Colt or Kimber

J

Juancts

New member
I'm on the market for a new commander or "medium" size 1911. In no particular order of preference, my options are narrowed to:

1. Colt commander ($950)
2. Colt commander elite ($1,400)
3. Kimber master carry pro ($1,350)
4. Kimber eclipse pro (1,250)

Kimbers are really beautiful guns. Colts are tried and true. Which one would you choose and why ???

Thanks

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Colt Commander.

I won't own a Kimber, and the Colt Combat Elite Commander has too many "features" that I don't like: two-tone finish, elongated loop hammer, checkered front strap, ambi safety. The basic Commander has everything I want or need in a carry pistol.
 
Rob228 said:
Colt.

Kimber makes great advertisements and awesome rifles. I'm not a fan of their pistols.
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Agreed. Get the basic Colt Commander, add whatever sights you like and shoot happy.

I second Rob228. Kimber is a great advertising company who makes some very nice rifles, but I wouldn't touch any Kimber with the Series II safety with a 10-foot pole.

(And before you start considering SIG at the same price point, they're well-known for sub-standard internal parts in their 1911s. Failure rates may be low, but Murphy has my personal phone number.)

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Colt Commander.

It's cheaper, the name carries a better overall reputation, and I honestly doubt that the Kimbers would exceed the quality of the Colt anywhere near enough to justify the higher pricetag.

There was a time when I was considering either a Colt Lightweight Defender or a Kimber Ultra-Carry II, but just kept on coming back to the Colt. Ultimately, I bought neither due to lack of necessary funds, but if I had, then it would have been the Colt.
 
T. O'Heir said:
Colt. The Kimber is an over priced copy.
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The Colt is an over-glorified original. Youse pays your dollars and youse takes youse chances.
The circa seventies .38 Super Colt Combat Commander was absolute junk. The more modern .45 XSE Colt Combat Commander was a nightmare of the lack of quality control...made me suspect that Colt had hired a blind person for final inspection. Of the four 1911 Colts I have owned, two were fine, two were problematic. I have posted several times about the faults, so I won't go into it again.
 
Kimber 1911s are way overpriced and tend to have poor parts quality and spotty quality control. Colts are better but nothing to write home about. In that price range I’d recommend a Dan Wesson. You might pay a little bit more but you get a much better gun.
 
Own two Kimbers a Super Match in 45ACP and a target II in 10MM both have been problematic and back to the factory on several occasions, when they run they are both very accurate but parts breakerage relegates them to target shooting status only. I have found dealing with Kimbers customer service to be less than desirable to the point of insulting. On the other hand my Colt Gold Cup has functioned flawlessly for 45 years.

When I decided on a 1911 for concealed carry my 1st choice was a Colt commander but after thoroughly investigating all options I went with the Dan Wesson Valor bobtail, best choice I've ever made. So much so that I now own 3 Dan Wesson's, best bang for the buck.;)
 
Colt firearms are always going to have a demand...

Kimber?

I have two & they are both super accurate & have marvelous triggers.
One - the stainless full size - is a sometimes carry.

I agree with all the above. Kimber is overpriced.
They're like the "Chrysler 300 or Imperial" of the gun world......
 
For a target gun I went with Kimber. Fitting is definitely tighter than Colt, but there were issues. The extractor and firing pin stop had not been fitted/tuned. The extractor had zero tension and an oversize hook. It was loose in the hole and could be wiggled back and forth. It did work OK with full power ammo, erratic ejection, but it worked. With target loads I got a lot of failures to extract/eject.

I fitted a new extractor and FPS and all is well now, but I was disappointed with lack of attention to a critical part.

The Colts are a little looser fit overall, but they still tension their extractors and they don't use so many molded parts.

So for a carry/ serious home defense gun I would recommend Colt.

For pure target shooting Kimbers are more accurate at 25 and 50 yards IME.

Resale value will always favor Colt.

If I had to do it over, I would have saved up and bought a Dan Wesson.
 
I have a Kimber Eclipse Target II and it is a terrific gun on a par with a Colt Gold Cup.
I have several Colts and all are great shooters.
I don't think you can go wrong either way.
 
I've had more than a couple of Colt 1911s over the years and I like best the one I've kept: a Gold Cup purchased new in the early seventies (used mostly for Bullseye competition duties). However, I like a SIG 1911 (Model TTT) I bought a couple or so years ago every bit as well in terms of fit and finish, quality of materials, accuracy and reliability.
I have zero experience with any Kimber product.
 
Juancts said:
I'm on the market for a new commander or "medium" size 1911. In no particular order of preference, my options are narrowed to:

1. Colt commander ($950)
2. Colt commander elite ($1,400)
3. Kimber master carry pro ($1,350)
4. Kimber eclipse pro (1,250)

Kimbers are really beautiful guns. Colts are tried and true. Which one would you choose and why ???

Thanks

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1. Colt commander ($950)
https://colt.com/detail-page/col-combat-commander-45acp

2. Colt commander elite ($1,400)
https://colt.com/detail-page/combat-elite-cmndr-45acp-ssbk

3. Kimber master carry pro ($1,350)
https://www.kimberamerica.com/master-carry-pro

4. Kimber eclipse pro (1,250)
https://www.kimberamerica.com/eclipse-pro-ii-ca

I added weblinks just in case I was looking at the wrong specific handguns and to possibly help others who want to read this thread (and post their opinions).

For the Colts, 1 & 2, I'm not a fan of having a firing pin safety on 1911s. I find the extra parts annoying when I detail strip and when reassembling during a field strip.

Also, my luck with my last two Colts, both the same model of Commander, but now discontinued, was bad. The first one was replaced with the 2nd one due to the frame cracking. On the 2nd one, Colt went to a dual recoil spring system which I further annoyed me. Both had the old-school staked on front sights which fell off while shooting.

I believe both of these newer Colts have front sights in dovetails, and hopefully, won't be a problem. I don't hear much about Colt Commander frames cracking other than during the batch where mine was from.

The #2 Colt also has night sights. These could be nice to have, but a pain when they dim-out in 12 years, as they'd no longer glow bright enough (if that will be a bother or not is a personal preference).

The #3 Kimber has a laser grip and a bobbed frame. These are also two things which I have no need/interest to own.

The #4 Kimber has its Swartz firing pin safety which annoys me more than Colt's Series 80 system. If Kimber's safety system needs tuning, I find it more difficult to tune the parts, whereas I haven't had a Colt fps system needing any tuning.

As I recall, Kimber's recommended recoil spring replacement was only every 800 rounds on the Pro models. Wolff had a special spring for the 4" Kimbers which has a bit heavier weight which folks recommended on the Kimber forums.

If I had to choose, with my tastes/preferences, I'd choose Item 1, the regular Colt Commander. I'd likely buy a regular Commander guide rod and spare regular single recoil springs. But do get whichever of the four guns suits your styling preferences, if you cannot afford all four.

What would I get?
At this point of my life, I shoot a lot and know some guns will break. I just don't want to spend time debugging and tuning up a 1911 to work for my needs/wants. While I don't own one, I'd likely just spend the big bucks and go with a Wilson Combat. Here's one of its line of Commander-sized 1911s:
https://www.wilsoncombat.com/x-tac-commander/

My main carry 1911 is a discontinued 5" Kimber SIS (no fps).
 
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