In the gun thread I bragged about my new Kimbers… to soon. At app. round 250 on my SIS the safety broke. I had a failure to feed, hit the slide release and had another one. I looked st the gun and noticed that the left, thumb side on my right hand safety was coming out!
I looked the safety and just took it off. I called Kimber and they are supposedly fixing it. this has me not trusting the brand to much at the current time. Guns shouldn’t break at 250 rounds of regular firing. Especially 1200$ guns.
I’m going to sell it after I get it back and get a Springfield Armory. I never had a problem with them.
I also traded my Grand Raptor II for an almost new 460 S&W magnum. My buddy who was forewarned about my experience, can’t hunt anymore due to health issues so he was looking to get a nice home for his Smith and has lusted for the GR II for a few years.
A good win / win situation. I get something for hunting, and he gets a cool target pistol.
so the point of this thread is your bad experience with a gun or guns. Hell, good experiences are still okay because talking about guns is fun.
I want a Kimber custom II so damn bad…Shot one at a range and loved it. I can’t say I have any bad experiences with guns. No Dick Cheney moments to speak of.
Really, the only cool story I have is when I shot a bullfrog sunning in a pond from about 100 yds out with a scoped .22. I was real young at the time. Went to the pond, swam in, grabbed the bullfrog, then dad cooked him up and we at him lol.
Seriously stay away from Kimbers. The local gun guy won’t stock them. Half of those he got for customers had to be sent back for repairs.
www.tactalforums.com, is owned by Kevin McClung, aka MaDDog of MadDog knives. You have to apply for membership to read posts, but read what some have said about them. I would stick with a Springfield.
I have a Kimber Ultra Carry II and love it. I’ve put thousands of rounds through it and have had no problems. I only had a couple FTF when I first got it and was shooting some HP. Now that it’s broken in it’s flawless.
You sure you weren’t doing it wrong? I think you were doing it wrong. Maybe just unlucky.
Anyways I’ve never had problems with either of my Kimbers. I have a Pro Carry II and a Desert Warrior. No Custom IIs but I did have a Raptor II for a while and had no problems with it either.
I’m very familiar with 1911s and have a bit of experience with them. As I said, the local gunshop guy has had to send back 1/2 of all the Kimbers he had sold for some problem.
One problem is the Schwartz safety. This is found in series II Kimbers. My safety on the SIS CAME OFF at round 250 or so through the gun.
I did get the gun back from Kimber yesterday. i will say I am happy about the quick service. It seems to function well, but I did not fire it yet. the slide actually works better. This is something I noticed but didn’t really pay to much attention to at first. It was difficult to rack the slide without first cocking the hammer.
I’m not a weak guy either I deadlift over 500 pounds and can close a number two coc gripper on most days. But now the slide seems to be fine.
I think I might keep this one, but a 1300$ or so gun should not have these problems out of the box.
[quote]Mister T. wrote:
I’m in the market for a 1911, probably looking to pick one up at the gun show this weekend. Right now it seems that most things I’ve read are pointing me in the direction of the Springfield Mil Spec. Anyone know a fair price for this? Suggestions for another brand/model are welcome, reasonable price range of course.
EDIT: I’m looking at the full size 5" guns.[/quote]
I’d get a Springfield with some features. I think they call it the loaded model.Your price then would be about 1000$. the mil spec should run 500$-600$.
[quote]Bujo wrote:
You sure you weren’t doing it wrong? I think you were doing it wrong. Maybe just unlucky.
Anyways I’ve never had problems with either of my Kimbers. I have a Pro Carry II and a Desert Warrior. No Custom IIs but I did have a Raptor II for a while and had no problems with it either.[/quote]
How do you do it wrong? I was firing the gun and the slide locked back, failing to feed a round. i dropped the slide and fired again. This time I noticed the safety was coming out of the left side of the gun as you are holding it away from you.
Safeties should not come out of the gun during a firing string. This is called bad. Especially for a carry gun.
Now in defense of the SIS, they do not have that Schwartz safety. They aren’t considered series two i guess. the gun also got glowing praise in my most recent gun test magazine.
Go to www.tacticalforums.com the owner of the sight, Kevin McClung of MadDog knives doesn’t like them becuase they are use MIM, or metal injection molding for their internals. He has examined many Kimbers adjust doesn’t like them.
This guy works with metal and is one of the few i would trust when they pull a gun apart.
If you have one, and it’s great, great. Be careful though.
[quote]Mister T. wrote:
tom63 wrote:
Mister T. wrote:
I’m in the market for a 1911, probably looking to pick one up at the gun show this weekend. Right now it seems that most things I’ve read are pointing me in the direction of the Springfield Mil Spec. Anyone know a fair price for this? Suggestions for another brand/model are welcome, reasonable price range of course.
EDIT: I’m looking at the full size 5" guns.
I’d get a Springfield with some features. I think they call it the loaded model.Your price then would be about 1000$. the mil spec should run 500$-600$.
Any reason you’d suggest going with the Loaded model? I was considering going with a mil-spec then adding upgrades as I see fit. This is my first 1911 (obviously) and the first time I’ve really looked into customizing a gun…figured it would be kinda fun.[/quote]
Cheaper and saves time if you get it from the factory.
[quote]Mikeyali wrote:
I never understood spending $1000+ on a pistol. You’re 1/3 of the way to a .50. That’s just me though.
mike[/quote]
What if you already have a fifty? You can get a fine pistol for five hundred dollars, but some just like the style of a 1911. And a custom job looks very sweet.
But if you want a 1911 and some mods done, get it straight from the factory. You save time and money.
Wow, I’m surprised. I heard good things about Kimbers back 5-6 years ago. I’ve got a nice 1911 style Para-Ordinance high capacity P14-45 in stainless. Never had a problem with it and with 14+1 rounds you reload less often. I have had trouble with my Remington 870 Wingmaster 12 gauge having it stick (while pumping) after shooting clays for a while. That’s just annoying. I suppose shotguns like that aren’t designed to have lots of rounds put through them at a time like say, an AR-15 is.
To be fair to Kimber, they got the gun back to me in 6 days, which is impressive. They fixed the safety and tuned it up. Before it was very hard to rack the slide, like it was sticking or something.
Great customer service, but it should have been like that out of the box, for 1300$. Also, it did get an A- grade from Gun Tests magazine. They said it was one of the best out of box 45s they have ever tested.
I have had trouble with my Remington 870 Wingmaster 12 gauge having it stick (while pumping) after shooting clays for a while. That’s just annoying. I suppose shotguns like that aren’t designed to have lots of rounds put through them at a time like say, an AR-15 is.