New Kimber

R

Ron H

Inactive
I picked up a new 'Royal carry' Kimber and took it to the range today. It failed to go into battery numerous times. Also, it has fixed sights and shot about 2" left at 15 yards, and also a little low. I was using handloads (200 LSWC & 4.2 grains of titegroup). I was a little shocked that the gun failed to go completely into battery as many times as it did. My Gold Match did not really have a break in period. It failed a few times at first, then smoothed right out. How long will a break in period last?? Also, Kimber provided no information on drift adjusting the sights. The rear sight appears to have a pin through it into the frame. Do I drift the front sight? I'm a little leary of marring the finish on this gun. It is a nice polished blue and it says 'custom shop' on it. It was a lot of money and I thought that coming from the custom shop that it would be already sighted in. Also, the groups were not as tight as I expected. certainly not up to my Gold Match. Did I make a mistake? I'm kinda disappointed so far. thanks for any replies, advise or encouragement. Ron
 
The rear sight has a hex screw in it, just back it off and drift the sight.
I would send it back to Kimber, the custom shop had mine back working perfectly pretty darn quick. If you go to a Kimber Master dealer, they will ship it at no cost.
 
Ron, does the gun fail to go into battery with factory loads too? It might be the crimp on your handloads. My experience is that Kimber's have chambers toward the minimum dimensions.

To adjust the rear sight you move it in the direction you want to move the bullet. A nylon punch will not mar the finish. It's best to do this at the range because it doesn't take much movement of the sight.
 
Ron I can tell you what's wrong from plenty of experience fixing this sort of problem. It could be 1)Kimbers have chambers that are too tight sometimes and have no leade into the rifling, when you use a bullet like a semi-wadcutter or blunter/wide profile it will stick in the leade and stay slightly out of chamber or battery. A chamber reaming will take care of this. 2)The extractor is too tight and the round isn't rolling over into the barrel right and hangs up. More than likely it's #1. If the same loads work in your other Kimber OK, then that tells you it's something with the gun. Did you have it lubed good?

Brian
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Yes, it does have a set screw in the rear sight, so no problem there. Chamber reaming? that sounds serious. This is a $900 dollar gun, believe it or not. Tomorrow I will go back to the range and run some factory 230 grain ball through it. By the way, the only spare magazine I could find was a Colt's officer's mag that holds 6 rounds. Only problem is the slide does not stay open after the last round with it. I have a Brownell's catalog, which magazines do you guys recommend? Thanks again, Ron
 
While I haven't had any problems with my Kimber when using any of the grab bag of 1911 mags I have I do recommend Wilson mags.
They're the ones that I use for carry purposes. While expensive I do find them to be very reliable and durable. Personally, I'm not a fan of the various 8 round conversions for GI 1911 mags. Most feeding problems that I've had have been with these kind of mags. For serious work the Wilsons are the only none GI style mags that I'll use.
 
Ron,

I recommend either Wilson 8rd mags or Metalform 7rd ones.

As far as chamber reaming goes, it's easily done by a competent gunsmith with the right tools and reamer. I do it several times a day it seems like. If you need more info about it, e-mail me. I just did a Kimber Gold Combat today that wouldn't feed right out of the box. Chamber was off round and too tight with no leade. I see this allot with the higher end Kimbers. The best Kimbers overall seem to be the lower end ones.

Brian www.1911custom.com
 
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