Poll for current and previous KIMBER owners only: Would you buy another Kimber?

Current or previous Kimber owners only: Would you buy another Kimber 1911?

  • YES

    Votes: 163 60.6%

  • NO

    Votes: 106 39.4%
  • Total voters
    269
Status
Not open for further replies.
Other than one broken disconnector I've had good luck with my Kimbers. Any gun can fail and there are a helluva a lot of Kimbers out there so there are bound to be some problems occur.

That being said I have a 1918 production GI issue Colt that was an Augusta Arsenal rework that has never failed once in the 10 years I've owned and shot it. Don't know if my kimbers will have that kind or reliability when they are 90+ years old. Maybe if I ever have grandkids can find out or if I make 120 and am still shooting I'll let you all know!

Raleigh
 
I would not buy a new one

I might buy a used one if the price were right. I bought a slightly used Tac Pro II for a bargain basement price and it would not fire a full mag of ammo, any ammo, without jambing. A trip to a competent gunsmith fixed that and I now have reliable lightweight 1911. The finish on these is less than stellar. Everyone I have seen had the finish on the safety flake off. Mine is not nearly as accurate as either of my Taurus 1911's though it is certainly accurate enough for a defensive weapon. Had I paid more than $1100 for my gun new I would have been severely ticked off. As it was I suspected I would have problems but I also knew a good gunsmith and it cost me $50 to get it running right. The sad part is that most of the problems have to do with the extractor not being tuned properly at the factory. If Taurus can do this on a $600 dollar gun why cant Kimber do it on an $1100 gun?
 
Not only "NO", but "HELL NO!!!"

While they did replace my defective gun with another, the replacement was defective too! Both were total jam-o-matics with the same quality control problems and the terrible external extractor. The custom shop promised that they'd fix the replacement; they did nothing to it that I could see.
 
I carry a Kimber UCC II. I would buy another kimber without any quawms. I've ran over 3,000 round through mine without any malfuctions except those that were contributed to my reloads or choice of powder...And that was during the 250 round breakin/certification. After the first 250 round there have been no malfuctions what so ever. And then I only had 7 failures and 4 of these were caused by the powder I was using...
 
Poll for current and previous KIMBER owners only: Would you buy another Kimber?
Click to expand...

Current owner, would again, & have - 3 times now :)
When something works, ne need to change...
 
I had a Kimber Stainless Target IIe. Accurate, not reliable, difficult to shoot thumbs forward, and the II safety made it difficult to reassemble the slide after detail stripping.
Last year I bought a Kimber Target Match. It is very accurate, 100% reliable, easy to shoot thumbs forward, and a breeze to detail strip, clean and reassemble. This has become my favorite pistol.
Would I consider buying another Kimber. Probably not. The next pistol purchase will be either another Smith 625 or a Les Baer.
 
I had two, a Pro Carry II and a Royal II. Both were reliable guns. But I won't buy another Kimber with a Swartz safety. I don't like having to be careful when putting the slide on not to depress the grip safety. Or having to use a tool to field strip them. Of the big 3, Kimber, SA & Colt, only Colt for me going forward.
 
I bought a simple Kimber Custom II and it was used on GB. When I got it, I took it straight to the range. The accuracy was great even at 100 yards it wasnt bad. To answer the underlying question, Yes I would buy another.
 
My first gun was a Ultra Carry II. I had about 10 malfunctions/ every 500 rounds fired. Put about 1000 rounds through it just to see if it was a break in issue and it still kept jamming/FTE. I'm sure Kimber would have figured it out if I sent it back but I just sold it instead.

The only way I'd buy another Kimber is if a close friend was selling one used that had a reliable record...
 
the terrible external extractor
Click to expand...
Poor Kimber, just so you folks know current production models do not have the external extractor for like 5 years get with the times.

Here is the order of my 1911 purchases while searching for my perfect pair of a commander and goverment sized set. First I bought a used Custom II I didn't like the non front strap checkering but loved everything else, while owning the custom II I bought a new SA loaded and new Para GI expert same drawback for the SA that the Kimber had and the Para was complete garbage. The SA needed about 7-800 rounds before it would act right. I sold all three of the previous mentioned guns and bought a used Kimber Tactical Custom II and love it, it is all I have hoped for in a goverment model. Then I obtained a used Sig GSR and 1973 Colt commander. The Sig was functional but ugly as hell the Colt had a cracked steel frame. Sold them both and bought a new Kimber Pro TLE the pro is all I hoped and dreamed it would be. Kimber has a customer for life with me they make what I want and it works withour breaking. So out of 4 manufacturers including the esteemed Colt which is the only one with a major malfunction the Kimber stands on top in features and reliability for me.

By the way almost all sub 2k stock 1911 mags are junk, I always discard my mags included with the gun and buy Nighthawk mags which are my favorite or Wilson mags. But surprisingly thge Para mags were actually pretty good.

Here is a link to my range report on the Tactical Custom, I will post one on my TLE Pro soon as I just returned from the range with it. Link
 
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Poor Kimber, just so you folks know current production models do not have the external extractor for like 5 years get with the times.
Click to expand...

Now if they could learn to properly tension an internal extractor.
 
If your Kimber is working fine, then you will love Kimbers. If you ever have a problem and need customer service, then you will hate Kimbers.

The above statement does not apply to LE or government contracts. Agencies and LE armorers get white-glove treatment.
 
..."If your Kimber is working fine, then you will love Kimbers. If you ever have a problem and need customer service, then you will hate Kimbers."...

true, but i would suspect those willing to type-down a problem weapon to be more likely to spend the time to post. even so, current percentages look dismal.

own/have owned 3 that worked fine after break-in without parts swapping. i will not buy another firing pin safety model, but had one that worked fine after ramp of the detent in the slide smoothed out. (hand filed by me)

mine is mostly a reassembly beef, unrequired complications that would be an issue under field conditions, especially a frame strip.

voted yes.

gunnie
 
Expensive, poor quality for the money, lousy customer service and the company did not admit the problems they knew the weapons had and did not cover them for the customers as warranty items.

UNLESS things have changed, NO WAY.
 
largely different results from the other current THR Kimber poll.

gunnie
 
Actually, the other Kimber poll is fairly similar. The wording of the other poll makes it more difficult to interpret. In the other poll, it would appear that about 44% of people who have actually owned a Kimber would buy another one. Some of the choices in that other poll make the numbers to interpret, because they are based on opinions of people who have never actually owned a Kimber.

Kimber is doing a little better in my poll, but still only about half of Kimber owners would buy another. I wish Kimber would pay attention to this. If only half of your customers would do business with you again, you have some problems.

I did a similar poll for Glock to use in comparision, and 80 to 85% of Glock owners would buy another Glock.
 
Yeah, I'd buy another one. Got such a good deal on my Kimber Stainless II, that If some "don't-want-er" made me a good deal on a Raptor or similiar, I'd pick it up.

My Stainless II, with Wilson Combat 8rd mags, has never had an FTF, except the time I was experimenting with some XTP handloads, and that was my fault.

It eats factory JHP, FMJs and all my reloads, no problem. And, I am as accurate with my Kimber as I have been with any other pistol, except my High Standard Supermatic Trophy (which is the most amazing little pistol I've ever shot).

But, I'm not paying retail for any guns right now. There's too many good deals out there. And, what I'm really holding out for is a barely used S&W 625JM that someone needs to unload in order to pay the mortgage or such.
 
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I did own one and I will not own another. I really do not want to start a bashing thread but I do want to give my reasons. Actually this guy summed it up best:

Expensive, poor quality for the money, lousy customer service and the company did not admit the problems they knew the weapons had and did not cover them for the customers as warranty items.
Click to expand...

In addition, the only have a 1 year warranty on thier firearms (at least when I owended mine). That should have been my first warning.
 
Buy Another Kimber

I switch off my CCW time between my 2 Kimbers and HK CT, HK45. I would bet my life on any of them.
 
"I like my custom CDPII 5", but it's obsolete. "

How can it be obsolete? Same as most of what they are producing now but with different aesthetics.
 
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