Kimber Question

[pointnopoint]

I have a Kimber Pro Carry II chambered in .45. I bought it brand new, and have had it for around 10 mos. or so. In that time I have put probally over 400+ rounds through it, and it will not stop jamming. I thought that it was just the break in period, but it has not gotten any better. I have tried new mags, different ammo, and even different people shooting it, and it still won't stop. It fails to feed and fails to eject probally every 3 mags or less. Also, I am left handed, and every mag, the ejected brass comes back and hits me between the eyes. I have had right handed shooters shoot it too and it does the same thing to them. The gun, being as unreliable as it has been, is very accurate. I love this gun, and would really like to eventually use it as a carry piece, but I can't trust it. Do you guys know how good Kimbers customer service is if I was to send it back to them to get it worked on, or should I just take it to a local gunsmith and have him work on it? Do you think it fall under warranty? Also, if it does fall under warranty, does it take a while to get the pistol back? I'm going to try calling Kimber on monday and check with them, but I wanted to ask and see if anyone has any experience with them in the past. Thank you! :)

[Dead Man's Hand]

I am curious but when you said you changed the mags did you just try more crappy Kimber mags or did you buy another brand?

[M2 Carbine]

You should have called Kimber 9 months ago.
They stand behind their guns.

I have four and any one is my carry choice.

[akapennypincher]

Originally posted by M2 Carbine
You should have called Kimber 9 months ago.
They stand behind their guns.



Stand behind their Guns, like they did for Dave Richards. Read the ARCHIVES.:(

[cl147]

Originally posted by akapennypincher
Stand behind their Guns, like they did for Dave Richards. Read the ARCHIVES.:(
Do you work for Colt or Springfield? ;e

[Kruzr]

Kimber will fix the gun anytime, not just in the first year. Kimber also has the fastest turnaround in the business. They only sell about 40,000 pistols a year so there will be some that need work.
Does your gun have an internal or external extractor?

[eljay45]

Originally posted by akapennypincher
Stand behind their Guns, like they did for Dave Richards. Read the ARCHIVES.:(

He has had 5 guns replaced by 5 different gun makers. Absolutely the worst luck of any gun owner I have ever heard of.

[MrMurphy]

Sounds like your extractor is a bit off. My brother's Colt 1991A1 did that (threw them back) the first couple hundred rounds, minor tweak, now it throws them all forward right.

[pointnopoint]

As far as the mags, I bought a different brand. I believe the pistol has an external extractor. I will call them first thing monday and most likely end up sending it back. Thanks guys!

[pointnopoint]

I would have called them 9 months ago, but everyone that I talked to said that "the pistol is still in the break in period" and "it will work the kinks out." No big deal, though. I'm sure they will take care of me. I was just a little worried b/c I sent a Kel Tec P3AT back to kel tec when the trigger broke, and when I got it back, it does not even work. It will not load 1 single round into the chamber. They put a new frame on the gun, and i'm sure that they did not test it out. That ones going to make another trip back, but this time, kel tec is going to pay the shipping...

[Stainless Chili]

Speaking ,of shipping, ask nicely for a "pick-up tag".

They might email you a .pdf of a UPS Air label, or mail you one ...

I've had two guns want over 800 rounds each to settle down; I'm still true to them.

[DAVE RICHARDS]

eljay45,
just for reference the mistake I made with most (all but two) was I had to be the first kid on the block to have one which I now know is a mistake. I guess due to market pressure many gun nmanufacturers push guns out the door before they are ready. The Taurus was for example a Millenium series gun which is well known for trouble. The .45 version being king of the hill. Tons of then were cracking. It was only after it started appearing on the net and the numbers started to multiply that it became obvious to the shooting public their was (is?) a problem. Taurus never did fess-up to the problem even after it was well known. Even Mas Ayoob has stated in some of his articles that the Milleniums he has had go through his classes have not held up well. Usually you can't get a gun writer to say anything bad about a gun. So I guess everyone who bought a PT-145 (frame cracks, saftey blows off typical flaws),
P-22 (early guns had bad magazines, safety would activate itself, known for jamming, and many still do at the range from what I see), Tomcats (early models frame/slide cracks), and 3" 1911's (all the models except the Colt Defender are hit or miss, search the 1911 forum), have "bad luck". No I buy and trade alot of guns. Most everyone I've mentioned had a design flaw. Apparently some of the companies have tried to address this. Taurus has come out with the Pro series that is supposed to have addressed the problems with the Milleniunm series. The P-22 they redesigned the mags. They also recommend shooting only high velocity (they recommend CCI Stingers) and hitting the base plate of the magazine before loading). Beretta came out with the "wide body" Tomcat (thicker slide to better take abuse). Kimber evidently has tried a couple of different extractor lengths and designs on their gun even though they will not admit it. As far as Kimber goes I have seen lots that were good from the box. Their are also way to many that have FTRB, FTF, and FTE that seems to have been magnified by the external extractor. I suggest you go over to the Kimber sections of the 1911 forum and see, do a search on how many problems they have with these issues. By this groups own survey they guess the satisfaction rating of these guns to be somewhere between 86%-90%. When you think of how many 1911's they make that's alot of unhappy people. This is the simple truth. Some people have good luck with Kimber service, many don't. Some even refer to it as their "New York" attitude. I don't care where they live you don't treat your customers that way. Dennis is famous for it. I didn't get a Glock that was in the "E" series "upgrade". Even though my G-30 was in the "E" series it was not one of the ones covered in this recall..er ..upgrade. Maybe my lucks improving. Except for the Kimber the last few guns I've bought ( S&W revolver and S&W 1911)
have been perfect. Good solid designs. Now I do my homework before I buy. I look at how the people that actually bought them are fairing. Either on the internet forums or asking at the range before spending my money on a product. As far as sending your Kimber back to them you may get lucky and get it fixed right the first time. Usually they make you pay the first time to send it back which I have not experienced with any other company when having to send a new gun back. Lots of folks the gun has to go back multiple times to get fixed. And sometimes they even come back worse. Again do a search in the Kimber section of the 1911 forum and see how many people have had problems with them. Some have even made marks on some of thier parts (such as extractors) to check if Kimber had replaced them. The notice often said they had replaced the offending part but the guns came back with the same mark on them. From my experience if I ever bought another Kimber I would buy from a shop that backs the guns they sell themselves. And their are many such shops. If you have a problem they take care of it instead of you having to deal with Kimber service. And yes if you get a good one you have an excellent weapon. Good luck if you get a bad one! It is so bad that one fellow was having around 5 ftf out of every hundred rounds. When he called the woman (Anne or Annie I believe) he spke with told him this was typical of the almost 100 year old gun design. If he wanted reliability he should buy a Glock! Good luck to the poster of this thread. I hope you get your problems resolved.

[Dale F]

I have a stainless Kimber pro carry that I have owned for about 4 years now. I also have had problems with it not extracting. It has the internal extractor. I haven't called them or sent it back. Should I?

[dwestfall]

.

[Dale F]

I probably have about 1200-1500 through it already

[pointnopoint]

Stainless: Thanks for the tip on the call tag!

Dave Richards: Sorry to hear of your experience w/Kimber. I read up on all of your postings on your experiences with them, and they were very informative.

Dale F.: Hopefully we will both get lucky and have our problems taken care of.

I also pulled apart my Kimber tonight, and pulled the barrel out, and thier is rust on the matte part on the top of the barrel. I cleaned it fully about 3 1/2 weeks ago when I got back from shooting it last, and it has sat since. See attached pic. Sorry, it's a really bad picture. I did not have good lighting, so I substituted w/ a flashlight;) You can see it if you look at the matte part of the barrel, closest to the slide. I scrubbed it with rem oil and cleaned it up as best as I could

[akapennypincher]

Originally posted by cl147
Do you work for Colt or Springfield? ;e


No workie, just Volunteer as a R/O at local shooting range that gets in EXCESS of 100,000 users per year.

Too many Kimber Problem, that have been also discussed on this FORUM many times.

Would I recommend anyone buying a Kimber. NO

[Kruzr]

It is so bad that one fellow was having around 5 ftf out of every hundred rounds. When he called the woman (Anne or Annie I believe) he spke with told him this was typical of the almost 100 year old gun design. If he wanted reliability he should buy a Glock!
Sorry Dave, but that story was finally shown to be a second hand account told wrong.
Most people have good luck with Kimber's service. Try them, not everyone goes through what Dave did.

[Zoggy]

Call Kimber and explain the problem. Sounds like the extractor does not have enough tension which usually explains the brass in the face. Turn around time is pretty good, couple weeks in most cases.

[eljay45]

I would check the tension on the extractor. There is plenty of info on how to do it at www.1911forum.com or www.m-1911.org If it is just the extractor tension there is no reason to send it back. Just take it out and bend it a little.


Just re-read the original post, being a series II gun youi can't tune it the same way as a series I. Maybe somoene here knows how.

[Kruzr]

Originally posted by eljay45
I would check the tension on the extractor. There is plenty of info on how to do it at www.1911forum.com or www.m-1911.org If it is just the extractor tension there is no reason to send it back. Just take it out and bend it a little.
Just re-read the original post, being a series II gun youi can't tune it the same way as a series I. Maybe somoene here knows how.
Series 2 or Series 1, the extractor is the same until the 2003 models when Kimber started the switch to externals. If you are having problems with the external, send it back to Kimber to see if they can guess which of their 3 designs to try next.
If its an internal,like eljay said, its easy to adjust.

[Jerseycitysteve]

I love 1911s and have a Kimber Eclipse Pro on the way for Christmas. I also wouldn't carry a 1911 for self defense unless I had the extractor professionally tuned by a first rate pistolsmith along with other reliability work.

Glocks are ugly as sin and everybody's got one but they work out of the box. For the price of three glock pistols, you'll have a reliable 1911. Beauty and class comes with a high price.

[ATI_RAGE_]

Originally posted by pointnopoint
Stainless: Thanks for the tip on the call tag!

Dave Richards: Sorry to hear of your experience w/Kimber. I read up on all of your postings on your experiences with them, and they were very informative.

Dale F.: Hopefully we will both get lucky and have our problems taken care of.

I also pulled apart my Kimber tonight, and pulled the barrel out, and thier is rust on the matte part on the top of the barrel. I cleaned it fully about 3 1/2 weeks ago when I got back from shooting it last, and it has sat since. See attached pic. Sorry, it's a really bad picture. I did not have good lighting, so I substituted w/ a flashlight;) You can see it if you look at the matte part of the barrel, closest to the slide. I scrubbed it with rem oil and cleaned it up as best as I could

Yikes, I just went right now to look over my pistols, I have not touched them in about 1 month. BTW just a question here do you put oil on the outside area of the barrel that contacts with the slide?

[pointnopoint]

yea, i always oil the outside of the barrel. usually, i do a heavy cleaning on the inside, outside, and feed ramp with either rem oil or hoppes cleaning solution. then, i buff and polish everything on the barrel with tetra grease.

[DHart]

I had a ton of issues with a Kimber I bought. They told me to shoot up to 1000 rounds to "break it in". Well I spent a bunch of time and a ton of money trying to "break it in" and still no workie.

So finally a month later I sent it to them and they got it right back to me so fast I was amazed... fantastic, I thought. Until I fired the gun and the jams were still occurring with no difference. Great. They said they adjusted the extractor. Well, I can do that. The gun was no different than when I sent it to them. SO now I send it to them a second time. They said it was fixed and returned it to me pronto. Was it fixed? Again... No. I tired of dealing with them. Got a custom pistolsmith to work on it, paid good money for that!, and it improved significantly, but still didn't run perfectly. Finally traded it in on another brand. (Yes, I know 1911's well and did the springs, extractor adjustment, various magazine brands, ammo brands, etc.)

And the pisser is that if the gun was put together properly in the first place, it wouldn't need a "break in" period. And it would run with any factory ammo or magazine I choose to use! I expect that of a 1911. I think this break in period and having to use only a certain brand of ammo or magazines is hogwash in the world of 1911's... in my opinion, a good 1911 will run well from the get go with any factory ammo and quality magazine you choose to use. I've got a bunch of 1911's that ARE that way... so I've come to expect that of a quality 1911.

I've bought about twenty new 1911's in the last few years and the brand that has become my absolute favorite is the brand which needs no "break in" before it will run right... they run right straight out of the box, with any factory ammo, and any magazine. They're not Kimbers. I still do have three Kimbers that do run very well and they're fine pistols which I appreciate having. They're all Series 1's. But they're not my favorite 1911's and I would never buy a Kimber Series II.

I'd say tell Kimber you want it fixed or replaced (with shipping both ways on their dime) and don't ***** foot around about that. Play hardball and expect the best. I hope you get it. You deserve it.