After reading of all the Anti-Love of Kimber 1911’s and hear that all they are is junk, that MIM parts are terrible and such, I find myself asking this questions-
What parts break, or failed?
Under what conditions?
How well was the weapon maintained?
What were the approximate manufacture dates?
Round counts (approximate is fine) when the said failure or breakage happened?
I’m not looking for Kimber haters, or “Kimbers are junk” sayings, I’d like real range info with facts or pictures to back them up. Not stirring the pot, nor defending or tearing down Kimber, just curious.
Completely unsure of rounds at this point, but it was over 3500 at one point, for sure.
Recoil spring replaced because I bent the end of it when I inadvertently set a toolbox on it.
I had Rogers golfball the grip, and undercut it and had LAV bevel my strong side ambi safety so it would stop wearing a hole in the web of my thumb at his 1911 Operator’s course.
I got a Pro TLE II that I bought in October. I swapped out the plastic main spring housing for a Kimber aluminum one, put a set of hard plastic grips on it (got rid of Houge type) and I filed the safety some, as it was digging into my hand. Got bout 600 rounds through it so far and runs great.
I once had a Kimber Pro CDP manufactured ~2004 or so with an internal extractor. The MIM safety cracked in two pieces during slow controlled fire at ~1,100 rounds. It also had constant FTF’s before and after it’s trip back to Yonkers when using a variety of quality factory FMJ and HP ammo. The gun was well maintained and was basically a safe queen during it’s tenure. Unacceptable performance for a $1,200 product. Live and learn.
I’ve got over 10,000 rounds through my Custom II with stock internals; even has the external extractor. Gun is somewhere around the 2004-2005 manufacturing date. A few tweaks and its been flawless for a very long time.
On my kimber ultra raptor 2 the plunger tube became very loose, almost completely unsteaked around 50 rounds. The ambi saftey broke on my grand raptor 2 right around 1000 rounds. Both of my kimbers were very touchy it seemed. I no longer own either.
The front sight on my Warrior broke around 3000 rounds, not sure exactly as my note book is at home. I had to pay shipping. The slide also had to go back a second time on my dime as the replacement front sight was drifting on its own during recoil. I asked them to pin it but they assured me their press would fix it. I have put about 2000 rounds through it since and no problems.
Nothing else broken however I replaced the extractor with a Wilson BP after the stock one started to loose tension, and replaced the sear, hammer and disconnector with C&S parts. This guns has been pretty reliable and very accurate. Those parts were put by Springfield’s custom shop.
The other Warrior was never fired as I traded it.
The TLE’s both went back to Kimber due to pitting in the barrels while sitting in my safe. Kimber replaced them, however I had to pay shipping. These guns only had about 1000 rounds on them before I traded them and I had no other problems with them.
Its been my experience they make accurate guns, but all the ones I’ve used had fleas of one form or another.
I currently own a Kimber TLE II with +/- 3,000 rounds and about 5 years old. I have only had two parts fail: the rear of the hammer loop snapped off around 500 rounds. When I sent the pistol back to Kimber, they discovered the slide had a hairline crack on the inside of the slide running the length of the firing pin channel from the breech to the firing pin stop. Once they returned it to me I replaced the polymer mainspring housing, fitted a trigger, installed some VZ grips designed like the standard rubber grips, installed a Ed Brown hardcore firing pin stop, and Colt series 80 firing pin (to override the Swchartz firing pin safety in those situations where the grip safety is sufficiently engaged to allow the trigger to move, but not enough to deactivate the firing pin safety- which was a non-issue before I sent the pistol back, but occasionally happened once it was returned to me). I replaced all major springs around the 2,000 mark and clean every 500. Nothing broken since.
I really hold to the opinion that if a part will prematurely fail it will occur under a 1,000 rounds.
Kimber TacPro II purchased in 2010. One of the female tabs on ambi safety broke between 7300~7350 rounds. Replaced it with an EGW single side. Routine cleaning/lubrication and changed out recoil spring every 3k or so.
MIM parts (if done properly and heat treated), can be very reliable. With that said, 1911 owners typically do not want them in their gun.
My main issue with Kimbers is that they do not know how to make a reliable 1911 and when one does run (for high round counts over 5K), I think it is kind of like winning the lottery.
I have a non-working Kimber coming into the shop shortly for examination. I will do my best to capture all the things wrong with it.
I’ve owned two Kimbers. Neither would run correctly without extensive tuning, well beyond the basic fluff & buff. One of them sheared the lug off the magazine catch lock at about 600 rounds, causing the mag to fall out each time a round was fired. It was the last straw. I replaced it with a Wilson part and dumped both Kimbers. I just never trusted them after that.
My Custom II ran good up to almost 600 rounds, (good meaning less than 10 FTF/FTE type issues), but right at that 600 round point, I started having multiple FTF issues, with standard 230gr FMJ ammo. I tried Federal, Winchester, PMC, even Wolf… I’m not a huge 1911 guy, and never really investigated the cause. My cousin really wanted the gun, so I told him what it was doing to me, and sold it for $600 to invest in an AR…
He had the same issues, even with new magazines and still several types of ammo, and sold it as well.
I just lost faith in it, and I won’t own a gun that I wouldn’t trust my life to…
Maybe something with the extractor? Not sure this helps any, but it’s my personal experience.
I have 3 Kimbers one over 12 years old and one I bought last year. The older one has thousands of rounds through it, I don’t keep records. The only problems I have had was a plastic MSH break when it was dropped. Then last year the slide stop broke, I had the same SS break with a series 70 Gold Cup so I don’t fault Kimber.
I own 2 Series I Kimber’s that came with MIM parts.
My Stainless Compact had 3000 rounds with out any breakage before I replaced the slide stop with a 10-8 for the hell of it.
The other is a full size Royal that was sent to a Bulls-eye smith to be accurized for competition. The barrel, bushing, link, sear, disconector, extractor, firing pin stop and slide stop were all replaced in the accurazing and trigger job.
HOWEVER, I noticed he left the hammer. I asked why and he said he tested ALL the original MIM parts for hardness and they were GTG. He said he would have left them in if he wasn’t accurazing the gun. He told me not to bother with changing any parts on the Compact.
He also said that the barrel was GTG but changed it to a Kart anyway.
BTW, the gun holds 5/16 of an inch at 50 yards with Federal Gold Match so I didn’t mind the barrel swap;)
I don’t know if they changed their MIM process since the Series I guns though.
