New Kimber, feeding issues

D

Derek Zeanah

New member
Picked up a new full-size Kimber yesterday and took it to the range today. Shoots great, but I'm having some feeding problems that have me confused.

I'm almost certain that the problems I'm seeing are related to the magazines. The symptom is this: on the second-to-last round, the ejected brass doesn't eject fully. It's always the second-to-last round (7th round if I loaded 8, 4th if I loaded 5), and the fired brass is always caught in the same way -- parallel to the way it sat in the chamber (not a stovepipe).

I see this with 4 out of 5 new 8-rd Wilson mags I also purchased yesterday. With the 5th Wilson and the mag that came with the Kimber, everything feeds beautifully. It happens with both Federal 230gr Hydrashocks and 230gr (Georgia Arms) ball ammo. It's predictable -- some mags do it all the time, and the others don't. (Except one that does it about half the time).

Now here's the part that gets me: the mags in question feed perfectly in my Colt Officer's ACP, and I can't reproduce the problem in it. It's a looser gun (far from new), but this suggests the problem doesn't lie completely with the mags.

Anyone seen this before?
 
I had a similar problem with mine. Kimbers tend to be very tight and need to be broken in a bit. Clean it well and lube the slide rails VERY generously the next time you shoot it. Don't load the eight round mags to capacity for awhile either, use only seven. This problem will probably resolve itself after a few hundred rounds. If it doesn't, remove the extractor and flex it a couple of times with your hands to speed up the break in.
 
I thought an Officer model used a different magazine than a full size 1911. Do 8 round mags work in an Officer model?

I agree that your Kimber needs to be broken in (500rounds or so) before any decision is made with respect to working on the gun.

It does sound like a mag problem though, maybe you want to try some Chip McCormick mags and see if the problem persists.
 
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