I had a unique opportunity today to shoot two .45s right out of the box and do a comparrison.  I thought you guys would like for me to share my experience.  I went to the range to try out my SA and the range master offered to let me evaluate his Custom II at the same time.  I personally have a Kimber Ecliplise Pro II so not the same size handgun or a direct comparrison.

The first was a Springfield 1911 A1 Full Size Blued finish.  Please don't confuse this with the GI model for they are different as night is to day.

The second was a Kimber Custom II Blued/Parkerized Finnish.

I'm not a pro and will give you a laymans impression of the two out of the box.  I can say that the SA sells retail in the $800 range and the Kimber about $100 more.  

The SA had crisp very light trigger pull while the Kimber was not as light but was a tad crisper.  I hope you can follow this for I'm not the pro from Dover.  The SA trigger was almost scary light and a definate good example of why not to have your finger on the trigger.  Still I had no pre-mature fires on either gun and pull point was extremely predictable.  Predictable is a strange word here since both had no play at all.  

For my limited shooting ability, both guns put the rounds in the black every shot at 15 yards shooting as fast as I could get my sight picture on a standard pistol target.  I'm talking bam, bam, bam, while everone else is single firing.  With better ammo and a steady hand I was able to nail the bull with both guns consistantly.

The SA felt a tad heavier to the hand but recoil in both was limited and could fire fifty rounds in each without tiring enough to be off the black.  The SA also seemed easier to change mags primarily due to the easier to find and hit slide release.  Both fit the mags tight and a good slap was needed to insure insertion.  I do this anyway so found this not an issue. Some of the mags required pulling out but was close enough I would bet with rubber impact bottom extension they would fall out.

At this point I was in heaven and both guns were performing better than expected or at least better than the less expensive .45s I own or have shot.  

Now the test shifted.  I started loading my collection of different mags.  The mags I had were Kimber, SA, Lama, McCormick, Mil blued, and the old Mil Parkerized.  In this test the SA ate every round from any mag while the Kimber jammed on about anything except the Kimber and McCormick mags.  I can't wait to try this test on my Kimber Eclipse Pro II.  This may work it's self out with some age but suspect the tighter tolerances of the Kimber to be a factor.

Another special note was I was firing cheap rounds Winchester Targets and Blazer.  The difference between the two ammos was startling and will probably never buy a box of Blazer again.  Funny I had not noticed this much of a difference with my less expensive .45s but with these two guns, It made a hell of a difference.

Hope you enjoyed a laymans view of these two guns and quite franky whoever owns either of the two IMHO has one outstanding handgun.

Tj

I was wondering how long it would take before you would ditch the blazer .   I've seen that stuff jam in just about every kind of gun.

Quoted: I was wondering how long it would take before you would ditch the blazer .   I've seen that stuff jam in just about every kind of gun.

You know it didn't jam just with such acurate handguns the variance was blatantly obvious.  I'll shoot what I have left and sacrafice the weight advantage for acuracy.

I feel shooting these two guns with match ammo would be frighteningly acurate and really let me know how bad a shot I am.

Tj

I've  never had a single issue shooting Blazer.

I've put thousands of rounds of Blazer through my USP .45 Match, and have never had a problem with it.  I pick up my new Kimber on Friday.  I'll have to see how it handles the Blazer.

The only Blazer ammo I don't like is the .357. It expands after firing and is very difficult to get it out of the cylinder.