the MSH with the front strap and the rear! A Wilson slide stop and Meushke ambi safety were fitted along with a Grieder medium length solid trigger. The Wilson slide stop was shortened and the frame was chamfered so that he slide stop would fit flush yet be easily removed. The Smith and Alexander MSH rounded out my envisioned black and silver color scheme. An Ed Brown mag release was fitted, contoured, and serrated at 30 LPI. The old Kimber ejector was replaced by an Ed Brown unit. A new EGW HD45 extractor was installed. This is a new design and radically different than other extractors. Rob added a 45 degree crown to the stock (very accurate) Kimber bull barrel and upgraded all of the springs to Wolff. The grip safety was replaced by an Ed Brown unti with a memory bump. The entire weapon was checked over for fit and reliability.
I think a simple tick mark, or a notch, like the ole gunfighters used to do when they killed a man. Only this one didn’t kill you (thankfully). I think you need to do something in that order.
as far as the macabre tribute, you could name it, and have grips made with the name in it…
i’m terrible with nicknames, but something like “lefty” or some such (since if I remember the improper handling idiot almost made you a lefty)
just an idea…
your friend really did a good job on it…
hope your healing process is still going well…i remember when you posted the x-ray…i assume the “rub a little dirt on it and walk it off” approach didn’t “exactly” work
Did you stay with the original hammer and sear? A lot of people replace their MIM parts because of breakage concerns but I have had zero problems with any of my MIM guns. If it works, why fix it!
My pre-series II Custom Target looks a lot like yours originally did, nice and patina’d. They really knew how to build them back then.
Stuck with the original hammer and sear. FYI, the gunsmith was very impressed with the fit and finish of this old Kimber, particularly the slide to frame fit.
