whatnickname
Member
I've been around handguns all of my life and have been reloading for 40 years. I have a number of Kimber .45 ACP pistols...both full size as well as what I will call "Commander" format with 4" barrels. I recently purchased an Ultra Carry II as it was more easily concealed than the other pistols. I had read that the technical difficulties with the really short 3" barrels were significant but figured that Kimber would surely have the solution based on their reputation and my experience with the five other Kimbers I own. Well, Kimber makes it clear in their owners manual that this pistol is designed to run with ball ammo and advises in their owners manual that a break-in period of 500 rounds is required to ensure complete reliability. I'm at the 300 round mark now and, while the reliability has improved, I'm still seeing one or two failures to feed toward the end of the box of ammo, so I know fouling is the cause...the pistol runs just fine when it starts out clean. My questions are as follows:
Has ony one else experienced this problem? If so how did you resolve it? (yes I have polished the feed ramp...didn't seem to make that much difference.) BTW Metal Form magazines work much better than those supplied by Kimber!
I intend to carry ball ammo in this pistol as expansion and reliability with hollow points are questionable with this short barrel. Yes, I know that ball is not suppose to be that good in a gun fight but so far, I have yet to see anyone that wanted to volunteer to step in front of a 230 grain ball round! The law here requires anyone with a CCW permit to carry factory ammunition. Does anyone know which brand of ball ammo is cleaner?...Like I said, I'm a reloader and don't care to buy any large quantity of factory ammo. BTW...my ball reloads function better than the brass cased ball marketed by Speer...go figure.
Should I keep shooting at this point or return the pistol to Kimber to address the reliability issue?
The black oxide finish on this pistol is showing accelerated signs of holster wear. I'm thinking of having the slide and barrel hard cromed. My concerns are that this may cause additional problems in functioning requiring me to break the pistol in all over again or, worst case, render completely and permanently unreliable. Does anyone have any experience or observations on this issue?
Has ony one else experienced this problem? If so how did you resolve it? (yes I have polished the feed ramp...didn't seem to make that much difference.) BTW Metal Form magazines work much better than those supplied by Kimber!
I intend to carry ball ammo in this pistol as expansion and reliability with hollow points are questionable with this short barrel. Yes, I know that ball is not suppose to be that good in a gun fight but so far, I have yet to see anyone that wanted to volunteer to step in front of a 230 grain ball round! The law here requires anyone with a CCW permit to carry factory ammunition. Does anyone know which brand of ball ammo is cleaner?...Like I said, I'm a reloader and don't care to buy any large quantity of factory ammo. BTW...my ball reloads function better than the brass cased ball marketed by Speer...go figure.
Should I keep shooting at this point or return the pistol to Kimber to address the reliability issue?
The black oxide finish on this pistol is showing accelerated signs of holster wear. I'm thinking of having the slide and barrel hard cromed. My concerns are that this may cause additional problems in functioning requiring me to break the pistol in all over again or, worst case, render completely and permanently unreliable. Does anyone have any experience or observations on this issue?