Can Someone Explain Kimber 1911's to me?
- Thread starter rkm456
- Start date
Lonesome Donkey
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Central Alberta
Lonesome Donkey
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Central Alberta
IMHO, the brand name. Good gun, but not that good.
Basic merchandising.
Also, snob appeal.
The biggest thing is that the newest makes and models of the Kimber 1911 are not of the precise machining, best metals and highest quality control of years ago. At one time Kimber was one of the premier makes of the 1911 platform. However, they have kept that old reputation and price while their quality has declined.
If someone offered me a 10-15 year old pristine Kimber new in the box, one left in the back of the gun store's vault by mistake, I'd pay the new prices for that one... but not a new one.
And that brings up the next issue: you can have an amazing older Kimber and end up replacing internals with poor replacements from Kimber too. That sucks... a lot.
... and yet revolvers for carry, target shooting and hunting are still selling well. Imagine that.
If someone offered me a 10-15 year old pristine Kimber new in the box, one left in the back of the gun store's vault by mistake, I'd pay the new prices for that one... but not a new one.
And that brings up the next issue: you can have an amazing older Kimber and end up replacing internals with poor replacements from Kimber too. That sucks... a lot.
... and yet revolvers for carry, target shooting and hunting are still selling well. Imagine that.
Aniest-"The biggest thing is that the newest makes and models of the Kimber 1911 are not of the precise machining, best metals and highest quality control of years ago. At one time Kimber was one of the premier makes of the 1911 platform. However, they have kept that old reputation and price while their quality has declined."
Please provide your source for this statement.
Please provide your source for this statement.
wayupnorth
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Northern Alberta
and yet no firsthand nuggets to pass along.... no sources sited as gospel?
just opinions on a gun people dont own?
ill listen to people that have one before i listen to the rabble that parrots what they hear.
just opinions on a gun people dont own?
ill listen to people that have one before i listen to the rabble that parrots what they hear.
Johnn Peterson
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Chemainus B.C.
As I mentioned in post #7, I have one and no complaints so far. Compared to a variety of 1911s I've had, my Kimber Super Match II is the sweetest of the bunch.
You know grumpyold, I spent 10 minutes typing out a fifty sentence, six paragraph explanation on Kimber Stainless Traget II 1911 in 9mm ownership for close to two decades... who has lost the round count too long ago, worn out too many springs and gotten blisters from the progressive reloader handle... how the last Kimber replacement parts done by the gunsmith were wearing 200-225% faster... how the price of Kimbers haven't gone down, that's for sure... about talking to people at my shooting ranges and clubs about the new faster wear on the Kimber I noted, people who shoot enough to wear out internals, who said Sig and Kimber 1911s are not up to quality... how I was personally the source of my own opinion based on observation and trusted advice.
And I figured you can either take my word for it... Or not.
That is the choice of each person who reads this. I'd rather spend time reloading more 9mm to shoot with the Kimber than be here feeling like I have to prove my proof because I feel like my opinion is not respected.
... but that is just my opinion. Going to go verify the powder throw on the progressive for a new batch of 115gr 9mm now...
saltednutz
Regular
- Location
- God's Country ᐋᕘᑕ
My experience with the was they are crap. Stovepiped all the time. Jammed. Garbage. I put 150 rounds through it...pass.
The biggest thing is that the newest makes and models of the Kimber 1911 are not of the precise machining, best metals and highest quality control of years ago. At one time Kimber was one of the premier makes of the 1911 platform. However, they have kept that old reputation and price while their quality has declined.
If someone offered me a 10-15 year old pristine Kimber new in the box, one left in the back of the gun store's vault by mistake, I'd pay the new prices for that one... but not a new one.
And that brings up the next issue: you can have an amazing older Kimber and end up replacing internals with poor replacements from Kimber too. That sucks... a lot.
... and yet revolvers for carry, target shooting and hunting are still selling well. Imagine that.
I LOVE autos but I also like revolvers because they don't spit my brass all over the place, especially when you're on a dirt range with tons of brass laying around. Also revolvers don't have safeties and they're dead reliable and if round fails to fire just pull the trigger again.
Same thing with auto rifles vs. bolt/lever, and at the range nobody likes hot brass flying at them!
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Aniest-It was a simple question. If you had a source for your statement that I was not aware of I would have liked to have reviewed it in its entirety. Simple, nothing more, nothing less intended.
Your subsequent reply of your ownership experience would have served you better to make your point, then your original post. Posts are all over the internet about not just Kimber’s but every brand under the sun. The real travesty is that a large percentage of these posts are from people who don’t have any experience with these products, but sure as hell have an opinion. The first paragraph of your reply was all that was necessary; the rest was totally not needed. If you don’t want to be questioned about your opinions don’t post on forum sites.
I have an early production Custom. Is it a better pistol overall then my CustomII Target or my Eclipse Target, not really. The Custom is around 10,000 round count. The Custom II is around the same round count. The reason the Custom II has catch up to the Custom is because I like the adjustable sights. They’re both 45 ACP and I’d rather adjust the sights then hold over/under when playing with reloads. The Eclipse is around 3000 rounds as it’s the news of the three. Regular maintenance and springs is all I’ve done and I see no difference in wear on internal parts. The three pistols are showing even and parallel rub marks on the slide stop pins, no peening on the frame or barrel lugs. No unusable rubmarks, none in odd areas, just want you would expect to see on all moving parts.I’ll agree that the internal parts do not seem to be as cleanly finished in the new pistols but nothings showing unusual wear. Time will tell. All three pistols triggers are between 4.2# and 4.7#, minor take up and no over travel.
Problems or hiccups? Custom- none. Custom II a few stove pipes in the first couple hundred rounds. Eclipse-none. I haven’t bought factory ammo for 40 years, everything I shoot is reloaded. TheCustom II was really tight from new and I’ll take the blame for the stove pipes for light loads before it settled in, it’s fine now.
Considering that all Kimber’s are series 70 pistols except for the grip safety firingpin block on the II series, which is just dumb, I have to say when I have to replace parts, and I will at some point, I’d be looking to Ed Brown, Wilson but not Kimber.
So after all that I’ll repeat- I have owned other brands over the years and built-up Colts when there was nothing else around. I still have my first KimberI don’t have any of the others. Is Kimber the do all end all DUH NO. The ones I have are dependable, nicely fitted and accurate. The LAPD Swat, SIS, Marine Special Op and USA Olympic Shooting Rapid Pistol Team seem to like Kimber's.
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Kimber 1911 pistols are better than most and although the internet stories of problems abound it is pretty interesting to note that they are also probably the largest manufacturer of 1911 type pistols around https://www.shootingindustry.com/u-s-firearms-industry-today-2015/ as such many problems does not necessarily mean that their failure rate is any higher than any other manufacturer. My experience with running them on commercial ranges is that they are more durable than other big name 1911s.
In my opinion the quality control of Kimber has not changed over the years, they had some early problems with extractors, and barrel steel, but they seem to have corrected the systemic issues.
As for pricing, I believe that they are competitively priced with other models that share similar features. Fancy checkering, milling and polishing all add $$ to the retail price.
In my opinion the quality control of Kimber has not changed over the years, they had some early problems with extractors, and barrel steel, but they seem to have corrected the systemic issues.
As for pricing, I believe that they are competitively priced with other models that share similar features. Fancy checkering, milling and polishing all add $$ to the retail price.
Well stated.
Nickhoffmeier
Regular
- Location
- Edmonton, AB
I have a Kimber Custom Stainless II. I love it. Only issue I ever had with it was a bad batch of ammo. It doesn't like lead ball ammo. Nice feature on the Kimber is its firing pin safety. It gets deactivated by the grip safety instead of when you pull the trigger like a series 80.
wayupnorth
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Northern Alberta
Kimber put out 146,000 handguns in 2013!!!!!!!!!
holy hell!
holy hell!
It's like I said in an earlier post in this topic, and the Shooting Centre added information, it comes down to the numbers. When your selling this volume of 1911's what really is your fail rate when you crunch the numbers. If you look at with out a bias or preferred result, or internet nonsense, Kimber's are no better or worse then any other brand on the market.
I'll add to this by saying go on 1911.org and spend some time reading the Kimber ##### line, if you know your 1911 pistols 70% is self infected, human error not pistol related.
My crap with Kimber is don't be cheap, for the price of your pistols I get on only 1 mag. But then again it's not like their cream of the crop.
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