Kimber Jamming?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Iwant1

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Jan 2, 2008
Messages
687
Reaction score
2
Location
OKlahoma City
I have several friends that swear by Kimber and preferably the Kimber Ultra Carry.
1) I had a friend that had a new Kimber Carry II and it malfunctioned the day before his CCL Class so he had to borrow another. (firing pin issue)
2) I shot a brand new out of the box Kimber Ultra Carry II that a friend had and it jammed on him all day. I couldn't shoot one magazine without 2 jams per mag.
3) During the shooting part of my CCL Class a person had just bought a beautiful New Kimber and the instructor had to stop everyone several times because it would jam so much. He eventually had to take it a part and clean it, while we waited.
Now, my Kimber friends tell me that all three cases were either bad ammo or a fluke...??
I'm interested in changing over to .45's and was considering Kimber.
Someone please give me some advice about either Kimber or another brand that's not prejudice.
 

the tR

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
7,245
Reaction score
0
Location
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
I have several friends that swear by Kimber and preferably the Kimber Ultra Carry.
1) I had a friend that had a new Kimber Carry II and it malfunctioned the day before his CCL Class so he had to borrow another. (firing pin issue)
2) I shot a brand new out of the box Kimber Ultra Carry II that a friend had and it jammed on him all day. I couldn't shoot one magazine without 2 jams per mag.
3) During the shooting part of my CCL Class a person had just bought a beautiful New Kimber and the instructor had to stop everyone several times because it would jam so much. He eventually had to take it a part and clean it, while we waited.
Now, my Kimber friends tell me that all three cases were either bad ammo or a fluke...??
I'm interested in changing over to .45's and was considering Kimber.
Someone please give me some advice about either Kimber or another brand that's not prejudice.


i have a kimber pro carry 2 in 9mm , haven't had any problems, but they have a high breakin rate of about 800 rounds.... keep it well oiled til then ...
 

Soulman

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Mar 17, 2006
Messages
12,506
Reaction score
1
Location
Bartlesville, OK
My two personal choices for 1911s have been S&W and Colt. I've always had luck with 5" gov't models that were as close to the original 1911 design as possible. In my own personal experience, it seems like the compact/micro versions seem to have problems, or at least more prone to them. However, I have had a couple springfield or rock island armory GI or Mil-Spec full size models that have shot just fine. A lot of problems my friends have had with their full size models have been fixed by replacing the recoil spring and using chip mccormick power mags.

I've been kicking around the idea of a commander size (full size grip, but slightly shorter barrel) 1911 since it seems they can be had in reliable configurations.

Most 1911 problems can be traced back to one of these problems as long as you stay with Colt, S&W, RIA, Springfield, Norinco, etc (personally would stay away from taurus from personal experiences but others have had luck with them):

Cheap/Poor Quality Parts
Cheap/Poor Quality Mags
Poor Quality Gunsmithing
 

J.P.

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Jun 12, 2005
Messages
20,440
Reaction score
11
Location
Tulsa
I have several friends that swear by Kimber and preferably the Kimber Ultra Carry.
1) I had a friend that had a new Kimber Carry II and it malfunctioned the day before his CCL Class so he had to borrow another. (firing pin issue)
2) I shot a brand new out of the box Kimber Ultra Carry II that a friend had and it jammed on him all day. I couldn't shoot one magazine without 2 jams per mag.
3) During the shooting part of my CCL Class a person had just bought a beautiful New Kimber and the instructor had to stop everyone several times because it would jam so much. He eventually had to take it a part and clean it, while we waited.
Now, my Kimber friends tell me that all three cases were either bad ammo or a fluke...??
I'm interested in changing over to .45's and was considering Kimber.
Someone please give me some advice about either Kimber or another brand that's not prejudice.

My experiences with Kimbers have not been positive.
Dad and I each bought brand new Kimbers and they were junk...had multiple issues.
I personally know others who've had bad experiences with Kimbers as well.
In fact, I'm not sure that I personally know anyone who hasn't had problems with Kimber.

That said, there are many people who report nothing but success with theirs.

Any compnay can put out a lemon from time to time, particularly the larger the production scale.
I think that when dealing with 1911s, the more that the original design is deviated from, the more issue can arise....this appears to be the case.
That's probably why I've had such great luck with Colt...because they are truer to original spec.

I don't think it's fair to say "All Kimbers are junk", but there have been numerous issues that needed addressed and I think that maybe their QC department has let too many bad ones slip out giving them a bad reputation.
 

Glocktogo

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Jan 12, 2007
Messages
29,424
Reaction score
15,659
Location
Collinsville
I've owned two Kimbers and neither ran perfectly out of the box. A couple hours tuning and polishing fixed the Elite Carry, but the Custom required a bit more work.

Kimber's seem to either work fine, or not. It all depends on which individual gun it happens to be.

I know one thing I don't like about them is the number of MIM parts they contain.

I'd be inclined to agree with Soulman on preferred brands.
 

JD8

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Jun 13, 2005
Messages
32,824
Reaction score
45,797
Location
Tulsa
My two personal choices for 1911s have been S&W and Colt. I've always had luck with 5" gov't models that were as close to the original 1911 design as possible. In my own personal experience, it seems like the compact/micro versions seem to have problems, or at least more prone to them. However, I have had a couple springfield or rock island armory GI or Mil-Spec full size models that have shot just fine. A lot of problems my friends have had with their full size models have been fixed by replacing the recoil spring and using chip mccormick power mags.

I've been kicking around the idea of a commander size (full size grip, but slightly shorter barrel) 1911 since it seems they can be had in reliable configurations.

Most 1911 problems can be traced back to one of these problems as long as you stay with Colt, S&W, RIA, Springfield, Norinco, etc (personally would stay away from taurus from personal experiences but others have had luck with them):

Cheap/Poor Quality Parts
Cheap/Poor Quality Mags
Poor Quality Gunsmithing

This man speaks the truth.....
 

Stephen Cue

Sharpshooter
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
3,837
Reaction score
6
Location
West Tulsa
I bought a Kimber Ultra Carry (not Ultra carry II, older model) a few months back and have ran about 400 rounds through it with only two FTF's.

I believe it was the ammo. After I inspected the two rounds that FTF'd, I noticed they both had rim damage while none of the spent cases had said issue.

Now compare that to a recently aquired RIA mil spec, with near the same amount of rounds through it, that has had zero issues. :anyone:

I also in no way think my Kimber represents all, I got lucky I guess. :twocents:




~Stephen
 

NikatKimber

Sharpshooter
Staff Member
Special Hen Moderator
Joined
Jan 2, 2006
Messages
20,771
Reaction score
1,492
Location
Claremore
I have one, hence my screen name, that has had issues. Not going away as it was my first handgun and it does shoot something fantastic, but I'm not going to buy another Kimber anytime soon. I have a pre series 2 gun, all stainless steel compact (4" barrel, officers grip). I had to replace the magazines that came with the gun as they weren't reliable, and it seems to eat up recoil springs every 5-600 rounds. It ejects completely randomly, the shells go forward, up, back, right and even left.
 

trekrok

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Mar 6, 2009
Messages
3,573
Reaction score
5,874
Location
Yukon, OK
My experience involves only a couple hundred rounds through a Kimber CDP Ultra II. So far, I've had zero jams. I cleaned it before I shot it and of course after each trip, but otherwise that's it. I love it so far. I read about some of the jams too, and that's part of the reason I went with the CDP, which is built completely in the custom shop. My figuring, right or wrong, was that the QC would have to be higher through there. Good luck.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom