Alternatives to a Kimber

[crusader377]

A friend of my dad's is considering buying a kimber with a laser sight for around $1300 to $1400. He might be calling me and I have heard alot of quality problems with the recent Kimber series II guns. I'm trying to steer him to an alternate pistol. He will not buy a used gun so the Les Baers, Wilsons, etc.. are out of the picture. He also wants a M1911 so other pistols are out of the picture as well.

Based on my reading and limited knowledge of the 1911 from owning them and researching them. I was thinking of recommending these four 1911s. Please let me know what you think and if are there other 1911s that would be a better choice. The price ceiling is $1400-$1500.

Dan Wesson Valor
Springfield TRP or MC Operation
Colt Series 70

[rushca01]

What are his intended purposes with the gun? Duty, Self Defense, plinking? If only plinking anyone will be "ok". Now if he plans on duty use or self defense 1500 is the bare bare minimum. This should cover the cost of the gun then he should plan on spening another 1000-2000 on mods done by a qualified gun smith to get it running 100%. Just my 2 cents.

[SWATcop556]

The Springfield would be my first choice. For that price I would go with the TRP. The Colt would also be a good choice.

The Kimbers are good frames, slides, and barrels (with some minor tweaks). Everything else can go in the trash. Probably my favorite 1911 I own is a Kimber TLE RL II but it's no where near stock. I dropped between $600-700 into it before it was GTG. It runs like a G19 now reliability wise. Kimbers can be massaged into quality weapons but there are better options out there unless you want to do the work.

[SHIVAN]

Do not buy locally if that's the best pricing you can find for those pistols. Find someone who will transfer from an out of state dealer, and buy from somewhere like Bud's or wherever from GunBroker that has a good rating.

I got a new Kimber Warrior for a bit less than $1000 from a shop. Paid $40 for the transfer, and $45 for shipping with insurance.

No way I would pay $1300 for a Kimber, ever. Not because it's Kimber, but because you can get them for considerably less.

I would recommend the TRP of the ones you listed.

Maybe even a Colt Rail Gun with a dehorn job.

[Lawdog-1]

Look at Gunsamerica.com I think I got a good price on a Springfield MC Operater for $1159.00 + 25.00 shipping to a store 13 miles near my House. I will pick it up within 1.5 hours

[crusader377]

What are his intended purposes with the gun? Duty, Self Defense, plinking? If only plinking anyone will be "ok". Now if he plans on duty use or self defense 1500 is the bare bare minimum. This should cover the cost of the gun then he should plan on spening another 1000-2000 on mods done by a qualified gun smith to get it running 100%. Just my 2 cents.

His main use will be plinking and home defense.

[rushca01]

His main use will be plinking and home defense.

I would find a quality springfield trp or colt and have a reliability package done to it 250-500 dollars. Put the rest towards ammo and training.

[.45fmjoe]

I would never buy a Kimber, they are nothing but a bunch of MIM parts.

Stick to Colt, or I suppose some of the Springfield Armory pistols but I stick to Colt. They have been making them for a very long time now.

[BlueOvalFan]

"A friend of my dad's is considering buying a kimber with a laser sight for around $1300 to $1400. He might be calling me and I have heard alot of quality problems with the recent Kimber series II guns. I'm trying to steer him to an alternate pistol..."

Well first off I don't think there's anything wrong with a Kimber. I owe one that has fired every time I asked it to. I've fired a few newer ones and friends of mine have new ones too that work fine.

Don't let the internet or social forums propagate malfunctions as being quality control problems or problems at the manufacturing point.

Has there been some grumbling on the net regarding malfunction regarding Kimbers--yes. But...so has many other manufactures!!! It's simple engineering statistic; you stamp out enough products in volume your find a few that have issue. Every manufacture has issues with their products and hopefully they stand behind them and make things right.

As MIM parts I believe the steel is still stronger than originally specified by Mr. Browning in his original design and those examples still work today. Hell--I have a Commercial Colt 1911 (C65,XXX) made in 1916 and it works fine to 94 years latter.

Just remember...you can get a parts failure regardless of how the part is made. And, many manufactures use MIM parts, so is this really an issue with just Kimber.

The only thing I would suggest to make you feel better is; if you plan on running hot loads through it all the time, every time, then maybe having an issue with MIM parts might be warrented.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm just tired of spreading info on the net that is form folks not in the know and comes from 5th, 10th or maybe even 1000th hand knowledge.

I'd like to hear from the Kimber guys who have actually had problems...

[SWATcop556]

The Kimber I have has approx 10,000 rounds through it. Before I sent it off for custom work I broke a slide stop, safety, my barrel chamber was too tight and caused malfunctions, and my extractor hook sheared off. It had two trips back to Kimber and still had issues.

I had to send it to an impartial smith before it was lined out correctly. I wouldn't buy another Kimber unless it was a great deal. They can make great base guns but OTB they need work.

That's just my experience with Kimber and several of my fellow deputies had issues with theirs as well.

Don't even get me started on my old roommates external extractor Custom Classic.