Finally got to the range for an hour, yesterday, with my new Kimber Custom II 10mm GFO. The results were something of a mixed bag.

The good news is the gun will put bullets where I want if I do my job. (See targets, below.) Recoil was mild with the Armscor 180 gr. FMJ, a mild 10mm load (muzzle velocity ±1100 FPS), I was shooting.

The bad news is I had many FTFs. Sometimes on loading the first round, sometimes somewhere in the middle of the magazine, more often than not on the last round. Most of the FTFs had the round jammed going into the chamber. A couple of times it wasn't even stripped out of the magazine. When it cycled properly, I could occasionally feel a "hitch" in the slide going forward as it stripped and fed a round.

The pistol had been stripped, well-cleaned and well-lubed, and I'd left the mag fully-loaded for a couple days.

I'm writing this one off to the mag. Others have complained of similar problems with the mag included with this pistol. I've a couple Wilson 47NX mags on-order from Top Gun Supply.

The fit and finish of the pistol is without flaw. Slide is snug on the rails and moves smoothly. No play or rattle anywhere. Magazine inserts smoothly and easily, and drops free nicely. Magazine release and safety both operate smoothly--the latter being nice and "clicky." Sights are a nice compromise between target and combat sights, IMO. Grips are grippy without being overly aggressive. (I can attest to their working well with mildly sweaty hands. The range was warm.)

I have only two complaints: 1. The trigger isn't great. It isn't bad, but it's a bit on the heavy side and has a some creep in it that, oddly, comes and goes. 2. The manual slide release I find nearly impossible to use to drop the slide. (The guy behind the counter at the store had no problem, so maybe it's me.)

Here are my targets, in the order I shot them. Mind you: I've been doing a lot of dry-firing the last three weeks, but this was my first time to the range in maybe a year.





Here I was just shooting to break the gun in. Not trying particularly hard.



For reference: These circles are 4 inch diameter.



I really need to get to the range more often.

Nice shooting! I've been toying with the idea of a 10mm 1911 lately, and Kimber has a lot of features that I like, but I've been kind of scared off by their reputation for poor reliability. I'd be interested to hear how your gun performs once you get the new mags in...if the Kimber mags are the only problem, I could live with that. Oh, and we need some pics of that gun !

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Nice shooting!

Thanks, but not that great. When I designate "slow fire," it was really slow fire.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I've been toying with the idea of a 10mm 1911 lately, and Kimber has a lot of features that I like, but I've been kind of scared off by their reputation for poor reliability.

I hadn't initially considered Kimber for the same reason. But, in my thread Ruger SR1911 10mm Or...?, it was suggested Kimber had cleaned up their act. So I looked into it. Couldn't find an above-average number of complaints about recent Kimber production. Found a lot of praise for the Custom II's. So when I saw and liked this one at an LGS, I snapped it up. It helped that the price was right.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I'd be interested to hear how your gun performs once you get the new mags in...if the Kimber mags are the only problem, I could live with that.

I'll update after I get 'em in and get to the range again. Probably won't be until week-after-this-coming, though. Probably won't get the mags until at or near the end of the week.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Oh, and we need some pics of that gun !

I'll try to take some

I have had a few Kimbers and with the exception of problems with JHPs they have been ultra reliable and very accurate. Kimber mags a different story not very happy with them. I use Wilson almost all the time. I shot an Eclipse and Raptor in competition with Wilsons and no problems.

As an aside I recently bought on sale from Ed Brown some $20 mags that were garbage so you can never tell.

quote:

Originally posted by SCfromNY:
I have had a few Kimbers and with the exception of problems with JHPs they have been ultra reliable and very accurate.

This is why I don't always rely on "what they say on the Intertubz."

I had this experience in buying my Remington 1911 R1 Enhanced. Almost passed on it w/o further thought, but then, instead, researched it. Found out nearly all the negative comments were "because Remington," not because people'd had bad experiences with them. In fact those who'd owned them loved 'em.

Mine's been utterly flawless and dead-nuts accurate.

quote:

Originally posted by SCfromNY:
Kimber mags a different story not very happy with them. I use Wilson almost all the time. I shot an Eclipse and Raptor in competition with Wilsons and no problems.

Exactly what I've read.

quote:

Originally posted by SCfromNY:
As an aside I recently bought on sale from Ed Brown some $20 mags that were garbage so you can never tell.

*nod*

When I had my Colt Defender in to a 'smith to get the rear sight moved over, they had a bin full of GI 1911 mags for $10/ea. (IIRC). Guy behind the counter said they'd yet to have had a complaint. So, at that price, I snagged a couple. Haven't been back to the range with my Remington, since, so I haven't tested them. I'll report back when I do. Maybe they'll be GTG, maybe they won't. A $20 experiment

Other than that, I'm inclined to stick with Wilson mags.

I was able to find a Kimber Custom Eclipse II in 10mm when they first came out. It was a well made and accurate jam fest. Tried the mags that came with it, the fancy Kimber mags, the Wilson mags, they all jammed. I was almost tempted to throw it on to the roof of the firing range when I left.

Took it apart to make sure everything was fine internally, then slowly ran it through the motions (without the firing pin) to see what the problem was. Kimber CS was really good and sent me a free extractor to try. Turns out, the magazine notch wasn't aligned with the slide breech and didn't feed the round properly. I bent the magazines in such a way they would work and then tried a few rounds with it. It has worked flawlessly ever since.

I later decided I couldn't live without a 2011 in 10mm and bought one from STI. The gun works great, but the STI customer service people are assholes.

quote:

Originally posted by .38supersig:
Turns out, the magazine notch wasn't aligned with the slide breech and didn't feed the round properly.

That sounds like a design or manufacturing flaw. Did you approach Kimber with your diagnosis?

(My Wilson mags will be here tomorrow, already [TGS r0x0rz!], so I'll know about mine probably sometime later this week.)

I did. The thinking at the time was I'd try adjusting the magazines that I already had before shipping it off and waiting.

I don't know if or what they ultimately changed with the design, but they seemed to have fixed it early on. A buddy had purchased the same model (Custom Eclipse II in 10mm) just a year later and the frame was completely different. It worked great right out of the box.

Haven't seen another one with the frame the same as mine. I think it was made in early '98.

*nod* Yeah, it sounds like a design or manufacturing snafu they later, maybe soon?, fixed.

ETA: Wilson 47NX mags arrived. Got 'em fully loaded up. Hope to get back to the range on Wednesday or so.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ensigmatic,

Bummer - this the the only legal 1911 10mm legal here for new purchase in CA.

I've had a Custom II Stainless in .45 since 2004 - ish. It's been my experience that the gun will run flawlessly with Wilson Mags or surplus GI mags. It never really liked the Kimber mag all that much.

quote:

Originally posted by bcjwriter:
Bummer - this the the only legal 1911 10mm legal here for new purchase in CA.

Bummer? You mean because I've experienced some break-in or magazine-related FTFs? I'm not concerned. This pistol actually gets good reviews by owners as a rule.

My best friend has a Kimber that hasn’t worked from day one. He has more money than GAS so he ignored the problems and kept shooting malfunction drill over the years. I finally convinced him to send it in. They claimed the bottom of the grip was dinged by the mainspring housing was not only causing the issues but they declared the gun, in letter format, unsafe. But they would sell a replacement frame for 400 bucks.

I have seen the gun it is all nonsense. I told him we could get it working for less than that. The letter scared him though and he bought the new frame. Hasn’t shot it yet.

I don’t think Kimber is out of the woods yet.

I’ve never had a kimber that worked. Ever. I’ve only seen a couple that did.

Mixed results from today's range trip. Another 100 rounds of Armscor 180 gr. FMJ, this time with the Wilson 47NX mags. I'm still getting FTFs, but at about half the rate I was.

I'm now thinking either break-in blues, I'm over-lubing the gun, it doesn't like the Armscor ammo, or some combination of the three.

I've got a case of WWB 180 gr. FMJ that will eventually be on its way. When that gets here I'll find out if it's the ammo it doesn't like. If that doesn't do the trick, I'll try more lightly lubing the gun. By that time I'll have hit the 500-round break-in point. If it's still giving me trouble, I guess I'll send it off to Kimber for a look-see.

On the good news front: My shooting has improved a bit




So I'm happy about that.

I recently purchased a Kimber Stainless Lightweight on sale at Sportsmans Warehouse. $599 before tax. I am pleased to report that it has not had a malfunction in 150 rounds of FMJ and 300 rounds of my LSWC reloads.

For the sake of fairness, I would have to say that my other Kimber 1911, A Stainless Target, worked great the whole time I had it.
The only problem was that the previous owner lost the extractor.

Kimber mailed me a new one for free.

It is chambered in .17mach2.

Update

Since my last update I tweaked the extractor a bit, myself. That got the FTFs down drastically. For a bit, there, I thought I'd nailed it.

Nope. At about the fifth or sixth mag I got another FTF. One or two more in subsequent mags.

I tweaked the extractor a bit more, then thought "10mm is too expensive to be throwing down-range, taking shots in the dark with extractor tension," and brought the thing to my 1911 smith. Besides: That little hitch in the trigger pull wasn't going away.

Good thing I did. Trigger is now a crisp four lbs. He further-adjusted the extractor. More importantly: He found interference between the lower barrel lug and the slide stop pin--which he said prevented proper barrel movement and would also cause FTFs.

He also found the firing pin stop was undersized, which would allow the extractor to clock. Welded additional material onto that, then trimmed it down to a proper fit.

While he was at it: Did a couple mods to ease disassembly for cleaning: Drilled a hole in the guide rod for a take-down pin (even gave me a little bag with a half-dozen small brass nails to use) and cut-away part of the grip safety to make it easy to remove for cleaning

I asked him what he thought of Kimbers. "They're not what they were back before they became a production company," was all he said.

Sounds like your guy knows his stuff! Weren't you asking about takedown tools for you EMP a while back? I wonder if he could do the same thing to your guide rod in that gun...that's basically how my EMP4 is set up, and I can imagine that it would be a huge headache to take down without it.

Did he say why he opted to weld the firing pin stop and then fit it, rather than just fitting a new oversized stop? They're readily available and not terribly expensive...seems like a lot of work to weld one up and fit it when you would easily start with a new piece. I imagine he has his reasons, though...I'm just curious as I've been doing some 1911 tinkering lately and am trying to learn as much as I can.

It sounds like you took it to the right guy. Hopefully it's all sorted now. Let us know how it goes the next time you take it out. A 10mm 1911 is on my list, but I'm still up in the air about what mfg.