I recently acquired a Kimber EVO TLE (Tactical Law Enforcement) model. I know I shouldn't be an early adopter of a new weapon, especially given that I got burned on the Solo and the R51 in the past, but I guess I just never learn.

Upon picking it up from my FFL, I disassembled, cleaned, and lubed it. I was satisfied with the finish, which is the typical Cera-whatever finish that is common today. I held one of the CDP models at a LGS a couple of weeks ago, and there was considerable wear on the left side of the trigger guard. I asked the counter guy if it was from customer handling, and he said it was likely a manufacturing defect. Neither option is very comforting, but nonetheless, my pistol has no issues. The fit was very good, and there were no machining tool marks. The G10 grips provide a good positive grip but are not too aggressive. It will be interesting to see how abrasive they are against the skin when I start carrying it. The trigger felt more comfortable than the one on my Glock 43. I'm not sure exactly why, if it's the lack of serrations, the shape, the material, or what. The best feature, in my mind, was the sights. They are tritium 3 dot night sights with a large white dot on the front sight that I was able to pick up very quickly.

Headed to the range, I took 100 rounds of Speer Lawman 124gr and 50 rounds of Hydro-Shok 147 gr. I ended up shooting all 100 rounds of the Lawman and 30 of the Hydros and suffered 2 malfunctions with the Lawman. Both were stovepipe failure to feed malfunctions on the last round in the mag. Both times, I re-loaded the round into the mag, racked the slide and fired, and the slide failed to lock back after the round was fired. I also had several failures of slide lock on an empty mag without a malfunction. I didn't mark the mags, so I don't know if the malfunctions were with one or both of the mags. Recoil is manageable, but is more noticeable than on my G43. The sights, as I thought, were extremely easy for my 50+ eyes to pick up. I had no problems acquiring a sight picture quickly.

Accuracy was decent with the Lawman 124 gr. The below pic is 50 rounds fired rapid pace at ~7 yds.


The Hydro 147 gr was less accurate. This pic is I believe 28 rounds at the same distance.

Overall, I was pleased with the performance. I'm not ready yet for it to replace my G43, but it may some day. It's only 1 oz more empty, but it just feels more substantial in my hand.

Below are a couple of comparison pics with my G43 and my Kahr PM9.

I have put 335 rounds through a CS EVO I picked up and have not had any issues. Not as snappy as my Glock 43 and I seem to shoot it a little better than the Glock.