Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Kimber Moves south to Alabama

I like my K-22; sweet little rifle.

This is good news.

I was a Kimber master dealer for a couple of decades because they sold well and guys wanted them. They made some fine looking firearms but 80% of all the ones we sold would NOT reliably feed anything but ball. Guys didn’t appreciate dropping a grand or more on a pistol that needed to be sent back for feed ramp work. I forget the ass wipe that was the head gunsmith but he finally got canned. I finally got tired of selling new pistols that had to be sent back so that they’d work properly and quit selling Kimbers. There wasn’t much margin...I think 12% and the extra time dealing with the problems and shipping just didn’t make it worthwhile. I never would’ve carried one after seeing the shear number of failures that were inexcusable for a semi-custom pistol. Tight tolerances might make a pistol accurate but those same tight tolerances made them very susceptible to failures. Having literally sold thousands of Kimbers I’m comfortable saying that they were overpriced crap. We had to place larger orders $25,000+ each year and just because they cashed the check didn’t mean that you were going to get what you ordered anytime soon. It could take months to get certain offerings that were supposed to ship upon payment.

Not every pistol was crap but enough were to convince me that the extra trouble for us was not worth it. People get caught up in name and appearance but are willing to overlook unreliability in a firearm that they trust their life with. In comparison we were also a Glock stocking dealer and of the thousands of Glocks we sold I never a single one back. They fed everything reliably and a guy could’ve bought 2 or 3 or 4 new Glocks for the price of a single unreliable Kimber.

I’m not putting down anyone’s choice of pistol, merely relating my experience with thousands of their pistols.

And now, what remains to be seen will be if they just take the higher profit margin from doing business in a more "friendly" State and continue building guns as they have, or do they use the extra money saved to institute new mfg methods or quality controls and pass any savings on to the buyers of their products.

Any bets as to which way this will go?

Last time I listened to the Dothan Saturday morning AM radio farm show, it was the Wiregrass "Ay-re-ah". My ex's family from Coffee County all say it the same way. Good country, good folks. They know that nothing fixes an old rusty gun or tractor like Marvel Mystery Oil.

Hank, Kid Rock, now Kimber. Troy is big time. I live in the area too.

If this keeps happening there will be a serf rebellion in the north east. It would seem certain that these companies aren't being replaced by new or better companies.

That phrase is some sort of sick joke. I can't imagine any gun owner voting for those two (Joe and the Ho) firearm loathing clowns.

......... I was kind of shocked at seeing that... "Sportsmen for Biden" ????? Now there's an oxymoron. My only thought was, YGBFKM.

What timeframe? Kimber went really bad during the time they had external extractor guns.




I want to say that I am far from a Kimber fanboi, but I'm going to take a different view after being a gunsmith for more than 15 years & handling a lot of Kimbers..........but surely not the thousands (really?) that you claim to have sold.

Kimbers are not a semi custom pistol...........they have lots of models & with a very, very few exceptions, the guns are just put together from common parts, definitely not semi custom vs say, a Dan Wesson.

And they are not overly tight in anywhere that matters in spite of their telling lots of customers that they need to fire 500 rounds to break the gun in. That is complete BS.

Their problems mostly stemmed from simple fixes that would never have occurred in a true semi custom built by knowledgeable gunsmith level people, not just production hacks.

And bad magazines. I cannot say that LOUD enough..............bad magazines.



I can understand that from a business perspective, for sure. But given the number of guns that they built, they weren't, taken on the whole, overpriced crap.................there were just many small things that needed to be tweaked & done better in assembly.

I've never seen a one come across my bench that wasn't easily fixed, but I have seen a few reliable reports of major parts being bad, like slides & frames




Yes, many people believed the Kimber propaganda................Kimber was never a "premium" or high end 1911, IMO, but basically OK. I personally have 2 currently & both are 100% after a basic going over & defeating the FPS's. I carry them & would bet my life on either, with Tripp magazines.




Yes, you are.

MM

Thousands of Texans moved here after the spill. They came over to work the spill, took a good look around and never left. Then they started telling former neighbors and friends who are still joining them.

Those Kimber folks will discover the coast as well. With what amounts to a daily commute in NY, they can be on the Florida or Alabama coast.

I question some of Kimber's decisions.

Getting into the revolver market wasn't a good idea in my opinion. Especially since the revolver they're making is fairly clunky looking and has an MSRP of $900.

Bbq and winning football had to be the lure that brought kimber south. If the savings results in a reasonably priced 1911 that'll work I can guarantee the wiregrass will be covered up with them.

At what price do you consider a good, production, U.S. built, 1911, reasonable?

MM

What about Spattermatic's stock? Where did it make trips to? What happened to the customer service regarding it and the moron he had to deal with?

My experience with Kimber 1911's was when the NY models first started appearing. After digging into one pretty deep I decided that I was through fitting extended safeties, beavertails, dovetailed sights, lowering ejection ports, yada, yada, yada into Colts & Springfield's.. I bought a matched pair of Kimber ...... & took my Colts & a few Springfield's to the next gun show.
I still have the pair & treasure them. The mechanics, fit, accuracy, & dependability blew me away at the price point. Later, I bought a commander length, custom shop gun, & while it never gave me any problems, I just didn't like it & sent it on.

I've read all the Kimber bashing over the years & never understood, but hadn't bought many of the later ones so couldn't judge.. But, so much of the bashing I've heard was over MIM. Likely, IMO, by folks that know about as much about MIM as I do about brain surgery. I've yet to see a photo of a bucket, or even a handful of broken MIM Kimber parts from the hundred thousand round a month training facilities around the country. Where are all the so called broken Kimber parts?

I wish them luck Or just plain success in their new location.

Internet wise, I'm Remington, S&W, Kimber & Glock lucky. Ruger unlucky. Odd, as I was a huge Ruger fan early on, & for years afterward. Did expectations play a role??

Huh. You “signed up” here in 2020.
Yet, you seem to know a number of things that a newby wouldn’t. What’s your other identity on here, sockpuppet?

MIM is cost cutting. Perfect for a 400 dollar pistol not a 1k+ pistol.

You are correct! That's why, every time we start a "retirement plan" thread on here, most of the responses are "I don't have anything saved. I have to work until the day I die" or something similar.