Posted by5 years ago
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1911 Forums at 1911Talk.com. This will prevent it from galling the slide if one engages the grip safety while trying to remove the slide. I've done this to my 2, Series II Kimbers. If you don't like the Swartz firing pin safety, by a Springfield or something else that's not made with one. Fiddletown, Jul 8, 2008 #31. The 1911 has a perfectly capable thumb safety.no real need for the grip safety. Click to expand. I hear what you're saying, but the grip safety does more for a 1911 than it would for a Glock, given that the 1911 is SA and the Glock is DA.
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I see so much on this and other gun forums where people hate on the 1911. Many times it's because the only experience someone had was with a Kimber. I'm here to tell you why you should not base any opinions of 1911's off the product that Kimber makes. Inevitably, someone is going to post how their particular Kimber has worked flawlessly and is great. I'm happy for them. I'm glad their gun works. I'm here to talk about the CURRENT product and why you should not invest any money into Kimber 1911's. I am not a gunsmith (I do have a mechanical engineering degree) but I've been shooting 1911's and 2011's in competition for years. I've won a few matches and placed at many, many more. I've shot 1911's from every manufacturer including basically every high end builder except for Ed Brown. I have never seen a Kimber finish a single match without fucking up. Let us begin.
Kimber's sell for roughly $900 up to roughly $2000. I will base my post around their most popular versions that range from $900-$1500. They claim to use stainless steel barrels. True, they may have the lowest grade stainless that still qualifies as stainless, but when a customer hears stainless steel they expect a low maintenance finish. This is what you get with Kimber's stainless http://i.imgur.com/RmXF4Ux.jpg. That is a factory gun as it was received by the dealer. This is NOT an isolated incident. Google 'Kimber rust' and see how many results come up.
Kimber mags. Holy fucking shit, where do I start. People often say how unreliable the 1911 is, but never consider WHY. Magazines cause 90% of the failures I see. If you talk about a Glock fucking up and tell people you're using those knock-off Korean mags, they tell you 'Well of course it's fucking up. Get some good mags!' The same applies to the 1911. If you give ANY gun shit mags, it is not going to run. Kimber mags are the shittiest. Invest the money in Tripp, Wilson, or even Chip McCormick mags and save yourself the headache.
MIM parts. WTAF. You're telling me I'm paying close to $1000 for a gun and you're going to use fucking MIM parts? Ok as long as they're in low-stress areas I can maybe handle that. WHAT? YOU'RE USING FUCKING MIM HAMMERS AND SEARS ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? Ok for those of you who don't know, a 1911's legendary trigger comes from the hammer and sear interface. The actual 'trigger' that you press does nothing but push the sear out from under the hammer, which is why you can get that sexy, silky trigger break the 1911 is so famous for. But if you're a dumbass and put parts that are basically cast, the hammer/sear angles will wear down very quickly and turn your trigger to shit. You NEED tool steel in those areas. The parts are not that much more expensive. Here is what happens when you put shit metal in high stress areas. I apologize for the shit picture but the left side thumb safety sheared off as you can see http://i.imgur.com/674ws0Q.jpg. As soon as I can dig it up, there's another guy with a broken hammer. The gun didn't have many rounds and the fucking hammer broke OFF. Google 'Kimber broken hammer' and see how many results pop up.
What has Kimber done right?
Marketing. Kimber has a brilliant marketing team. When I first got into shooting and I wanted a 1911, Kimber was the only thing I knew of. They were pretty guns to look at and the ads sure made me look like I was gonna be super high speed, while maintaining low drag.
Ok what should I get instead?
It depends on your budget. For Kimber level pricing, fucking anything else. Springfield TRP's are great guns for the upper level Kimber stuff. STI is one of my personal favorites and they make a fantastic 1911 for the price. Check out their Trojan and Spartan. Once you get beyond $2000, I would only consider going the true custom gunsmith route. This does not mean Les Baer/Wilson/etc. I mean an actual single gunsmith who will do EXACTLY what you want.
Below that, Rock Island makes a good budget gun. If you want to upgrade it, save the old parts so when it comes time to sell it, you can dump the original stuff back in it.
I will update this post some more when I get home from work to include anything else I can think of. I'm happy to answer any questions you have, and won't bullshit you if I don't know.
EDIT: KIMBER CUSTOM SHOP.
There is no such thing. It does not exist. Seriously I will BitCoin tip $1 to the first person who can get me a 'Kimber Custom Shop' gunsmith on the phone so I can discuss some custom work I want done. It's an excuse to roll mark 'CUSTOM' on a regular production gun to soften the blow of tricking people into spending more money.
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