When did Kimber go bad?

It's been a while since I was on the 1911 scene but I always remember Kimber to be a well built and highly recommended pistol. When did things take a change for the worse? What seems to be the main problems?

series II for me.

When they hired Ron Cohen who is now working his magic on Sig.

Apparently right after I purchased my Series I pistols.

^ This

Yup... I have a friend with two series II Kimbers. After seeing all the problems he's had with them, and how poorly CS handled the situation, I have avoided Kimber ever since.

Sounds like it's a CS and a QC problem. too bad

I had a Tactical Custom II that was made in 2004. It had an external extractor. It ran great! No problems to speak of. Sold it when I needed the money for another project. I would buy another.

Waiting for my Kimber to go bad. According to the interwebs, it's as inevitable as death, taxes and global warming.

Mine must already be defective becasue I cant get them to knot work.

If i made every decision after I read the google-box...I would never buy anything. How many people buy washer...love it...call Maytag and tell them how great it is and then spend time to post aboujt it on the internet........correct.....very few. How many people instantaneously blog about how awful Kimber or "XXXXX" company is because of ....whatever. A huge number. It would be interesting to really get the number.....say for Glocks and whatever the hell they have going on. Glock sold how many to LEO/military/civilians? Divide the total number of Glocks sold by the number that are problematic.....10%..no 1%.......probably .001%. one thousandth of 1%....

If every happy glock/kimber owner logged on and said how happy they were, AR15.com would crash.....for years!!!

I dont think there is any finer looking pistol than a Kimber custom II TLE...I dont own one though. But I would.....if you buy it for me...cause I am broke

Just like my Sig.

I have a tactical custom from 2004 thats perfect and due to the rumors on the net was putting off buying another but i did. 6 months ago I bought a raptor and it ran so poor that I bought another one, an ultra cdp
glad I didnt listen to the crap on the web. all from a gun made in the good old U.S.A. imagine that.

I think so - I bought a Kimber Custom in 2001 and it's been a terrific 1911. I can't recall if it's ever actually malfunctioned except as a result of bad ammo.

My has been tempting failure for 13 years.

m

Sometime after I got my Warrior

exactly........... I have said this over and over and been flamed for it. Gun ppl are nutty....they want a piece of metal made by humans that functions flawlessly (with the unpredictable variable of ammo) . for $200.

this is what i tell pple, if you want a reliable car or gun...buy toyota/glock.....if you want something that is awesome and but you gotta fiddle with.....buy an old mustang/1911

My experience with Kimber has not been good. Jamomatic with any magazine. Crappy factory magazine.

Here's an example of Kimber value added engineering: Take apart your pistol. Now take a look at the frame where the slide release cut out is. See that cut? The one that goes all the up and through the slide rail, where the slide release notch is? Yea, that's not how it's supposed to be cut. It's a half-assed short-cut.


Here's how Browning designed it, and how Colt made it. And how every other manufacturer makes it (even Taurus). See how the slide rail is a nice strong continuous smooth piece of steel going all the way from front to back?



Here's how Kimber cuts it:


Which would you rather have?

I don't think Kimber has "gone bad" but I think their success has led to them letting their quality control slip. When any company becomes successful and they ramp up production without a corresponding ramp up in QC then things will go wrong. Do they still make good 1911s? Yes, in many cases they do but I don't see the necessary consistency that I would want in a 1911.
Buy what you want but I don't buy Kimber 1911s and I don't recommend them.
The above is just my (never) humble opinion and worth everything you paid for it.

They tried to get to big to fast.

Can't relate to this post.........CT II......one of the best 1911's I have ever owned. I have three Colts and one Kimber. They all run great.

I will take the Kimber. Every Colt I have owned took a good amount of work to be reliable and accurate. I shot a successful IPSC match with my Kimber, right out of the box.

Ahem... :



Colt cut out the slide stop to prevent the Delta Elite frame cracking issues in the late '80s. The top pistol is a Colt Gold Cup, the lower a Delta Elite.

Maybe it isn't such a bad idea after all?

m

The meaning behind my post is that the pistol has been *very* reliable.

In fact, of the 20 odd 1911 style pistols I own, they have all been trouble free, with the exception of one used Officer's Model. I'm sure once I diagnose that issue, it will run fine. (I expect a bubba-smith attempted to 'improve' it at some point.)

m

I've got a Kimber Series II raptor. Made sometime prior to 2004 based on the original reciept I got when I purchased the as new gun. Apparently, prior owner didn't fire it much, or just enough to realize it will double occasionally. It's not consistent, but regular. I bought it used from a member who got it in trade with a number of guns for a high end night vision set. I bought it from the member here along with another 1911 at what I felt was a good price - member here needed to buy an engagement ring. First time I shot it, all was good. Since then, every range trip has included at least one double fire. I've put about 400 rounds through it, the wear on the finish has increased dramatically, which leads me to believe the sellers statement that he'd only put 50 rounds through it. Kimber won't warranty the problem I have. Last time I was at the range with it two weeks ago, it doubled again, putting a round through the ceiling of the range. So, I've got an expensive paper weight that I need to send to a reliable smith to fix. I wouldn't trust Kimber to fix it, since they won't acknowledge that it's a manufacturing defect, on a gun that most likely has seen less than 800 rounds.

While I don't care for most the newer Kimbers with the 80 series style, I do like my Kimber Super Carry Pro a lot which is a 70 series style. But I did have to replace the recoil spring after just a few hundred rounds with a good Wolf spring. And yeah the Kimber magazine wasn't the most reliable. I prefer to stick with my Tripp Research mags. But it is very reliable with all ammo now.

The cut is done because occasionally (and more often on the Delta Elite 10mm) the frames crack there. Your picture is not even of a Kimber, which somewhat annoys me...

So... Kimber is worried that their .45 ACP 1911 frames will crack? Interesting. As to picture source, first one that came up in Google images - it illustrated the point.

Bingo.

Actually, because it is not a Kimber is negates your point about every other manufacturer not doing it that way.

Besides, if you have any evidence or examples of that notch weakening the frame, or that cutout directly causing a malfunction or break in the frame, please post. If not, the point is completely invalid.

Pro ss tle/rl ii... performed flawlessly anytime I go shooting for the last 4+ years.

No it doesn't. You are assuming that is why they did the cut.

You really are desperate to slam Kimber for something that may just be a simplification in the manufacturing process that hurts nothing and in fact could possibly eliminate problems with higher pressure cartridges.

Well, since this turned into a poo flinging contest, I figure I'll throw some gas in the fire:

You gotta give Kimber some credit, they started with a poor design

Except that both pictures in your love Colt, hate Kimber, post are Colts.

its real simple, if you dont like it dont buy it. like everything else some love them some hate them. get over it.

My desert warrior was a piece of doodoo.

When they designed the Series II and put an external extractor on it.
When they finally gave up and restored the design to the original internal extractor they got better.

There are many folks who really do not like the Swartz firing pin safety, but that is easily remedied by simply dropping out the parts, and unlike a Colt firing pin safety, you do not need to buy a spacer to fill the gap left by the parts.

You might want to look at some more modern Colts. They cut the rail to relieve the stress riser that can form there. Warp_foo already posted a pic.

It's called a "Delta Cut". Colt started doing that after they had problems with the Delta Elites cracking the frame in that location.
Colt does this on all their frames now (not just the 10mm ones) They even did it on some if not all of the "reissue" guns.

I've had a Stainless II since 2005 and never had a problem with it. I don't think the whole barrel (no pun intended) is bad, but there are a

Mine has been great since day one (2005). Go figure.

I bought a used Kimber custom II back in 2006 and it has run about 2000 rounds flawlessly....

Bought the standard warrior when they came out, runs great, one of my favorite guns


I have seen shitty kimbers that don't run so the claims are founded, if I'd known that Cohen ran kimber when I bought my warrior...I would not have bought it.

When they started spending $50K a month on magazine ads

I have shot just around 1000 rounds that I reloaded through a custom II and it worked fine for me. It was used very well before I got mine. Would I rather have a Wilson Combat or one of the super expensive 1911s sure but I don't have that kind of cash right now.

The cut one. It is the better design.

And that slide stop frame cut is identical to the way Smith & Wesson did it on my E Series 1911 TA which has run perfectly fine for over 5,500 rounds; and which the company will stand behind forever under its lifetime serve policy.

The answer to the question "When did Kimber go bad?" is a simple one.

Kimber "went bad" when individuals who know far less they they are willing to admit but wanted to sound erudite and knowledgeable nonetheless, began running their mouths on the Internet as evidenced by what can be seen in this very thread.

Same with SIG; bashing both those manufacturers is taken by the internet savants to be a shortcut to internet street creds these days.

Bash Ron Cohen and earn extra internet bragging points.

Great post.

I've owned 3 Kimbers. I don't own any of them anymore. All 3 had to go back to Kimber for various issues. Crap, pretty much, with first-hand experience.
And I even figured this out without reading about them on the internet.

I shouldn't have to send 3 brand new guns back for ramp/throat work just so I can shoot a hollow point. Non-stop FTF issues, regardless of magazine or ammo type.
At that time they admitted to me they were having a lot of people sending their brand new guns back with the same issues I was having.

Switched to Wilson Combat and I don't have issues with my 1911's any more, other than an insane addiction to buy more Wilsons.

Fixing to buy my 5th, and again, no issues whatsoever. Ok, I did have a slight frame/slide fitment issue on an old polymer KZ45 from back in the day, but that was more of an annoyance than a functional problem.

So Kimber didn't have problems around the time Ron Cohen and the external extractor joined the program?

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