Why Kimbers Suck A Dog's Ass

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Why Kimbers Suck A Dog's Ass

Posted: 9/20/2002 9:49:43 AM EDT

1. Plastic Main Spring Housing
2. Series II FTRB Issues
3. Cheap Shit MIM Parts
4. $700 Price Tag

Hey Kimber, are you listening?

My Series I will be a great gun after aboug $450 worth of quality parts and gunsmithing is done to it. As it stands, it is not worth what I paid for it. The only reason ya'll make money is because the other 1911's on the market in that price range are not much better. Build a quality gun at a reasonable price and don't stick the public with BS features like a defective firing pin safety.

Posted: 9/20/2002 10:08:29 AM EDT

[#1]

Darin, don't hold back. This is a place to voice your opinions freely. Tell us how you really feel.

I loved my Kimber right up until I found it covered in rust. Now I have dumped several hundred extra dollars to get it to be the gun I wanted it to be.

I am taking my Smith's advice from now on. Start bare bones and build your own. In the end, this would have saved me about $500.

Never had any major problems, but it seemed that replacing things like MSH's, grips, trigger components, etc. was kind of a waste. Why pay for the complete gun, when you end up having to replace most of the parts to get what you want.

Posted: 9/20/2002 10:12:41 AM EDT

[#2]

Just to add a counterpoint here, I have owned a Kimber Compact Stainless Steel (Alum frame) for over two years now and have nothing but praise for it! Very reliable, accurate, and light (my main carry weapon). I think it's well worth the price.

Posted: 9/20/2002 10:39:02 AM EDT

[#3]

I've got two Ultra Compacts. Would buy another in a heartbeat.

Posted: 9/20/2002 1:35:35 PM EDT

[#4]

Amen, well, I am sorry to hear about the rust.

Posted: 9/20/2002 1:38:38 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Just to add a counterpoint here, I have owned a Kimber Compact Stainless Steel (Alum frame) for over two years now and have nothing but praise for it! Very reliable, accurate, and light (my main carry weapon). I think it's well worth the price.

This really is my point. Some Kimber owners report no problems. Others ( many others ) have had issues not resolved by the factory. Some of them are not resolvable by the factory ( the fact I think plastic parts have no place on a $700+ gun ).

My point is, while there are some good ones out there, by and large, Kimber isn't doing it right and as I love 1911's and carry mine as often as I can ( no drop safety so I don't carry it "loose" in the car, only on my person which doesn't fly at work ), I would like to see them improve and maybe if enough of us rabble-rousers speak out, something will happen.

Posted: 9/20/2002 1:43:32 PM EDT

[#6]

I got a Springfield V-12 last year and it wasnt ejecting empties right, we sent it back to springfield, they were nothing but nice, and took care of the problem.........it shoots like a champ now, all for under 700.

Posted: 9/20/2002 9:45:35 PM EDT

[#7]

My Classic Target has been great.

Posted: 9/21/2002 6:10:22 AM EDT

[#8]

I've got two Series 1 Kimbers (5" Custom Classic and a 4" Pro Elite) that have been awesome. My only problem was that the 5" gun shot very high and I when I put Novak's tritium sights on it had to go with a higher front sight. All the local Kimber shooters I know have nothing but praise for them either. The Series 11 problem is troubling and needs to be fixed. It is true that the base model blued guns will rust. Eventually I'll end up having my full size gun matte hard chromed.

Posted: 9/21/2002 10:28:23 AM EDT

[#9]

i own two kimbers. the custom stainless and the custom eclipse II. the only problem i had was the night site on the eclipse. that seemed to be a problem with the site itself and not the weapon. use both for off duty use. a highly accurate weapon that i shoot better than my duty weapon..

Posted: 9/21/2002 10:38:44 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
i own two kimbers. the custom stainless and the custom eclipse II. the only problem i had was the night site on the eclipse. that seemed to be a problem with the site itself and not the weapon. use both for off duty use. a highly accurate weapon that i shoot better than my duty weapon..

I have the same Eclipse with the same bad batch of sites. Just too lazy to send it back, they will replace them. Have a Pro Carry SLE as well. Both guns have been utterly reliable and accurate. Don't know what more I could want?

Posted: 9/21/2002 10:50:51 PM EDT

[#11]

You've got MIM and plastic parts in your car. How much did you pay for it? Sigs rust. What are they running these days? What will you get with a $700 Colt? I used to own a Compact Stainless and the fit, finish, and accuracy was better than any other pistol I have ever owned...bar none. I only sold it because of the weight and the fact that I don't like manual safeties. Just my $.02.

Bradd

Posted: 9/23/2002 8:00:45 AM EDT

[#12]

Originally Posted By Bradd D:
You've got MIM and plastic parts in your car. How much did you pay for it? Sigs rust. What are they running these days? What will you get with a $700 Colt? I used to own a Compact Stainless and the fit, finish, and accuracy was better than any other pistol I have ever owned...bar none. I only sold it because of the weight and the fact that I don't like manual safeties. Just my $.02.

Bradd

People weren't happy about the quality of american cars back in the 80's, mainly because they used inferior parts and assembled them badly. Imports started gaining real traction because they used better quality parts and manufacture, and over the past 10 years, I believe the quality of american cars have improved because of this.

Do you understand my point?

Posted: 9/28/2002 1:08:44 PM EDT

[#13]

My Kimber has a 4 digit serial # and says Clackamas on the side.
It has never done anything but go BOOM! when I want it to.

It may be that they have built a reputation and now they are riding it!

That has happened a lot (Can you say Colt?)

Posted: 10/1/2002 6:37:59 AM EDT

[#14]

Okay, if you don't think Kimber's suck, why do you like them?

I can tell you why I bought mine, it was the best deal going at the time. I thought the fit an finish was better than the colts or springfields and I didn't want the series 80 parts. Still, I am not saying it is a good gun for the price, it was just the best choice, the lesser of the evils so to speak. Anyway, my $.0002.

Posted: 10/11/2002 2:21:14 PM EDT

[#15]

my kimber polymers have been outstanding worked right out of the box reliable as hell and would take them anyday against any gun. I used them for IPSC sometimes. I do prefer the cutom STI'/SVI for the run and gun games.

Posted: 11/3/2002 9:50:06 PM EDT

[#16]

Kimbers suck a dog's ass? Well, yeah they do with the new firing pin safety. Don't know about the rust as any handgun I have is going to be on my hip for a while so stainless is all I go for. I had MAJOR problems with failure to fire unless gun was held in a death grip. To all of you handgun peeps out there, if you want the gun to go bang when you pull the trigger, DO NOT buy a Kimber series II.
I just removed these stupid BS parts and the gun works great though.
Plastic MSH sucks as do the MIM parts, but around here Kimbers go for less than $600, and that is less than the blank frame and slide with parts. At least it goes bang while I am working on upgrading it.
But yeah, Kimbers used to be the best production guns, but with the new safety they just plain suck for the money. Go with a Colt or a Springfield; I know I will next time.

Learn from my mistakes, don't buy the new Kimbers, they SUCK and so does their customer service!

sskr

Posted: 11/3/2002 10:02:19 PM EDT

[#17]

Small piece of advice for the Kimber II users. If you take the safety parts out of the gun, do NOT carry them or use them for self defence. An attorney will have a field day at a civil trial pointing your mindset as a gun owner if you "knowingly removed a factory installed safety feature" from your gun. The same BS they pull on the nightly news with disinformation about guns gets pulled in court.

Posted: 11/4/2002 3:57:38 AM EDT

[#18]

I feel the same about the kimbers series II the extra safety stuff. I have a Pro tact the mag doesn't drop free all the time. The thumb safety must have come from Mexico it had such a bulge on that when I shot it hurt so I trimed it. My feeling is that for the money you should get something that does more that just go bang. It is accurate but so is a Glock at half the price I own a Baer its outstanding and really worth all the money, when limber talks about brake in to make the gun reliable because of the "tight fitting" Baer come looking like the slide and frame are one peace of steel. I have never had one failure with the Baer either.

Posted: 11/5/2002 3:59:33 PM EDT

[#19]

Both of my Kimbers were series 1 pistols. I still have my Custom stainless and have had 0 problems with it. I replaced the MSH simply because i wanted the arch as i dislike the flat type.

What is the deal with the fireing pin safty? I thought that it did not affect the trigger pull as the series 80 Colts.-not that i had a problem with the trigger pull on my 80 series.

The CDP is nice and so is the Springfield Loaded Operator. If i were to buy another 1911 it would be one of these two.

Posted: 11/5/2002 8:18:04 PM EDT

[#20]

The problem with the series II safety is not that it affects trigger pull, though the grip safety must be fully depressed, which can be a chore with a high grip, to have a nice clean pull.

The problem is the safety hangs on the slide and keeps it from fully returning to battery. I have a series II eclipse and have not noted the problem, though I would like to switch out the grip safety for an indexed one like on the springfields.

Posted: 11/9/2002 11:16:59 PM EDT

[#21]

The only thing a smithy told me about the FPS on series 80 Colts is that you get a faster lock time without it. So, I had mine set up without the FPS... as in series 70. The FPS is supposed to be for "drop" safety.

Posted: 11/12/2002 5:08:56 PM EDT

[#22]

[desktop/baer1/img=left]
I'm just trying to send some pics.
Any help would be great!!:)

Posted: 11/12/2002 7:41:42 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
[desktop/baer1/img=left]
I'm just trying to send some pics.
Any help would be great!!:)

chrisva- To post pictures they must be first hosted on the web somewhere. I use msn communities to host mine. There are others out there as well. OK, once you have that you put the picture location like this {img}www.picturelocation.com{/img}, but replace the {} with [].

Posted: 11/13/2002 2:37:29 AM EDT

[#24]

Ratters,
Thanks for the help.
chrisva

Posted: 1/9/2003 1:31:57 PM EDT

[#25]

I've had absolutely no problem with my blued Custom Classic. Not a series II.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Why Kimbers Suck A Dog's Ass

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