Advice on Kimber Stainless Gold Match II

[riss6270]

I havet the oppertunity to but a Kimber stainless gold match II for $950. That is a good deal as the MSRP is abound 1600. From the pictures it looks very clean and well taken care of. Does anyone have and hands on with this gun? Wanted to see if there were and dislikes with this gun. Im on the fence right now. The guy says it has low round count (under 2000) It is a 45ACP. Any advice or anyone want to try to talk me out of it??

 

[ashershapiro]

I havet the oppertunity to but a Kimber stainless gold match II for $950. That is a good deal as the MSRP is abound 1600. From the pictures it looks very clean and well taken care of. Does anyone have and hands on with this gun? Wanted to see if there were and dislikes with this gun. Im on the fence right now. The guy says it has low round count (under 2000) It is a 45ACP. Any advice or anyone want to try to talk me out of it??

Never owned a Kimber, but they have a notoriously bad reputation.

 

[PJDiesel]

Never owned a Kimber, but they have a notoriously bad reputation.

By people whom have never owned one.

I had a Kimber Ultra Carry II, awesome gun, tack driver, never failed me. Only reason I sold it was due to weight, it was a little on the heavy side.

 

[hodgepodge]

And yet one of my rabbis of guns loves them and swears by them. He owns one of each model, at least.

 

[riss6270]

To heavy as in to carry or shoot for an extended period? Specs say 38 ounces with empty mag.

 

[PJDiesel]

Mine was SS, plus 7 rounds of decent .45 ammo,.... too heavy to carry.

 

[riss6270]

Ive got a S&W ultra compact that sepcs come in at 26.5 ounces. I do on occasion carry that. For a 3 in barrell its not to bad.

 

[riss6270]

The Ultra carry is an aluminum frame correct?

 

[PJDiesel]

Not sure why they get fancy with ounces, let's call that what it is: 2.375 POUNDS, ........plus ammo.

Very nice gun, never questioned whether it was gonna go "bang".

 

[riss6270]

HAHA yeah 2 1/2 pounds. well i guess i need to do a little thinking about this. Weight vs Nice accurate gun.

 

[PJDiesel]

Depends on how often, in what position and what concealment you intend on carrying. Outside waistband might not be bad at all with a good quality holster. Sitting in a car or at a desk most of the day would probably be pretty comfortable too.

 

[swinokur]

I had a Kimber TLE/RL II for several years. Never had a problem ever.

sold it to fund another project.

 

[ashershapiro]

By people whom have never owned one.

I had a Kimber Ultra Carry II, awesome gun, tack driver, never failed me. Only reason I sold it was due to weight, it was a little on the heavy side.

Sorry should have put a reference.

I see so much on this and other gun forums where people hate on the 1911. Many times it's because the only experience someone had was with a Kimber. I'm here to tell you why you should not base any opinions of 1911's off the product that Kimber makes. Inevitably, someone is going to post how their particular Kimber has worked flawlessly and is great. I'm happy for them. I'm glad their gun works. I'm here to talk about the CURRENT product and why you should not invest any money into Kimber 1911's. I am not a gunsmith (I do have a mechanical engineering degree) but I've been shooting 1911's and 2011's in competition for years. I've won a few matches and placed at many, many more. I've shot 1911's from every manufacturer including basically every high end builder except for Ed Brown. I have never seen a Kimber finish a single match without ****ing up. Let us begin.
Kimber's sell for roughly $900 up to roughly $2000. I will base my post around their most popular versions that range from $900-$1500. They claim to use stainless steel barrels. True, they may have the lowest grade stainless that still qualifies as stainless, but when a customer hears stainless steel they expect a low maintenance finish. This is what you get with Kimber's stainless http://i.imgur.com/RmXF4Ux.jpg. That is a factory gun as it was received by the dealer. This is NOT an isolated incident. Google "Kimber rust" and see how many results come up.
Kimber mags. Holy ****ing shit, where do I start. People often say how unreliable the 1911 is, but never consider WHY. Magazines cause 90% of the failures I see. If you talk about a Glock ****ing up and tell people you're using those knock-off Korean mags, they tell you "Well of course it's ****ing up. Get some good mags!" The same applies to the 1911. If you give ANY gun shit mags, it is not going to run. Kimber mags are the shittiest. Invest the money in Tripp, Wilson, or even Chip McCormick mags and save yourself the headache.
MIM parts. WTAF. You're telling me I'm paying close to $1000 for a gun and you're going to use ****ing MIM parts? Ok as long as they're in low-stress areas I can maybe handle that. WHAT? YOU'RE USING ****ING MIM HAMMERS AND SEARS ARE YOU ****ING KIDDING ME? Ok for those of you who don't know, a 1911's legendary trigger comes from the hammer and sear interface. The actual "trigger" that you press does nothing but push the sear out from under the hammer, which is why you can get that sexy, silky trigger break the 1911 is so famous for. But if you're a dumbass and put parts that are basically cast, the hammer/sear angles will wear down very quickly and turn your trigger to shit. You NEED tool steel in those areas. The parts are not that much more expensive. Here is what happens when you put shit metal in high stress areas. I apologize for the shit picture but the left side thumb safety sheared off as you can see http://i.imgur.com/674ws0Q.jpg. As soon as I can dig it up, there's another guy with a broken hammer. The gun didn't have many rounds and the ****ing hammer broke OFF. Google "Kimber broken hammer" and see how many results pop up.
What has Kimber done right?
Marketing. Kimber has a brilliant marketing team. When I first got into shooting and I wanted a 1911, Kimber was the only thing I knew of. They were pretty guns to look at and the ads sure made me look like I was gonna be super high speed, while maintaining low drag.
Ok what should I get instead?
It depends on your budget. For Kimber level pricing, ****ing anything else. Springfield TRP's are great guns for the upper level Kimber stuff. STI is one of my personal favorites and they make a fantastic 1911 for the price. Check out their Trojan and Spartan. Once you get beyond $2000, I would only consider going the true custom gunsmith route. This does not mean Les Baer/Wilson/etc. I mean an actual single gunsmith who will do EXACTLY what you want.
Below that, Rock Island makes a good budget gun. If you want to upgrade it, save the old parts so when it comes time to sell it, you can dump the original stuff back in it.
I will update this post some more when I get home from work to include anything else I can think of. I'm happy to answer any questions you have, and won't ******** you if I don't know.
EDIT: KIMBER CUSTOM SHOP.
There is no such thing. It does not exist. Seriously I will BitCoin tip $1 to the first person who can get me a "Kimber Custom Shop" gunsmith on the phone so I can discuss some custom work I want done. It's an excuse to roll mark "CUSTOM" on a regular production gun to soften the blow of tricking people into spending more money.

 

[PJDiesel]

And,..... has owned zero Kimber products.

Case and point. Carry on.

Volkswagen is junk too while were at it.....

 

[BenL]

I have a Kimber gold match stainless II with about 19,000 flawless rounds through it. Very accurate, too. I just used it yesterday to shoot a heavy metal 3 gun match: worked great.

 

[PJDiesel]

Liar.

 

[KlickAndKlack]

I have a blued Gold Match II purchased new in 2007. It has over 6000 rounds through it at this point. I've greatly enjoyed the gun and have found it to be well-made with 2 exceptions: 1) the MIM MSH did crack around 1700 rounds. I replaced it with a Wilson MSH; 2) the bluing on the thumb safety is wearing. Apart from that, there have been no mechanical issues, no problems feeding any type of ammunition, etc.

 

[Boats]

Ashershapiro:

While your post is interesting, there are a few problems with it. A glaring one is that Colt sears, which are considered some of the best in the industry, are MIM. MIM, when done well and heat treated properly, is as strong as forged. But I digress:

To the OP: If you like it, buy it. If you have reservations, or think that Kimbers have reliability issues, then don't. It is as simple as that. You are the one who will have to own/shoot the pistol. If you think it is pretty, or good value, then get it.

I will say, that Kimbers ARE more expensive, both used and new, than other manufacturers with similar features (There are two sides to this coin. You will pay more, but it will also sell for more should you choose to sell it). Additionally, Kimber DOES use more MIM parts (without judging whether this is good or bad) than most other 1911 mfrs. That $950 will buy you any number of very nice 1911s with similar features, including Sig GSRs, Rugers, Para, and yes even Colt. (Stainless Colt XSEs can be had for about a grand-ish...new).

Personally, I think Kimbers are beautiful weapons, but I don't own one (anymore) because I think they use too much marketing gimmickry, I dislike the engineering of the schwartz safety, and I prefer 1911s with GI-style spring guides and plugs vice FLGRs. But that is me. Your money, your choice.

 

[rico903]

A lot of Kimber haters on the net. I've had my Eclipse for over 10 years with no issues. When I was looking into another purchase, I contacted John Cardunner, IP here that everyone seems to respect, listed Kimbers as one of several that were worth purchasing. I do think there are better guns in the same price range but I know many happy Kimber owners.

 

[riss6270]

Asher... thanks for the write up. I spend 3 hours last night on kimber forums and actually even called kimber and i think i have decided to consider another 1911.