i looked at a Kimber today, and almost came home with it

[rugersol]

The locking system is all in the mainspring housing, which can be

A. Taken out and replaced with whatever mainspring HOUSING strikes your fancy for about $70 $10 $70 $10

Sorry buddy, Let me correct that, my bad...

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=280054

[Snowgun]

Wow, I never knew colt made them that cheap... I"m used to buying the good stuff...

[PHATSPEED7x]

I've heard of horror stories with Kimber. I am a Springfield Amory Fan, and all my XD, and 1911 from them run perfect!

[JoeH]

Call it bad luck - I have sent back guns for repair to Kimber, Springfield, Smith and Wesson, and Para. The only one that tried to charge me anything was Para. I complained to management at Para and they immediately said that there should have been no charge and dropped it.

When calling Kimber with a gun that would not reliably extract, they said "We want that gun back." They did say that I should ship the gun to them. I simply asked, "Isn't this something for which you would issue a shipping label?" They said, "Sure." and emailed me a label to ship it back on their dime.

All of the production and semi-custom gun makers will have problem gun here and there. My experience has been that they will make it right.

[Thunder71]

Costs just over $300 and your time to break in a Kimber, right? Around 1000 rounds or so? Never owned one or even shot one, just repeating what I heard from a buddy who loves his.

Break-in has never been an issue for me, I guess I like shooting new guns - some call this a break-in period, I call it a 'getting to know you' session.

[rugersol]

Call it bad luck

No deal!

Brand new $1,000 Pro CDP ... wouldn't run ... sent it in ... they insisted I F'd with it ... months and a few phone calls went buy ... ultimately had to pay $150 to fix a brand new $1,000 gun that I never did a thing to!

Apparently, YMMV.

[JoeH]

Call it bad luck

No deal!

Brand new $1,000 Pro CDP ... wouldn't run ... sent it in ... they insisted I F'd with it ... months and a few phone calls went buy ... ultimately had to pay $150 to fix a brand new $1,000 gun that I never did a thing to!

Apparently, YMMV.

Your sunny demeanor must have shown through in your dealings with them.

[rugersol]

Call it bad luck

No deal!

Brand new $1,000 Pro CDP ... wouldn't run ... sent it in ... they insisted I F'd with it ... months and a few phone calls went buy ... ultimately had to pay $150 to fix a brand new $1,000 gun that I never did a thing to!

Apparently, YMMV.

Your sunny demeanor must have shown through in your dealings with them.

There's a tendency to resort to dismissive ridicule, when one's dogma is challenged, and they either have no logical argument, or have otherwise failed to prove their point.

[chipster]

I have two Kimbers and haven't had a spec of trouble with either one (not even during the "break in" period). One of the two is the Custom II Stainless, which I will never regret buying.

Amen. During my "break-in" period, I put a healthy mix of FMJ and HP through it with not a single issue. Also not a single issue since. It's darn reliable and a pleasure to shoot.

[MissouriDave]

My only experience with Kimber was with an Ultra Carry. Turned out to be an Ultra mistake. Never could get it running like it should, so... had to sell. My brother owns a super match, and has never had a problem with it.

[Norsesmithy]

I've got a Kimber Warrior.

It works wet, it works dry, it works hot, it works when it's so cold you have to wear gloves or it'd give you frostbite, it works muddy, it works dusty, it works when it's full of grass, it works when it's feeding from a mag that's been dropped in sand, it works up side down, it works holding it with only my thumb and trigger finger, it works when you're gripping it so high the slide is chewing up your gloves, it works full of lint, it works full of leather chunks, it works full of ice, it works with low powered lead target rounds, it works with nigh .45 Super power level defensive ammo, it works with brass cased, aluminum cased, steel cased, it'll feed an empty case 6 times out of 8.

It just works.

I've got several other quality pistols with reputations for being reliable straight out of the box. And so far, they have been. But it will be the work of several thousand rounds before I am as comfortable with them as I am with my Warrior.

It's not got a drop safety, or any other funny stuff (except an accessory rail), I think that might have something to do with how well it works.

I've had a total of 6 malfunctions with the gun. 4 were due to the overinsertion of crappy USA brand 10 round mags that had this chinsy little stamped over-insertion stop that was bludgeoned into submission within a day of my taking them out of the package, two were due to me riding the slide into battery because it was my first pistol, and I didn't know any better. I bought this gun off of Gunbroker, without inspecting or function checking it. When it comes to choosing a first pistol, I did everything wrong.

But the result couldn't be more right.

[FJ540]

My springer stainless is currently rusting from daily carry for a year (the serrations on the slide and the hood). My springer micro gave me so much trouble, I'm reluctant to send the other one in... even though I am the original purchaser, and probably still have the receipt.

Every maker has a few lemons out there.