Kimber... They make some very nice 1911's. I have two. My Raptor has been flawless and a joy to shoot, although I did have to take a some fine sandpaper and knock down the edges on the grips. The texture of the grips and the bottom edges were VERY sharp and after my first range session of 300 rounds had actually cut my palm. I also had my smith replace the cheesy plastic mainspring housing with an one from EGW. I just don't get Kimber's thought process on that one... "Yeah, lets make a really nice gun and put this plastic MSH in it..." Also, I'm not really a fan of guide rods, but what ever, she shoots very well, so I'll leave well enough alone until there is an issue.
My Kimber Stainless Ultra Carry on the other hand was one of my favorite guns. Very accurate and sort shooting. Once I found a round it liked (which took some trial & error), it was super reliable.... Until... after about 1200 rounds. Then, broken extractor... Mangled recoil spring... Chipped ejector, and now, every once and a while it will stove pipe either the 3rd or 4th round. If it's going to fail, it is always a stove pipe and always round 3 or 4. I have tried different mags, I have replaced the extractor (AGAIN!), I replaced the recoil spring, replaced the ejector... It's weird. I can't explain it, neither can Kimber. Its been back to them twice to no avail. When my smith has some down time he is going to take a look at it but as for right now, I just don't trust it. I realize that any gun can FTF, and if it were just a safe queen range piece, I wouldn't gripe about it because it is a very pretty, accurate, fun to shoot gun. On the range if you have a FTF, you just clear it an keep having fun. For a carry gun, you may never get the chance to clear that FTF if she don't go bang.