Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Kimber 1911 slide stop issue

Wilson has 12.5%, which is actually the best of the 1911's, although only 56 reported. It is interesting to note the non-1911 data - Glock at 10.4%, Sig at 11.5%, which is comparable to Wilson & Baer.

H&K was the winner, with 3% failures.

I suspect there's some under-reporting, and also some over-reporting, but general trends are interesting.

firstcoues80 I agree completely with the point that people will bring up negative experience before a positive. Its hard to claim any positives (besides kimbers aesthetics) when my slide is locking back every 3-to-8 rounds. Oh yeah it prematurely locked while taking my CCW course. I have no doubt about Kimbers qualifications when it comes to overall quality but I think the ability to fire a full magazine from the pistol should be included with the $1400.00 price tag.

Im going to try and run about 500 more rounds through the pistol over the next two weeks and Ill post the results. I have pictures of the modified slide stop I wanted to post but I do not see an upload option.

Me too

send it back and have it fixed

Snake

I have a Kimber that works, it took a new spring set to make it 100%, I am branching out to others these days as the Kimbers do appear to have more problems.

I don't mind a fixable hiccup in a production gun, but Kimber looks for every reason NOT to stand behind their guns. They gave me a hard time over a part that failed (tried to blame it on handloaded ammo). Two other guys I know also got a bunch of grief--and Kimber refused to fix their guns.

Compare that to Ruger: "Oh your ran over your revolver with a bulldozer? OK, mail us the pieces and we'll take care of it."

Maybe it was just my luck, but the guy I spoke to from Kimber was nothing but helpful and professional.

Granted, I did not have to send my pistol in, they just sent me a new slide and that (so far, but only about 50 rounds) has fixed the problem.

However, if a manufacturer that is that 'proud' of their firearms refuses to be helpful, that is not a good sign and when/if I get that treatment from ANY firearm company, I will no longer support them by owning/promoting their weapons.

You're right, it certainly isn't scientific. In fact it is meaningless.

I'm not a big Kimber fan, but since they ship 100X more pistols than Brown, Bauer, Wilson, the data needs to somehow factor the number of responders to the total number of pistols in circulation.

I really think that 1911-noobs should NOT spend $1400 on a pistol in the first place. The 1911 has known deficiencies, some of which can be a royal pain in the butt to diagnose and fix. There are better designs out there (duh).

ummm...meaningless? I think % of guns causing complaints is a valid way to judge reliability, and the more data points the more reliable the data. Colt & Springfield have more owners responding, and much better % of complaints than Kimber.

What are those know deficiencies?????????

MM

Dude - think please. You didn't make any sense.

Feed angle off the magazine. That is why 1911's are so magazine sensitive.

see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentage

That's not a gun design deficiency, IMO, that's a magazine design & manufacturing deficiency.........there are 2 mags that seem to always work: Wilson 47D's & Tripp Cobra Mags.

MM

If so, then why does the most reliable pistols in the world use a different geometry?

Don't make excuses for the 1911. It is a seminal design but 100+ years has seen a number of design improvements. For example, take a look at the Sig Sauer P220.

By the way, I've got a 47D right now that needs TLC to make reliable again - something I've never had to do with a Glock mag.

Yeah, uh-huh, sure, you betcha. Quick, what percentage of Kimber owners complain? Or better yet, what percentage of Kimber pistols malfunction?

Don't know? Why? Wasn't the information you needed in that poll?

good grief...they do make things called calculators. It's an improvement upon counting on your fingers & toes.

from that poll:

Kimber 1911 125/284 or 44% malfunctions
Colt 1911 66/388 - 17% malfunctions
Springfield 1911 89/293 - 30% malfunctions

(I rounded to the nearest full percentage)

So there are only 284 Kimber owners in the whole world?

Malfunctions are only interesting statistically if there is a reference. E.g. IF Kimber had only ever manufactured 284 pistols and 125 of them had problems THEN Kimber would suck.

And another thing, only a small percentage of Kimber owners reply to the poll. Since you don't know what percentage of all owners that is, the "poll" is doubly worthless.

http://www.atf.gov/files/statistics...firearms-manufacturing-export-report.pdf

Kimber has manufactured 743134 1911 pistols from 1998-2011 according to the ATF.

So what does 125 failures in a sample of 284 mean in the grand scheme of the cosmos?

I'll say it s-l-o-w-l-y

it

means

44%

of

the

samples

failed

Which means what?