Kimber Micro Diamond 380

F

fl_rich

New member
You hear the internet flamers saying how Kimber isn't what it use to be. Was looking for a new pocket pistol for my lovely bride and found the Kimber a beautiful "custom" 380 and threw down a stack of $100 bills.

She loved it! It was pretty and shiney and she couldn't wait to get it to the range. So I gave it an initial light cleaning, bought a hundred rounds of range ammo (Aguila) and off we went to the local club.

Loaded it up and gave her a quick function lesson and she proceeded to fire a damn near bullseye at the 5 meter target. Squeezed anonther shot and two inches away! Wow I was beginning to think this was one sweet pistol... Then click. I toook it from her to check it. Ejected a live round with not primer marks.. Chambered another...bang.. Good then Click again. This time i looked closer. A slight push forward had it click into battery. So lock-up up failure. This continued to happen at least one every 6-7 rounds throughout the 100 rounds we shot. Always the same thing, failure to lock up. Moving the slide forward 1/8" and complete lockup and fired. No Failure to feed, eject, stovepipe or anything. Sometimes it would not lock up on initial slam off the slide stop and it's resulting "click".

Seriously bummed and my wife now has zero faith in this gun. Help!

Rich
 
Did you disassemble and lube the pistol well before your first range trip? The cause of your problems could be as simple as an underlubricated pistol. Lube your Kimber generously and give another chance.
 
Probably manufacturing burrs or some rough spots. Like someone suggested, try lubing it.

I would look for some hotter .380 ammo and see if that works better, and for the first hundred rounds just give it a push on the back of the slide to seat it. Maybe after a few hundred rounds it will smooth itself enough to be fine with the hotter ammo.
 
I would send it back to Kimber and have them address the issues. I am not saying it can`t but I would be surprised if it were just a lack of lube causing the malfunction.
 
OP, is the Micro new or used? The reason I ask is Kimber redesigned the guide rod and spring on the Micro in the last 1.5 years or so. The redesigned rod now looks similar to the Sig P238 model and the spring is now a flat design (versus the old one's round one) plus they added about 2lbs of pressure. The result for me is that my Kimber now performed as flawlessly as my Sig.
 
If lube doesn't work, you might try putting a little polishing compound on the slide rails and working the slide a few hundred times to smooth out the roughness.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
I shot one a while back, and it worked well. The fit and finish was nice. I would clean and lube it well and try some hotter ammo. It is a tight little pistol, and I would expect it to smooth out nicely with a little time and decent ammo.

I would not jump to any conclusions based on one trip with one brand of cheap ammo. A friend has a little S&W 380 that is very picky with lighter loaded practice ammo, but is fine with any quality SD ammo.
 
Those are all good suggestions. Thank you all!

Yes I bought it new. I've bought almost all my guns new and I know they all need a good breakdown and cleaning. I did spray some dry lube on it though sparingly.

It also has the flat recoil spring.

The fact that it could occasionally fail to lock up from a slide lock drop made me think that hotter ammo was not the cure.I was hoping it would work itself out. 100 rounds hasn't done it. I'll dip it in rem oil and try it again - not literally ;)

Are Kimbers really that bad? Though no 1911 or full metal expert, it seems well made and tight. Kimber had a great reputation and I assumed they were maybe not as good as the were but still a premium pistol. At close to a grand I'd think it would be better than my XDS 9.

Obviously I haven't given up. I'll keep y'all posted on my results after a trip back this weekend.

Thanks is again Rich
 
Two things I would do before you send it back. Get at least 2 other brands of ammo(personally I would try fed,rem and winch)Second while yu watch tv(make sure its not loaded first) rack the slide at least 100 times (it should be well lubed ). I've has similar occurrences and one or both of these "tricks" solved it. Good luck
 
We had the same problem with my wife's Kimber Micro. After 350 rounds of mixed ammo, we sent it back. Their customer service was excellent. They asked a few basic questions, then emailed a prepaid UPS label. It was back in a couple weeks. Now it's perfect.
 
Kimber is notorious for having chambers smaller than SAAMI spec in their 1911s -- perhaps they do the same thing with the Micro 380s. Personally, I'd rather have the Colt Mustang, which is what the Micro 380 was cloned from, but that ship has sailed for the OP. So I would field strip it, hold the barrel muzzle down, and try dropping several rounds each of several different brands of ammo into it to see if they "plunk" cleanly or if the chamber seems a bit on the tight side.
 
I just happen to have a Micro Kimber as well as a pro carry II, both pistols are quite reliable and have performed exactly as expected...this is a report by an actual owner/shooter not “ my friend told me” comment.
 
Well I took my daughter to the club today and put another 100 rounds through it. 50 were the new Sig stuff and the other 50 were Remington.

The Sig performed perfectly. The Remington may have had 1 light primer strike. But fireed on the second try. My daughter did say it was leaking.. it was well lubed....

My big hands did inadvertently lift the safety twice. I'll have to keep my eye on that..

I'll try another 100 rounds tomorrow after i give it a good cleaning and let you know how it performs. So far it's a shooter,
... able to keep nice tight groups at the 5 meter mark. I'm beginning to think this may be a good gun after all. Wish me luck!!
 
Rich, If you need magazines for your Micro you can substitute Mustang or Sig 238 mags, for extra rounds use Star S magazines (either floorplate configuration) as your pistol is basically a modernized Star DK.
 
My wife's Micro9 has been flawless through about 300 rounds so fare. Her third Kimber. All have been stellar guns.
 
Although I don't own a Kimber micro, I did purchase a Camp Guard 10mm and an Target Eclipse 38 Super this summer. The 38 Super shot like a dream right out of the box. The 10mm however, would not chamber reliably at all. I had to send it back to Kimber. They had it back to me in about 5 weeks, and it works great.
 
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