The newest addition

[Dash Riprock]

Well, I did it today... I went shopping and checked out a lot of different guns. All 1911's. Kimbers, Colts, S&W's, more Springfields and Para's.

I didn't want to spend too much and all the Kimbers were over a grand. Well, except a few low end models. I checked out the ones I posted about in another thread and few more. It was a hard decision really. I even checked out the Raptor. That gun looks much better in the pictures. IMO it's not that good looking.

Anyway, it came down to 3 Kimbers. One looked and felt great, but the sights weren't right for me. So it was either the Eclipse or the Tactical Custom... I brought the Tactical Custom home with me.

I've already stripped it down to all the parts, cleaned everything and put it all back together. This gun is nice, very nice, and for the price it better be!

What does bug me though is for $1060.00 it comes with only 1 mag and since it has a magwell I can't use my other mags. Not a hard problem to solve though.

I'll be off to the range tomorrow and see if it shoots like a high dollar gun. I'm hoping since it costs almost twice as much as my other 2 1911's it will shoot twice as good. :D

[CBnL]

Do any of your other magazines have removable bases? I have some Wilson Combat bases (5) that add a 1/4" at the bottom I'd be willing to send ya.

(I went for the SA operator)
http://members.cox.net/decook/Ready_Bag_11x9.jpg

[jkroner659]

Good luck Dash on the first outing. THe gunshop me and TcRoc go to stopped selling Kimbers because of all the problems he said he was having with the nib guns. If your paying that much for a gun, you want it to run 100% relaible and after so much of that crap coming back, he just stopped selling Kimbers all together. I like the way Kimbers look the best, but they seem to be a mixed bag in the reliability dept.

[jtkratzer]

I'd be less than impressed with only 1 mag for a gun that costs more than a grand. :bs:

I looked at getting a Tactical Pro a while back, but couldn't justify the price for what I was getting.

[TcRoc]

Good luck Dash on the first outing. THe gunshop me and TcRoc go to stopped selling Kimbers because of all the problems he said he was having with the nib guns. If your paying that much for a gun, you want it to run 100% relaible and after so much of that crap coming back, he just stopped selling Kimbers all together. I like the way Kimbers look the best, but they seem to be a mixed bag in the reliability dept.

John said that?
Interesting coming from him, maybe he just has a Kimber curse or something:laugh:,,that or the customers didn't know what the hell to expect off the bat.

[jkroner659]

John said that?
Interesting coming from him, maybe he just has a Kimber curse or something:laugh:,,that or the customers didn't know what the hell to expect off the bat.

Ya, I was looking at some used 1911's he had and asked about Kimbers and he told me that.

[CBnL]

I wasn't going to say it but since others are speaking up...
I bought a Kimber Pro TLE/RL II and out of the box it would either fail to clear an ejection, fail to extract, or fail to feed at LEAST one round per magazine. It had one of their ~new style~ extractors which was a POS. I sold it at a $300 loss just to get rid of it.

[Dash Riprock]

I was told just the opposite about Kimbers...

[TcRoc]

I think it's a toss up thats all,any 1911 you get could be your friend or enemy regardless of brand,,you read good and bad on all of them on forums

[Dash Riprock]

I'm off to the range later on. We'll see if it's a turd or not. :)

[Dash Riprock]

Do any of your other magazines have removable bases? I have some Wilson Combat bases (5) that add a 1/4" at the bottom I'd be willing to send ya.

I have 6 1911 mags right now. the 2 that came with my SA, which are standard flat base mags.

The 2 that came with my Para, which do have removeable bases. They seem long enough to pop in, but for some reason will not catch. it's odd.

Then I have the 1 that came with the Kimber and a Wilsom Combat. The Wilson works great, so I guess I'll just buy a few more Wilson's. Was going to anyway so no biggie.

[CBnL]

midwayusa puts the wilson combat on sale from time to time (and have pretty good price on them in general) that's where I get mine from.
I get their stainless 8 round and then put in the low/aluminum base. You can see how they still stick out just a little on the SA Operator but I like that because it helps ensure they get seated when I slam them in.

[Dash Riprock]

That's where I got mine too. They are $32 right now. I'll wait a week or 2 to see if they come down a little... Of course they won't come down at all until AFTER I buy them!

[capnswervon]

For what it is worth....

When I went 1911 shopping, I stopped out at a shop looking for a Springfield Loaded model in stainless. The salesman....and being a salesman myself...I mean salesman really pointed out that they only ever sell the cheap Springer's...and that if anyone is looking to spend around a grand they just go for the Kimber. So....fastforward 20 minutes later, I am finished checking out with my new Pro Tactical II for $952. At this point, the same guy tells me that I should expect FTF and FTE for the first 500 rounds or so....color me heartbroken. I had not completed my normal intense research on Kimber's because I was going to look at SA 1911's. Well, I got home and took it apart and cleaned everything up. I was very impressed with how tight the tolerances were with the 4" bull barrel. In the first few hundred rounds, I had maybe 5- 6 FTE's in total. Once I hit around the 400 round mark the thing has been flawless. Using good mags such as the Wilson ones you mentioned will minimize the initial breaking in procedure. I also took my dremel buffer wheel with some mild buffing compound and did up the feed ramp a little after the first range trip.
I agree that there are some "bad" ones that make it out of the factory, but in most cases it is just the new owners not letting the weapon "break in" properly. You always hear the "for $1000 it should have these type of problems". In one case, I can see the point, but when you tighten up the tolerances such as they have in these pistols, you have to give them a little time.

Congrats on a truely beautiful weapon!

The Capn'

[Dash Riprock]

Thanks Capn'. :)

You say once you hit about the 400 mark it's flawless. What break in procedure did you use? Straight 400 rounds at the range or did you shoot 100 or so rounds and clean it then shoot another 100 or so rounds?

My SA, I talked to the sales guy yesterday about it and he went through all the questions with me and told me to bring it in and he'd send it back for me. Was pretty cool of him to offer. So I'll do that tomorrow. When I described what it was doing he said there's no reason for that to happen with that gun.

I think once the slide issue is corrected it will be fine. I won't take anything away from SA because I can tell even with a lightly less than perfect one they are great shooters. Fricken dead on accurate.

The sales guy was a 1911 guy as well. That's what he carries. He said he prefers Kimber first above all then SA, then S&W and then Colt.

This place has been around so long they honestly don't care what you buy or if you buy anything at all. So I know what he was telling me was more out of conversation than trying to sell me a high dollar gun. The reason I say that is because the Raptor and a couple others I was looking at was about $300+ more and we both agreed the Raptor wasn't worth the extra money to have all the scaling on it.

I have never heard them offer opinions or try to sell anything specific. When I went to buy my AR I was told to research it and find what I want instead of saying, "oh yeah, this $2500 super high end, chromed out mother lode right here is exactly what you need..." :D

[sig232]

For a very short time Kimber made a few models with the external extractor. They had problems with them and went back to the internal extractor.

The bad rap about Kimbers can be traced to that short run of guns still floating around out there with the external extractors.

My three Kimbers have been flawless. My Gold Match is one of the most accurate shooters that I own. I have a Colt Gold Cup National Match that I did NRA bullseye with in the late 1970's and the Kimber is just as good or better.

I had a Springfield compact that I had to send back to the factory for repair twice and they never were able to fix it to run right. Sold it for a major writedown in pricing. Piece of junk. With the made in Brazil frame.

[capnswervon]

Thanks Capn'. :)

You say once you hit about the 400 mark it's flawless. What break in procedure did you use? Straight 400 rounds at the range or did you shoot 100 or so rounds and clean it then shoot another 100 or so rounds?

My SA, I talked to the sales guy yesterday about it and he went through all the questions with me and told me to bring it in and he'd send it back for me. Was pretty cool of him to offer. So I'll do that tomorrow. When I described what it was doing he said there's no reason for that to happen with that gun.

I think once the slide issue is corrected it will be fine. I won't take anything away from SA because I can tell even with a lightly less than perfect one they are great shooters. Fricken dead on accurate.

The sales guy was a 1911 guy as well. That's what he carries. He said he prefers Kimber first above all then SA, then S&W and then Colt.

This place has been around so long they honestly don't care what you buy or if you buy anything at all. So I know what he was telling me was more out of conversation than trying to sell me a high dollar gun. The reason I say that is because the Raptor and a couple others I was looking at was about $300+ more and we both agreed the Raptor wasn't worth the extra money to have all the scaling on it.

I have never heard them offer opinions or try to sell anything specific. When I went to buy my AR I was told to research it and find what I want instead of saying, "oh yeah, this $2500 super high end, chromed out mother lode right here is exactly what you need..." :D

Dash,
I ran probably 150 through it the first outing, then cleaned it and lightly polished the feed ramp. On subsequent range trips I probably put between 50 and 150 rounds through it and cleaned it in between. I agree that the short lived external extractor was the cause of a lot of the bad rap that Kimber got. It is funny how something sticks in peoples minds for a long time...kind of like the days of the laquer finished Wolf ammo....now it's accuracy still sucks, but that was not the issue. Or the original Bushy Carbon 15's for that matter.
Being a car guy it also reminds me of Audi's "Unitended Acceleration" problem from the late 80's. It was found that the pedal position on the cars was very close together and the typical American's EEE foot size was grabbing the accelerator and the brake at the same time causing the car to surge forward. 60 Minutes "broke" the story and the company was almost forced out of the county. About 2 months later the same show issued a 60 second retraction...but the public only remembers the original expose and the damage was done.
Anyway, I love my Kimber, and I am sure you will love yours as well.

Good Luck!!

The Capn'

[Dash Riprock]

Good info, thanks. :)

[TcRoc]

Didn't hit the range yet?

[Dash Riprock]

Today for sure... I have sleeping problems, so it's sometimes difficult for me to get out when I want to. :(