No need to waste your time or cause frustration. Just buy a Dan Wesson Valor and you’ll be set. 
My second 1911 and my last 1911. It’s been flawless and I would definitely trust my life with it. I’d say it’s the best value, semi-custom 1911 on the market.
An interesting statement that probably deserves to be backed-up.
I happen not to agree with this, but welcome your insights just the same.
AC
I’ve owned 2 Kimber Series 1’s which both never made it to the 2k mark without major problems.
1,a Series 1 Gold Match,went full auto at 1350 rds .Sear had a hairline crack which taught me a lesson about poor quality MIM.Sent it back,got it fixed,ditched it.
The other was an CCO sized piece which I bought used and after the 1st visit to the range had a really clean crack straight down the center of the grip safety. Replaced the grip safety and said to hell with it.Sold it at a gun show.
No more Kimbers for me.
Funny,my “overly tight” Les Baers have never went full auto on me.
I wonder why? :rolleyes:
DAT85
No Kimbers for me as there are too many horror stories. The one I owned a few years ago was stolen before I had ran enough rounds through it to form an opinion. I do know, however, that I didn’t have to buy a Yugo to know that they were junk. 
YMMV
I also owned a kimber once,and yes Templar I didn’t listen to my friends that said not to waste my time or money.I thought that they couldn’t be as bad as I’ve heard and still be as expensive or in demand as they are.Now I know and it wont happen again. a big thumbs up to kimber customer service they fixed it and shipped it for free EVERYTIME it went back.I believe most gun companies put out a lemon every once in a while when kimber puts out a pistol that works every once in a while.
Kimber found their market niche by providing 1911s with a host of custom features for box stock Colt pricing. That made them very attractive to new and/or recreational buyers, and for the most part, these shooters were low-round-count folks who were unlikely to expose any rough edges in the plan. Think “Bushmaster sales model” here.
Those who took their shooting a bit more seriously began to run into trouble after a few thousand rounds. The cost-saving shortcuts taken in production (MIM gets a bad name here, even though the technology itself can produce a very reliable component) resulted in a lot of broken guns. Those who rarely fired theirs stood up and cried foul, of course, though these tend to be the same kinds of people who chafe at the suggestion that DPMS produces a sub-par carbine.
The lesson that should have been learned along the way is that there is no such thing as a budget service-grade firearm, and you really do get what you pay for. Kimbers look nice, are well-appointed, and have brought no little interest back to the 1911, but they tend not to remain the choice of serious shooters or students of the design. That’s not to say that they are garbage by any means, but like a bargain M4, there is definitely some time and expense involved in getting them up to standard. In the end, you’re going to spend the same amount (or more) get a quality gun, but that’s not entirely a bad news story, as what you learn along the way can actually be quite valuable.
AC
i got a kimber warrior didnt run out the box after adjusting the extractor and adding every part 10-8 makes it runs like a honda! i think if you own any 1911 and shoot the piss out of it its going to need some tuning no matter what brand. some just come more ready then others. you have to be handy and no your gun to own a 1911 i think.
And there you have it. There isn’t a 1911 manufacturer out there who hasn’t had to do some kind of warranty work on their weapon at some point even right out of the box; it happens. I have a couple Wilson mags in my bag which are finally breaking in after over 100 rounds being loaded through them. Out of the box, they were 100% garbage. Does this make their weapons garbage also? Hardly.
Kimber sells all of the 50 some thousand weapons it makes annually and has a lot of customers on backorder so they must be doing something right. If all of their weapons, and if even 10% of their weapons, were as bad as depicted on this thread they would be out of business by now. When warranty work is called for, it is normally handled professionally and expeditiously as happened in my instance. That particular weapon now runs lights out through the 200 rounds I normally put through it when I shoot. There are 4 Kimbers in my safe 3 of which have gone through break in and run just fine. The 4th is being broken in for my son and has just about all of the bugs worked out of it.
I have three HK .45 caliber pistols that did all that right out of the box…Without even lubing them.
And I might add that the poster you quoted didn’t “tune” his pistol. He freaking rebuilt it with outsourced parts to get it to run right.
Hell…lets make it five HK .45 caliber pistols. I forgot about the SOCOM in the back of the safe and there was a USP tactical that I traded off.
Then there’s been a Glock 21 and another 21SF.
A host of Colt 1911’s over the years, including a 3" defender. Two Springfields .
The Kansas state troopers ran Sig P220’s, then Glock 21’s, now Glock 21SF’s. My own agencies almost 30 Glock .45’s. none of those have required a break in period. That’s not even touching on all the privately owned Colt’s, Sigs, Glocks, and HK’s here.
On the other hand there have been five Kimbers that I am aware of and so far only one of them has ran right.
If your gun requires a 500-1000 round break-in, then whoever put it together sucks, period. I can only think of one prominent brand that consistently requires such a break-in period for most everything it ships out: Kimber.
Selling a large volume of anything is no proof that the manufacturer is “doing something right”. I guarantee a VERY large number of the 50k+ Kimbers sold per year are not up to the challenge of serving as a personal defense pistol, but their owners never find out about it because they bought the pistol as a looker, not a shooter. I have no problem with that if Kimber was marketing its products as mantle pieces, but they don’t - they pretend like their guns are a great choice for concealed carry and home defense. That’s not only misleading, it’s downright irresponsible.
I’ve fired one magazine through a Kimber and it jammed. That, along with the torrents of negative reviews from trusted individuals on the internet, has made my mind up.
While I agree with some of this, I’ve heard the same thing said of bushmaster, dpms, etc…
I’ve had many out of the box 1911’s and only lower tier weapons ever needed to be sent back. It might sound snobbish the way I’m saying it, but the truth is the truth. Most of the time you really get what you pay for
WWII surplus,70s Colt Dan Wesson, Wilson Combats, Ed Brown,all well worth having. All others are pretty much MIM parts range toys. My listed pistols have all worked flawless from the first shot till now ,Well the WWII 1911 surplus was used some before I owned it!!!
1911s need to be top quality
The Kimbers that end up being good are good. Problem is, how do you weed through the bad ones to get a good one? And more importantly, why waste your time?
I have a mostly stock Warrior, tweaked a little by Chuck Rogers and tweaked a little by LAV. Runs perfectly.
I also have a lot of friends who sold theirs at a loss to get something that actually worked.
I love my Kimber Warrior, but don’t recommend them to others.
That’s it in a nutshell.
The only people who I currently know who own Kimber’s have gutted them and replaced ALL of the fire control parts with Brown or Wilson parts (EGW also) at the expense of time and $:(
Why bother when there are other products on the market that don’t have the track record of Kimber at the same price point?
DAT85
Well, let’s not throw the baby out completely though. Used Series I guns, and a lot of Series II guns are probably pretty high quality – they were recommended for some time by 10-8 and Hilton Yam. Those “good ones” will be used though, and most people won’t mess with a used 1911 for serious purposes when they can get better, new.
As a build gun, however, a used Series I Kimber or some Series II may be stellar. Especially since you might be able to pick one up at a steal of a price due to the declining favor with Kimbers.
Kimber really is a hit or miss company these days. More recently though, they’re mostly a miss with the new “Solo” design they have. But that’s a completely different subject there.
Keeping on track, I currently have my gen I “Clack” that has ran flawlessly, and I’ve also had 2 Ultra’s from Kimber, and Ultra Tactical and an Ultra CDP. The Tactical never really had a problem, whereas the CDP had FTF’s/FTE’s with almost every mag that ran through it. The 1911 design is a gun that you have to be competent at knowing and addressing their problems if they arise, but with Kimber it’s far too often. I don’t trust Kimber these days and will never purchase another gun from them, unless it’s an original.
Even the ones made in the 1990s, before they started Series II production?
My $499 Springfield GI ran as good as ANY gun that I have ever owned…