I was in the market for another 1911. After checking around and what not I purchased a Kimber eclipse target II. I pick the gun up in 72 hours. Just curius if anybody in here owns one or has shot one. If so what ammo did it seem to like? Any ammo it did not like? What were the best groups you could ring out of it????? I have heard nothing but good reports in the accuracy department on Kimbers.I plan on running the gun through my routine break in and then feeding it several types of ammo until I see what it likes, I was just curious if anybody had any thoughts for me???????? Thanks. Matt

Did you get to shoot it yet? I myself am going to purchase a S&W 1911. I think it's a better value than the Kimber since it has an external extractor. Novak is making their adjustable extreme duty sight available for the "9 mm" slide cut S&W uses for their 1911 within a month as well. Eventhough it costs money to buy the night sights and have them installed, just about everything else on the gun is done right, including the trigger pull from all the reports. Granted, the black parts on the gun need to be bead blasted and some are non-spec due to the safety system (mainspring housing and grip safety). However, if I wanted perfect cosmetics, I might as well shell out $2000 for a custom gun. That's about the only way you can have it done right.

I have not shot it yet. I pick it up tomorrow morning. I cant wait to burn some ammo through it. The dealer i purchased from had the new smith 1911. very nice gun. I like the smith. I picked up my eclipse target II for 980.00. it has the fully adjustable night sights(meprolight i believe). im not sure what the exact figure was but i think the smith was about 150.00 to 200.00 cheaper than the kimber. I did think the fit and finish on the kimber was nicer all around and the kimber was definitley a "tighter" gun. I have not talked to anyone who has personally owned the smith so i went with the kimber after several satisfied kimber owners told me how much they loved their guns. I have heard nothing but praise on the accuracy of the kimbers which really helped sway my decision. The eclipse was one of the most impressive guns i have picked up in a long time as far as fit, finish, and a nice tight action. In fact it amazes me that a gun that tight can be reliable. I will let you know how i like it after i get a couple hundred rounds through it. Let me know how the smith works out for you. Matt

I have an original custom eclipse with the target sites and my brother has an eclipse with fixed sites, and another friend got the eclipse custom target.  Once I got mine my friends had to have one.  All are great guns, not a problem with any of them (though I got one of the batches with the crapped out nite sites) and are very accurate.  Enjoy the hell out of that gun.

How bright are those meprolights? I looked at some 2 years ago on a Kimber at the NRA convention, and they were pretty dull to me. The Trijicons looked much better. I need something white for day time shooting.

The nights on my Kimber Target Eclipse II (purchased in March of 2002) are as bright as the trijicons going on my new build....

That said, I love my Eclipse. It is nice and tight, never had a problem with it feeding 230 fmj balls or 200 SWCs. Ive put about 1500 rounds through it and only had two problems.

First, I had one unintentional FTF. I had an extremely high hold and was not fully engaging the grip safety to disable the Series II safety. This was my fault, and probably would've hurt me if it did fire.

Second, at around 600 or 700 rounds when it was 3 weeks old (hey, I was enjoying my new pistol...), the rear sight blade broke off and hit me in the chest during firing. Sent it to Kimber and had it back in 3 days with a new rear sight. I had to pay shipping to them, but they fixed it and sent it back next day air the same day they got it.

Overall, I am quite pleased with Kimber's quality of product and quality of service. If I had to do it over, I would still buy the Eclipse.

Jonathan

Well, i picked up the kimber saturday. Sighted it in, and put 150 rounds through it. No malfunctions. The accuracy of this weapon is incredible. I took it to an ipsc match on sunday and shot much better than i have in the past on my previous 1911 that was not equipped with a "match barrel". After the sight in/playshoot and the match I attended I now have about 250-300 rounds through it-still no malfunctions. I absolutely love  this pistol!!!!!!! sights are great(the meprolights are very bright) 100% reliabilty so far and I am extremely pleased with the accuracy. There are less expensive pistols out there but based on my initial impressions I feel a grand is a bargain for this weapon. This is how i see it.....Looks like a custom......feels like a custom......performs like a custom......... costs almost half as much as a custom.......Im happy..... Matt

4wd, Great purchase! IMO the eclipses are the best looking handguns produced. I have a TLE, the civilian LAPD SWAT. It has been 100%, and the Meps are very bright.

I have the Kimber Gold Match II.  Love the gun!  I have a Beretta 96ss, Cougar 8000, 3 Ruger Mark II's, and an HK P7M8, NONE shoot even close to the groups my Kimber does.  Is it worth $1250?  HELL YES!!!!!!!!  BTW I have Jpoint red dots on 3 of the guns, AWSOME sight!

Mark

http://webpages.charter.net/marknagel/kimber

nagel-great looking red dot....nice and small.....very clean....looks like it belongs on a handgun as opposed to some of the bigger models. I am heading to a steel plate match this coming weekend.cant wait--should be fun. I have shot quite a bit of ipsc but i have never shot a steel challenge. Pepper poppers and falling plates were always my favorite ipsc targets so I think i will like the steel shoot.....nothing like hearing that big ring when you blast those babies. I forgot to mention the only problem i have with the new eclipse is an issue with the beavertail. There are two tiny burrs on either side of the beavertail where it narrows together near the pivot point. They arent wearing blisters on me but when i grip the gun hard they are uncomfortable. I wouldnt really consider it a "problem" but more of a slight "annoyance". I plan on sending the gun out to my local custom guy for a flared magwell and bigger mag release button so I think i will ask him if he can smooth out the beavertail a bit. the stock mag release is perfectly fine--even for competition but my last gun had a custom knurled mag button that was pretty oversized so I have a bit of a mental hangup about wanting the mag release bigger. Modifying is half the fun anyway right??????? :) what lubricant are you using on your gun? I use breakree CLP on everything i own and have had good luck with it on the kimber so far. I like CLP because it keeps carbon in solution form so you can literally wipe the gun out with a kleenex. It prevents adhesion of crud 100%. Matt

4wd_diesel,

How can you post that you got a Kimber Eclipse target II with out any pics??

We want to see some pics please.

I'd like to see pics of the night sites. I'm mostly concerned with their "brightness" during day shooting. I don't have good eye sight, and I need visible white-like dots for day shooting at the minimum.

Thanks

sorry about hte lack of pics guys but i do not own a digital camera(im working on it though). as for daytime shooting with the trijicons.........I have not personally seen a "night sight" that was bright enough to be seen in daylight. My kimbers rear sight does not have anything on it that would aid you during the day but the front sight blade has a white ring around the tritium vial that makes the tritium vile appear to be one big white dot during the day. I find it to have great visibilty but i do have very good eyesight. I am sure that there are sights avaialble that are designed specifically for individuals that have failing eyesight but you will probably have to add it as an after the fact--aftermarket add on best of luck..............
matt

Ok, that's what I thought. It's only green in the back like the older Meprolights I've seen. The trijicons at least have that white ring around the glass lamp, which allows for decent day time shooting. It sounds like I'll try to procure a S&W 1911 next week......hopefully I won't get shafted via the internet, but right now these 1911s are hard to come by. I was going to get a 9 mm, but I'm not that high on anything that I've tried other than a single stack 1911. I need to shoot a Browning Hi-Power though before I drop another $1k into a pistol (gun + mags + ammo, etc.).