I've given up trying to find a lightweight Ruger SR1911 in 9mm

so....

What's the verdict on the Kimber Pro Carry II in 9mm?

Are 10 round mags available for it?

Any production or quality issues anyone knows about?

thnx

yes, this one

I can't answer on the 9mm specifically, but I do have a couple of Pro Carry II pistols.  One is a .45, the other is a HD Pro Carry II stainless in .38 super.  Both have been flawless.  The .38 super is the older of the two pistols and while it doesn't get fired as much as some of my others it has seen close to 1k rounds.  The .45 was bought used from a friend and has never had an issue with either ball ammo or Federal 230gr HST's.

If you do buy a new Kimber, before shooting it field strip it, clean the factory gunk off of it and lube it generously.  Of the 2 new ones I've bought (the other is a Stainless II in .45) none have required any break in.  1911's in general can be more finicky than more modern stuff.  Kimber gets a bad rap, sometimes justified I'm sure, but there are also a lot of happy Kimber owners out there.

much appreciated

Yes 10 round mags .Wilson makes some too

I wouldn’t trust a pro size .full size only for me.  I’d be weary of any kimber …when the old vp is telling me to get a shield that says something
i own several kimbers

thanks

bought a Stingray

I have both a SR1911 LW commander in 9mm and a Kimber Pro Carry in 9mm.

With the same loaded magazine the Ruger weighs 33.4 oz compared to 35.4 oz for the Kimber.

The Ruger uses the traditional 4.25” barrel of the Colt Commander while the Kimber uses a 4” barrel.

The trigger is slightly lighter on the Kimber but both are very crisp with no creep.





Both of them have been extremely reliable with 115 and 124 gr XTPs as well as 124 gr Sig V-Crown and 124 gr Federal HST.


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I like the 124 gr  Sig V-crown.  I get just under 1100 fps and 18-19” penetration with good expansion.




It’s not the best in that barrel length but it gives 17-19” penetration in a 3” Kimber Micro 9, my 4-4.25” Commander sized 1911s and in my 8.9” MP5 with the extra velocity creating more expansion rather than increasing the penetration.

I’ve heard the “commander and officer model 1911s are unreliable” line for about 40 years now.   I’ve heard the same thing about 1911 9mm in general as well.

In my experience with six 9mm 1911s in officer, commander and full sizes, as well as a dozen or so .45 ACP 1911s over the years in the same range of sizes I have not found the Commander or Officer sized 1911s to be any less reliable than their full size counterparts, not found the 9mm to be les reliable than the .45 ACP in a 1911.

But…that’s dependent on the user not taking it upon himself to “upgrade” the shorter slide versions.  The engineering in them is different in terms of both feed angles and slide over run.

Where the short slide 1911s get a bad rap is when the user (I hesitate to call them actual shooters) buys one and then starts “upgrading” it like an AR-15 or 10/22 before even shooting it.   They’ll install an extra power recoil spring, buy third party magazines for them, often mess with the extractor, and sometimes even install a Shok buffer.

The Shok buffer is an immediate fail as it further reduces the already reduced slide over run on the Commander sized 1911 and there is no slide over run on the Officer sized 1911.  

Similarly messing with the recoil spring interferes with the slide velocity and over travel time which screws up the feeding cycle.

Most shooters are totally ignorant of the effects of magazine lip design on 1911 feeding and how it interacts with the point shape and OAL of different shaped bullets during the feed cycle.   Short version:
- GI style tapered lips work great with 230 gr Ball, but don’t feed anything else very well;
- semi tapered lip “commerical” magazines feed ball and most hollow points well, do a good job with longer, heavier semi wad cutters, but don’t feed shorter blunter semi wadcutters well; and
- parallel lip magazines weed semi wadcutters well but choke on the longer FMJ rounds.

As the taper decreases so does the amount of control in the feed cycle.  

- Wilson 47D magazines give up any pretense of control and just throw the round up in front of the slide face to bat the cartridge into the chamber.

The extractor profile has to match the magazine lip design and bullet type as the extractor is designed  to work within a specific range of feed angles, which are controlled by the magazine lips and the contact of the bullet with the feed ramp.

——

Most 1911s sold today come with some minor variation on the semi tapered Colt commercial feed lip design dating back to about 1930, and they come with a standard power recoil spring that will work fine unless you are shooting really light, low recoiling “plate” loads, or unless you are shooting some sort of +P+ load or an non standard bullet well above the usual weight ranges for 9mm (115-147 gr.) or .45 ACP (185-230 gr.).

Some of the match grade Kimbers can require up to 500 rounds to break in due to tight tolerances.  Most of them however will break in within about 200 rounds.   That underlies much of the bad mounting that the Kimber pistols get as a shooter will put a box of 50 rounds through it, get a failure or two and call it junk.  Even better is when he’s upgraded it before he ever even shot it and then gets more failures.

good info, thanks

I never used to be a big fan of the lower tier foreign made 1911s.  But I got a killer deal on an officer sized Citadel 1911 in 9mm made in the Philippines and it proved to be extremely reliable.  Not the best trigger I’ve ever seen, but a decent 6 pound duty pistol pull.

I got a similar deal on a only shot one range session RIA 1911 in .45 ACP that the owner decided was way more recoil than he wanted to deal with (I don’t see the issue as the .45 ACP in a 1911 is more push than snap).  It also has proven to be extremely reliable, with a serviceable if not poetry inspiring trigger pull.

Those two experiences have demonstrated to me that modern CNC can indeed produce a reliable 1911, in the absence of skilled staff to do the final fitting.