Kimber TLE/RL II opinions

[Robb Jensen]

In my experience Kimber replaces slides with internal extractors on the 2nd return to them.

[LDM]

evilmonkey, this is just one guy's tale for what it's worth.
Like you, I had not had a 1911 for a while and bought a Kimber TLE II a couple of years ago. I hate to admit to it, but when I bought it I did not know it had a Swartz safety, nor the issues with same. I did not know the internals were MIM, nor what MIM is for that matter.
What I ended up with was a very good precision frame, slide, and barrel. My Frankenkimber as I now call it is actually a very good weapon now, with tool steel internals and about every other part replaced with top drawer parts. Even had it DLC finished by Ionbond. It was a learning experience. But an expensive education.
For what I spent on this weapon, I could have easily gotten a Brown, Baer, Nighhawk, Wilson, etc.
If I had it to do over, I'd either bite the bullet on cost and buy one of those listed above, or buy a stock Springfield Mil-Spec and send to a good gunsmith (e.g. EGW, or a number of others) to replace MIM with tool steel trigger-hammer-sear / extractor and perform a reliability tune so I had a good basic weapon for about what a Kimber TLE costs.
Stay safe.

[Powder Burns]

If I was ready to purchase a 1911 I wouldn't buy a Kimber. Of all the Kimbers I've held, (which would probably be in the 20-30 neighborhood) almost half of them exhibited signs of rust/oxidization on or around the hammer or the back of the frame on the slide rails...and these were new-in-box models, not used guns. I suspect it has something to do with the finish they are using, and/or the internal parts. For the price of a kimber, which is upwards of $1200 and even more on some models, you are probably better off chipping in the extra $ and getting a 1911 from les Baer, Wilson Combat, STI, Caspian Arms, or any of the other top tier custom shops. From what I understand the smith & wesson 1911s or even the taurus pt1911 would be a better deal, even after custom work.

The Kimber rifles sure look nice, though.