Kimber vs STI?

silverfoxdj said:
Just curious, I would like to add a 1911 to my team and felt these two Kimber and STI were the favorites by folks who shoot them often.

Problem is are these designs prone to extractor et all failures etc.. I hate shooting a gun that is failure prone for any reason.
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Issues with 1911 are usually more mag related than brand related. Funny how people get on their nerve for brands like if others were saying their child was ugly :p

If you want to shoot IPSC, I'd say no 1911 will be 100% fail-safe out of the box. I have 2 Spartans, one in 9mm and one in 45ACP, I use them both for IPSC and I had to tuned both to make them perfect for my need (read no jams and 99.9% reliable). No broken parts yet.

The Spartan like most 1911 was made to shoot round nose bullets and does not have a ramped barrel, making usage of TC bullets less reliable. I like to shoot Campro 147GR in 9mm (TC) and 230GR in 45ACP, so I changed the angle of the frame ramps and repolished it so TC bullets can feed as good as round noses.

Actually I never saw someone shooting a Kimber in competition so I can't comment but I really love my 3 STI's ;)
 
There are currently no US mil entities that issue the Kimber pistol - the Marines used a few Kimbers but did not purchase a second batch. As far as LAPD SWAT goes, Kimber replaced, at very low cost firearms from 2 sources in SWAT use - 1) seized from criminals and worked over by LAPD armorers, and 2) purchased from the US Government under a surplus equipment program for LE and worked over by LAPD armorers. For the first twenty some odd years of it's existence LAPD SWAT used recovered pistols exclusively, most of which were GI Surplus that were sold and ended up on the street. As far as I am aware, the advertising contract that went with Kimber supplying LAPD with firearms is over too.
 
Snowboy said:
Issues with 1911 are usually more mag related than brand related. Funny how people get on their nerve for brands like if others were saying their child was ugly :p

If you want to shoot IPSC, I'd say no 1911 will be 100% fail-safe out of the box. I have 2 Spartans, one in 9mm and one in 45ACP, I use them both for IPSC and I had to tuned both to make them perfect for my need (read no jams and 99.9% reliable). No broken parts yet.

The Spartan like most 1911 was made to shoot round nose bullets and does not have a ramped barrel, making usage of TC bullets less reliable. I like to shoot Campro 147GR in 9mm (TC) and 230GR in 45ACP, so I changed the angle of the frame ramps and repolished it so TC bullets can feed as good as round noses.

Actually I never saw someone shooting a Kimber in competition so I can't comment but I really love my 3 STI's ;)
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Thanks .. I'm Price sensative, accuracy and reliabity driven, looks are in as a last criteria, AND 9mm
 
sorry, i didn't mean to come off as hostile; i was assuming this was going in the direction of
"kimbers are crap" again.

sti has them beat in the customer service department and having their local service dept. for warrantee
is great as well; but the gun itself is what made many people want a kimber in the first place.

for what they are used for; yeah i guess kimber and sti cannot be put in the same category, but kimber
CAN be used for specific competitions i feel. doug koenig uses a 1911 model for his shoots... granted he
doesn't have a jammer nor use a 1911 kimber model, but some kimbers, if oiled and well tuned, can be awesome mark hitters. i really
stand by them, despite their faults; not a kimber fanboy... just a guy who really likes their product and feels
it's worth the investment if you want a NICE gun. once you break in the gun, i swear theres no jams... unless
it's a mag problem or recoil spring problem.

mshundal said:
A lot more units carry Glocks/M&Ps/M9s, by that logic. In any case you really think factory shipped pieces is what these guys carry rather than their own highly customized...



I have shot Kimbers, no I have not owned them. If that is a prerequisite to judge then I stand corrected.

Just to be clear I do not think they are more prone to breakages BUT what they are is expensive and require much work for what I want to use them for, which does unfortunately knock them outside of my use case requirements. Again I support my argument with the observation in my post you quoted. Am I saying Kimbers are bad? NO! All I am saying is in Canada high volume shooting, given their warrantee, pricing, work required to bring them up to par - STI beats them hands down.



Exactly.
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I've got a Trojan in 9mm and a kimber in .45. Since I bought the kimber its seen btwn 2-3k in factory ammo and never one stoppage. The thing is a nail driver too, one dirty hole on target at 7 and ten yards. But as previously stated they're not cheap. I was a little over 2k when I bought it. That being said I paid $1600 for my dressed up Trojan which is an awesome gun also. I enjoy both guns very much but the kimber is getting too expensive to feed so its up on the chopping block.

I guess it's all personal preference at the end if the day. I've yet to have any type of FTF or FTE with either as of right now and I run my Trojan pretty hard when I'm out at the range training. It's yet to disappoint. The kimber just sits in the safe nowadays waiting for a new home...
 
from what i've heard about Kimbers (and this is from not owning one) - every Kimber is basically a Custom II with a fancy outside that you pay for. apparently, they all use the same internals and are fit the same way (save for maybe the custom shop ones, or the USA Team Match stuff), so a $900 Kimber ought to be the exact same as a $1600 Kimber, except cheaper and less fancy looking.

which is kind of a shame since the nice thing about a Kimber is the nice appearance! it would be nice if the prettier ones were actually made better than the entry-level plain-Jane stuff like a Custom II or Stainless II.

i wouldn't avoid a Kimber, but i'd have other "takes" on the same platform for variety.
 
BP7 said:
from what i've heard about Kimbers (and this is from not owning one) - every Kimber is basically a Custom II with a fancy outside that you pay for. apparently, they all use the same internals and are fit the same way (save for maybe the custom shop ones, or the USA Team Match stuff), so a $900 Kimber ought to be the exact same as a $1600 Kimber, except cheaper and less fancy looking.

which is kind of a shame since the nice thing about a Kimber is the nice appearance! it would be nice if the prettier ones were actually made better than the entry-level plain-Jane stuff like a Custom II or Stainless II.

i wouldn't avoid a Kimber, but i'd have other "takes" on the same platform for variety.
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you heard right, bp7.

the innards of a kimber on all standard models, along with some of the standards worked on in the custom shop
are very much the same. trigger pull is the same, all have match grade barrels. nothing particularly different than the
other aside from small add ons(magwell, ambi safety, nicer grips)

like you said, some just look really cool... but the good thing about their guns, from my own experience, is they're
consistent. reliable? from what others say, no; but from what i handled? yes. from out the box, no. a lot, and i mean A LOT
OF FTF, FTE, ETC... but after that bump in the road is done with, it's smooth sailing. (shell out 300 rounds or less into it and
it runs smooth, i swear)

i am getting the impression people who hate on kimber are the ones who didn't bother breaking in the gun(there is a fair
amount of coating on the frame and slide to go through before it runs smooth. lube helps a lot!) but yeah... the price for
some of the models is pretty high. it's like paying for certain guitars. certain things will drive up the price and it's usually
how it looks.

i am looking into a raptor... is it worth the price??? meh... i don't know... does it look cool? HELL YEAH! and thats where it
all lies. the gun looks awesome, and they all shoot great.
 
masa said:
like you said, some just look really cool... but the good thing about their guns, from my own experience, is they're
consistent. reliable? from what others say, no; but from what i handled? yes. from out the box, no. a lot, and i mean A LOT
OF FTF, FTE, ETC... but after that bump in the road is done with, it's smooth sailing. (shell out 300 rounds or less into it and
it runs smooth, i swear)

i am getting the impression people who hate on kimber are the ones who didn't bother breaking in the gun(there is a fair
amount of coating on the frame and slide to go through before it runs smooth. lube helps a lot!) but yeah... the price for
some of the models is pretty high. it's like paying for certain guitars. certain things will drive up the price and it's usually
how it looks.
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masa said:
i am looking into a raptor... is it worth the price??? meh... i don't know... does it look cool? HELL YEAH! and thats where it
all lies. the gun looks awesome, and they all shoot great.
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the stainless raptor & grand raptor are beautiful pieces! if I were to buy one, i'd probably only shoot it a bit to properly break it in, and then sterilize the mofo and keep it as a show piece.
 
Haha I got a good laugh from that video.

I can see why some people would hate on the breaking in period... But it's the same
With an engine for a car. Once it runs 10,000km the car works more efficiently and you safe gas :D
 
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