School me on the Kimber

[TwoForFlinching]

So I have a buddy that's ended up in a jam, and he's offering up his Kimber Covert2... But as I look deeper into Kimber, I see a lot of really mixed reviews. Some swear by them, some say they aren't worth the cost, others say they're not "real/true 1911's"...

What gives?

 

[0311]

Two of my co workers have them, and swear by them. No miss feeds, stove pipes etc...

 

[Nimaro]

I have two and never had an issue

 

[F16mickey]

I was 1for3 with kimber. Meaning out of three that I bought only 1 really ever ran right.
The two that didn't run had the aluminum frames and the one that did run was a 4" steel frame model.
From my experience if I spend my money on a factory 1911 it will have colt or Springfield on the slide.
And for some fun reading look up Kimber Swartz safety!

 

[JD8]

There is no reason to buy anything over a base kimber unless you like the bells and whistles, which is usually fluff. They have no custom shop, even though they advertise "custom shop" models. They use all the same parts no matter the price, and there is little difference in fitting on their "custom shop" models.

 

[SoonerP226]

I'm not sure what a "true" 1911 is; you can't even say it's a Colt, because a lot of the GI 1911s were built by other companies during WWII. Kimber's just as much a "true" 1911 as any of the others.

I had one of Kimber's Gov't Model CDP variants, and it was a fine pistol, worth every penny I spent on it. My only complaint was that the checkering (or maybe it was stippling; I don't recall) on the frontstrap was uncomfortably sharp (well, that and the flat backstrap; what can I say, I'm an A1 kind of guy ). I've also owned Colts; some were better-finished than the Kimber, but some weren't. If you can get a reasonable deal on it, I wouldn't worry too much about going for it.

 

[Honeybee]

New Kimbers have a different take down procedure that requires their tool to break the gun down, A "true 1911" can be field stripped without any tools on the spot to clean anything that fouls thing up inside
That is why some do not consider them a true 1911

 

[SoonerP226]

New Kimbers have a different take down procedure that requires their tool to break the gun down, A "true 1911" can be field stripped without any tools on the spot to clean anything that fouls thing up inside
That is why some do not consider them a true 1911

Ah, that explains it. I had my Kimber ten or so years ago; the full-length guide rod made the use of a bushing wrench desirable, but only the hex screws in the grip required a special tool.

True 1911s can be completely disassembled with only the pistol's component parts; no external tools are required. It's quite the brilliant design.

 

[myappliancestore]

I have one and have not had any problems less than 1k rounds of 45 also have the 22 conversion with around 2k rounds only problem doesn't like 36grain only 40 grain 22lr

 

[surjimmy]

The Okla City Tact Team were going to go to the 1911, Kimber sent them one of their pistol's after the Armor got it. He broke it down, put it back together and sent it back to them and turned them down. Don't know what model it was, but this is 100% fact.