Finally, after much deliberation and scraping of pennies bought myself a brand spankin new, fresh outta the box still covered in gunk CDP II.

Beautiful, superbly made pistol.

I know that any custom piece has an expected break-in period........heck, many non-custom peices do as well........

My typical defensive load is by ProLoad.....the 230 gr, GDJHP +P............very powerful, reliable and accurate.

I fired maybe 50 rds through the pistol late last evening with the Proload and another 50 with some Winchester Ball.

The Ball functioned almost 100% but occasionally the ProLoad would not.

Round would generally not fully chamber....occasionally the rd. would not make it that far.

Any cause to be concerned about or is this gonna subside once I get a few more rds (3-400) through the weapon?

Thanks guys.

This is somewhat normal, especially if you're using the Kimber magazines.  They really suck.  Get the [url=http://www.wilsoncombat.com/accessories/magazines.asp]Wilson Combat mags[/url], and your problem will probably go away.

Already covered that.

With any 1911 I have ever owned the first thing I do is ditch the factory mags and opt out for the Wilson 47-D..........

Maybe it is just cause the pistol is still a virgin so to speak.

That 230 gr GDJHP has a big old hole too..........we'll see.

Thanks though.

I am assuming the CDP is a series II.  If the pistol is not a government sized 1911, there have been reports of failures to return to battery because of the series II safety.  This sounds like this could be a problem for you.

The only thing that gives me pause is that it ran fine with ball ammo.

I do not know for sure if this is the problem.  I would ask this over on www.1911forum.com and see what people think.

If it is the series II safety, the parts can always be removed during a detail strip.  The only tricky part is that you have to remove the rear sight to get to the slide components of the safety.

Do you have any more info about removing it?  Are any permanent modifications made to the pistol?  I am trying to find out exactly what this schwartz (sp) safety is exactly.  I doubt I would be able to find a new Series I Pro-CDP if I don't want this extra crap on a 1911.  

You just need to run about 400-500 rounds through it.  I've got an Ultra Shadow II it run flawlessly with Chip McCormick mags.  Best of luck.

I have never done the mod so this information is second hand at best.

First, the safety works by preventing the movement of the firing pin.  The safety is disengaged when you press the grip safety, which in turn raises a rod from the frame.  The rod depresses a plunger on the slide which in turn disengages the lock.  From what I have read, the lock is some sort of cam that is attached to a spring loaded plunger.  The spring on the plunger engages the safety, the rod from the frame overrides the spring and disengages it.

As far as I know, removing the safety does not require modification to the pistol other than removing the parts.  This of course voids your warranty (who cares!).

Removing the frame part of the safety should be as simple as a detail strip of the frame.  The part fits to the beavertail and can be simply removed.

The slide components are a little trickier.  My guess is that you have to remove the rear sight to get a the parts.

Try posting on 1911forum.com for better instructions, I know there are some guys over there that have done this.

Sorry this is the best I can do.

I truly believe the 1911 is the best combat pistol out there.  Having said that...I own a Kimber Gold Combat.  This cannon is so acurate that at 30+ yards I can point and shoot dead center everytime. As far as the missfeeds, Kimber Highly recomends the use of ONLY Ball Ammo.  This is how there guns are made and tested. Also, in the owners manual It states that it takes at least 2-300 rounds for a break in process....this process is for proper reliability...not for accuracy.  If you have any problems using wilson mags and ball ammo after 300rounds then you should send the thing back to kimber.  Lots of luck and have fun with your new family member.

Also,  X--Kill, I wanted to comment on the series II models.  As with anything CHANGE is difficult, and the most difficult place for change to take place is in our minds. I have heard several rumors that the series II models have had problems. In spite of these rumors there are no, I repeat, no documented (I mean any written studies, or articles) cases even remotely mentioning failure to feed or function due to this new safety enhancement.  Also, my uncle is a New York State Police officer and his entire department uses the series II pistols with absolutely no malfunction problems and in fact chose this model for its reliability.  In any event I wanted to say my two cents worth before you or anyone else made any changes to their series II models. Its only in our minds...and if you know anything about the function of the M1911 you would know that the changes made for the series II in no way effect the function of chambering...only in trigger pull and function.  

"In spite of these rumors there are no, I repeat, no documented (I mean any written studies, or articles) cases even remotely mentioning failure to feed or function due to this new safety enhancement."

Sorry.  Gun Tests Magazine wrote about it.  FTRTB Is caused by this safety in series II Kimbers according to their review.  But I guess you already knew that since you read every article ever written about Kimbers....  BTW, hundreds of accurate accounts by many Kimber owners should count for more than a bunch of mostly biased gun articles anyway...

I like my Kimber though....

So am I correct in thinking that the CDP II is only so named because it basically has a series 80 safety type mechanism installed?

If this causes function problems then this is totally screwed IMO.

I mean really..........I drop nearly 1K for a new pistol.........designed from the ground up to be a defensive.............[b]"Custom"[/b] package and becasue of some freakin' safety mech. it will not reliable return to battery or feed my "defensive" ammo?

That sucks!

Someone mentioned that Kimber designs their weaposn to feed ball ammo..........this seems like crap to me..............no one uses ball ammo in a defensive weapon.  Absurd!

Maybe I just need to shoot the $hit out of it huh?

I had the same problem with an Ultra Carry II. It would fail to return to battery about 50% of the time with Win Ball ammo. IMO the problem lies in the design of the plunger in the slide and the weight of the spring above the plunger. The spring seems to be too stiff. Also, the plunger has too much of a "hard" angle at the point that it meets with the pin in the grip frame. I took mine apart and stoned the plunger to a gentler angle and polished it. I also cut off a few coils of the spring. Out of the box the slide would hang at about 1/8" out of battery if I rode it down slowly. After reworking mine, there is almost no resistance when riding the slide down.

1911's were designed around ball ammo.  The only ones I know of that a company will certify with anything other than ball are Wilson Combat and Les Baer, and they both still recommend ball ammo.  You have to have a really good polished feed ramp for hollow points to feed.

Oh, and by the way, Clint Smith carries ball ammo in his 1911, absurd huh?

I totally agree and so do a lot of Kimber customers.  There is a significant amount of evidence to show that the safety causes reliability issues in commander and officer frame pistols.

Kimber made this change so that the pistols could be sold in California, etc..  Great, but how giving the rest of us a choice like Colt is doing with there 70 series re-issues.

As far as Kimber's only feeding ball ammo reliably.  It is true that this is all that Kimber will recommend, it is not all the pistols will do.

As I stated earlier, I think the issue with your gun, assuming it is a commander or officer sized pistol, is the safety.  The part may wear in with use, or you could remove it or fix it like others have and not worry about it.

This is just about the same thing that mine is doing.

The slide will hang out of battery ....sure, you can ride it down.... but what up with that?

Seems I was a bit worng as to the similarities between Kimbers recent mods and the old series 80 colt features.  

Still....the pistol being new....I will give it the benefit of doubt and complete a proper break-in with Ball ammo and then see what happens with the defensive stuff.

If it still cycles unreliably after that I will move forward with other options.

I know the 1911 was designed around ball ammo..........fine.  I still think such an expensive weapon diwth such a specific purpose should perform better with defensive ammo out of the box.

Dang......I bought it for the looks, the custom extras and the reputation of Kimber.............but if it won't feed my ammo then it ain't worth crap to me.

The Pro CDP is commander sized BTW.

I have the CDP II as well and have not had any problems with FMJ or Fed Hydrashok 230 JHP using wilson combat mags. I did break it in with 500 rounds of FMJ before trying the Hydrashoks. Love the light weight and looks, it is my daily conceal carry gun.

I have a Kimber Custom CDP II.  My friend and I bought them at the same time.  We have had no problems with them.  Durring break-in, there were a few minor failure to feed problems that no longer are a problem.

Get the Wilson mags! They are top knotch!
[url]http://www.wilsoncombat.com/accessories/magazines.asp[/url]

If your CDP has a full length grip, get the 8 rounders.

A question about the kimber being used for ball ammo only.  I believe (I could be wrong) that the Tacoma police dept. has picked up kimber as thier choice for a side arm.  How can a police dept. get around liability issues using hardball? (or don't the police dept's worry about over penatration and what can be behind the suspect?)

Thanks for the additional input guys.

I decided to quit whining about it and run a few hundred rds. through the pistol before I went to any further assumptions.

I managed to put about 300 rds. through it today.  I used the orignal Kimber mag plus to Wilson 47-D [stainless 8 rounders] that I bought when I got the weapon.

The Kimber mag sucks, and the Wilsons...well.......they're the best IMO.

Out of this 300 rds. I had only a few failures.

Generally they were failures to go completely into battery.  But, as I progressed with the firing the pistol did noticeably smooth out quit a bit.

The last thing I did was run a whole 8 rd mag of my ProLoad 230 gr gdhp through it.  All rounds fired w/o a hitch and the pistol functioned 100%.

Seems that a few more hundred rounds will probably take care of any issues the weapon first exhibited.

Still have to say that the CDP is one of the more attractive weapons I have ever laid eyes on.

Will update later for all our mutual info.

Thanks again.

BTW...........Yes, the Tacoma PD did go with Kimber.  I think they give officers a choice between the stainless Pro Carry HD II or the Pro Carry II w/ alum. frame.  The only other weapon they issue was a Glock.  Can't remember which mod.

I love kimber's, I have a custom and and a compact. both have serial numbers under 3000. I have had a few failures with the custom, my fault, I was shooting reloads and screwed up powder charges.