ref; Kimber products

B

bullet44

New member
Well people I feel you have scared me off
Kimber pistols, I believe for $700 a pistol
should function out of the box;(at 56 years
of age, $700 is still a large amount for me)If you notice in this forum a large
amount of complaints are Kimber, Sprinfield
has some but most are finish. I would like
to speak with Kimber on this subject but email is a no go with them.If i know up front
I must have something worked on to make it work then I will buy used and go from there;
Anyway thanks too anyone with info on this,
I (try) to be open minded and enjoy reading
about 1911's.

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It's your choice, but you're making a mistake. Every Kimber I have ever encountered IRL (as opposed to on the internet) has functioned flawlessly right out of the box.
 
bullet44,

NOT SO FAST!!!! Don't let someone's lemon scare you off. If you like a particular Kimber - buy it. If for some reason it don't work right, let(make) Kimber make it right!
 
bullet44: at age 49, $700 is a lot of bucks for me as well. I could have gone with a plain-jane AMT that shot exceptionally well, certainly as well as my Kimbers. But I like to buy the best that I can afford, and people who've been around guns a lot longer than I have never fail to notice what a fine gun the Kimber is. Mine will feed any factory ammo; my reloads are another question.

Years back I had a Walther PPKS that wouldn't
feed anything but hardball, even after many trips back to the factory. Are Walthers junk,
or did I just get the occassional lemon?

Dick
 
Not all Kimbers are lemons. Then again, the one I got was (is) in need of some help. Don't let the "Kimber Pimps" lead you into believing all Kimbers are great guns, and likewise don't let a few bad experiences like mine sour you on the whole product line. Like most issues, the truth is in the middle.

Will I buy another Kimber? Probably not. But that doesn't mean you should miss out on what could possibly be the nicest 1911 style pistol you will ever own.
 
Fellers, I'm tellin' you what...Did that Dale Jarret drive the hell out of that Ford at Daytona? Those Chevys weren't even there!

:-)
 
Bullet,
as with most things people will tend to report failures, and consider proper function as a non-event, and not say something about it. ANy gun may need customizing to make it suit your particular shooting style. I have 5 kimbers, and I havent had any problem. My gold match has over 20,000 rounds through it, and hasnt had any problems. I would suggest a lower end model such as a classic custom, it is a reliable and straight shooting pistol for around $500.00. I use one for bowling pin, and bullseye shooting, and am up to about 10,000 rounds on it. good luck.

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10MM Magnum.... tried the rest, now I got the best
 
Here here, what 10mmrules said!

In any type of service field, the first thing you always learn is that one bad experience will be hundreds of times more damaging to your image, than any one positive experience will ever be constructive. (Yes, and I would agree that Kimber could learn from this)

Kimber has fallen prey to its own success--that is to say, because so many Kimbers deliver stellar performance and reliability, it makes the unfortunate few lemon-holders feel not that they got shafted, but that they REALLY got shafted.

From the start I have approached Kimbers with caution and have tried not to jump on any kind of Kimber bandwagon. However, without being blindly fanatical, I can now honestly say that I WILL BUY another Kimber next time I'm in the market for a 1911.
 
I have two Kimbers, Classic Stainless Target, and a Classic Stainless. One is for IDPA and the other is for carry. Would not hesitate to buy another Kimber.

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John
(formerly johnboy)
 
I've held off replying to this post until now for one reason. I had sent my polymer stainless 45 back into Kimber for a jamming problem on the 15th of this month. I recieved it back today with a sheet telling me what they did to fix this problem. The solution to the problem was "breech face opened".

I will not be able to get to the range to check my Kimber out until this Friday but I feel confident that they have solved the problem.

There has been two issues concerning Kimber that I have seen addressed many times on this board. First customer service, and then reliablity of the firearm out of the box. As for the customer service issue I can say only this. My e-mails were answered promptly and professionally. My pistol was returned to my door within 8 days which included a weekend. To me this is unbelievable service. I would like to hear from the Colt, Springfield, etc. owners that have sent there guns in to see what the turn the around time is for these companies. Please don't take that as a slam on these other manufacturers. It was not intended as such. It would only be interesting to compare these stats to help see how well Kimbers customer service is actually doing.

As for the out of box dependablity issue. I very rarely fault a company whether it be a gun company or not for a first time problem with a product. Now if it becomes a problem that requires more than one trip back to be fixed or they refuse to deal with it, that is a different issue. I do not believe Kimber falls into this area. My reasoning behind this is this. Any item that is built on an assembly line is bound to have problems that MAY slip by there QC department. The true test, to me any way is how well they field these problem and fix them. I think Kimber has done extremely well in this area.

One last thing to concider. Almost all "high performance" pieces of equipment need tweaking. Whether it be a car, a computer or a pistol. Again Kimber has responded to my needs better than I could have expected. They get an A+ in my book and I will buy another one when the time comes.

Bullet44, I hope you reconcider your choice of pistols. I think you will regret not having a Kimber in your collection.
 
One more thing. I will post the results from my trip to the range this Friday. Hopefully this will help validify my babbling in my previous post.

Don't worry, I will post the result whether they are good, or bad.
 
Bullet44:

I was one of the posters with a problem with my Kimber, here is the end result:

Shipped gun to Kimber through a Master Dealer
Cost: $0
Received perfectly working gun back 1 1/2 weeks later, would have been sooner but UPS screwed up.
Cost: $0

Now it's my favorite shooter.

They have a hard time with E-mail, but a phone call will get you all you want to know.
 
Hmmm...I guess you guys didn't know that all of the e-mail is screened by Brenda in Montana. If you want an e-mail to get through to the custom shop without screening you can call her at 1-800-880-2418.

There is also a direct dealer line into the custom shop that by-passes the voice mail. You can get that number from your master dealer if you beg.

Also, I have to agree that the turn around time is great. The problem I encountered was having to send it back the second time and then the repair work was rejected by the one of the supervisors so I waited even longer. Kimber's service is great if the problem is minor or easily fixed. Problems that are hard to diagnose obviously take longer and may drag on forever.
 
Thanks to all who have posted on this topic,
I am going back to my dealer and take another
look,(I really want that Kimber)Buying a 1911
has been a tougher decision then picking my
wife 33 years ago,I believe I was drunk then
but thats another story.
I also look forward to reading other views on
the Kimber brand (good or bad)!!!!!

Bullet44

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Fisher:

Please do let us know how Kimber took care of the problem.

I used to have a brand new Kimber Pro Carry, but no longer do.

Mine had some problems like failing feed most hollowpoint ammunition, failures to lock back after the last round in the magazine, brass hitting my face, etc. etc.

I sent it back to Kimber after a few e-mail exchanges. Kimber represented I corresponded with was very prompt and polite (though he told me things like "other companies' guns come with inferior magazines that are prone to these problems. Our magazines do not do this").

The pistol came back pretty quickly with a sheet showing what was done to it ("opened up the breech face, replaced the slide stop, adjusted the extractor," etc. etc.).

So, happily, I took the pistol to the range at the next opportunity. The first brass hit my face! Then gun failed to lock back after the last round! I finally ditched the factory mags and used the Wilson mags (no problem with these). Most frustrating of all, it still couldn't feed Federal 185 grain JHP, 230 grain JHP, 230 grain Hydra-Shok and 165 grain Personal Defense.

Unhappily, I got rid of the pistol, because I wasn't going to keep sending the pistol back to the factory at $25 a trip. It may just be that I got one of the few lemons. It may be that the marriage of a short 4" slide combined with an alloy frame (Pro Carry) is more prone to problems (which is something that Kimber should address if true). Nonetheless, I was unhappy that the pistol wasn't 100% and that it still wasn't 100% after a trip to the factory.

So, having learned my lesson, I bought a SS Springfield "Loaded," full-size this time. Thankfully, this has performed 100% with stock magazines and with JHPs.

Skorzeny



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For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme excellence. Sun Tzu
 
Well guys, here is the results from the range with my Kimber. I shot approximately 75 rounds during a local bowling pin shoot tonight. All went well as far as my Kimber. No jamming problems at all. It looks like they fixed it the first time around.

Now all I have to do is work on bettering my shooting time (41 seconds). Oh well, I guess I can't have everything.
 
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