Kimber Safety Problems?

G

GSB

New member
There's a fairly vigorous couple of discussions going on over at pistolsmiths.com about problems with the Schwartz style grip safeties being installed on new Kimbers.

Has anyone here had any problems with these? I've been toying with the idea of getting an Eclipse, but the seemingly very informed criticism from smiths over at that board has me very leary of making that purchase.

http://pistolsmith.com/viewtopic.php?topic=6037&forum=28&25

http://pistolsmith.com/viewtopic.php?topic=6275&forum=28&14
 
Safety...

I have a Pro Eclipse II with the new safety and I haven't had any problems. It's unobtrusive, and doesn't affect the trigger pull. It seems like a robust system to me. No problems so far.
 
In a nutshell, the problems folks are reporting on 1911forum.com mostly apply to the small compacts. With their heavier recoil and shorter slide travel they sometimes don't have enough oomph to overcome the resistance of the FP plunger trying to ride up over the activator pin, and fail to go into battery. The full-sized guns seem to be immune from what comments have been gathered so far. Yesterday I test-fired my full-size Eclipse II limp-wristed as well as held sideways to see if it would fail to go into battery. Instead, it doubled on me! The culprit there was probably a bad sear spring. So I'm going back to the range today to test it again.
 
I have no personal experience with the new Kimbers (I have two older models that are flawless), but Gun Tests did a comparison of Commander-size .45s in the January issue. They rated the Kimber STS Pro Carry II as "Don't Buy" because of the Schwartz safety. They found that the grip safety had a lot of travel beyond the point at which the trigger could be pulled, and that the trigger pull varied from 4 lbs to 5.5 lbs depending on how far in the grip safety was compressed. They also experienced failures to return to battery, also varying with the grip safety pressure.

Most disappointing to me was that they reported contacting Kimber about the problems, and "...the company said that the design of the Pro Series is sound." I expect that kind of non-response from somebody like S&W, not from what I thought was a reputable company.
 
Is the Schwartz-style safety used on the Pro Carry, or just the compact models? I haven't had a problem with mine, but it's also two years old.
 
To solve your problem, just don't buy a Kimber with the series II safety system. You shouldn't have a problem finding a Kimber that is not a series II!
 
Thanks everyone. I checked out the 1911forum threads. Interesting reading. It does sound like Kimber needs to make some adjustments before the system is really ready for primetime.
 
I have put over 2000 rounds through my a Custom Eclipse II without any type of problem so far. A very reliable 1911 right out of the box. Almost Glock-like. ;)
 
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