Has anyone had a problem with a slide stop on a kimber pistol being engaged while shooting 230gr bullets?
It appears that the wider the bullet (such as Win PDX1 or Fed HydroShock) is, bullets have a tendancy to hit the knuckle of the slide stop as they moves up through the magazine. This engages the slide stop on a full or partial mag and ceases the functioning of the pistol. Kimber has sent me a new slide stop but the problem still exists. Even when I use ball ammo the slide stop engages, although not as frequently as when shooting the high end personal defense ammo not above.

Hit it a couple licks with a file, shorten it a little, then it shouldn't hit the bullet in the magazine.... You'll have two slide stops, so you'll have a spare if you hit it TOO much.

That's a pretty common malady, and that's the most common fix.

Yep. it is too long.

Had the same problem. Called Kimber and they mailed a new slide stop. It just came in today, haven't got to try it yet. Give them a call and they will make it right.

Installed new slide stop. Cured problem of not feeding from the magazine properly. Didn't get a chance to shoot it today. Only measured about .005" shorter, but seemed to make a differance.

Just a thought. Before you take a file to the slide stop, take a good look at the feed lips of the magazine. If this problem is happening with every mag you have, (assuming you have a variety), then you can take a few thousands off the slide stop. Take too much and you'll have a different problem - failure to lock open on an empty mag.

And now I don't want to be insulting, but shoot the pistol one-handed to see if the problem goes away. Grip can do this.

ChuckKY,

I rec'd a new slide stop as well but it didn't cure the problem. Sent it back to Kimber yesterday. They were great about the whole thing. I hope your works.

Jim

dla,

I've shot it four ways to sunday with 6 different 230gr loads, even with the new slide stop. I even shot the same ammo through the Tactical Ultra II I have. When the Entry II comes back, I'll be sending them the Ultra for a bit of slide stop adjustment as well. Slide stop locked in place with the hydroshock and PDX1 loads too.

Did you check your grip?

You can take the slide off, put the slide stop back in the frame, insert a loaded mag, and test it to see if it is pushing it up or not.
I think this is a very common issue with the 1911, but also easily fixed by taking a little off the slide stop. or if you arent comfy doing that, a trunceted cone style bullet will most likely miss the slide stop by a mile.

Hey guys. I had the exact same problem with a brand new Kimber Ultra CDP II. I found this forum and called Kimber, even though I only had 250 rounds through the gun.

Mine would put the round in the chamber, but the slide would not return to full battery. It was short by about a 1/4 inch.

I explained to the tech at Kimber that I understood it would take 500 rounds to break in the gun, but that it seemed to me the Slide Stop was the problem. He agreed, and sent me a new one. He said "you must have one of the old slide stops...we have modified them."

Sure enough, in two days I had a new slide stop, and that sucker was hand polished. There was a huge, HUGE difference between the new and the old. I installed it, went shooting, and 400 rounds later have not had a single failure to return to battery.

I am using both Kimber stock mag and 2 Wilson Combat. Originally, the problem happened with both manufacturers. Now it doesn't happen at all.

I recommend you get Kimber to send you a new slide stop, and make sure you tell them you need it polished (I did). That way, you can keep the original slide stop and grind it if you want to. Always nice to have a spare.

Dave

I used this thread for initiating the call to Kimber about my slide prematurely locking and I would like to expand upon it. I tried calling kimber for about a week straight and I kept getting an automated message "all circuits are busy..". People say time is money and I think the same way of my time so i just dissed out the $60.00 dollars and bought a Wilson Combat bulletproof slide stop (item # 414B). I could clearing see the brass marks on the slide stop from the bullet on both my original kimber and wilson combat slide stop.

So I took it to the gun store I had bought my kimber tactical entry from 5 months earlier and they got Kimber on the line within 15 seconds and within a minute Kimber was sending me a new slide stop free of charge. The new slide stop has been clearly modified because the bluing is missing on the filed down portion and the filed down portion is covered with a maroon paint of some kind.

From what I can see is that the original problem of the slide locking back prematurely is because of the left side of the head of the bullet is hitting the slide stop causing the slide to lock. After installing the new slide stop kimber sent me I can now see that the head of the bullet is not hiting the slide stop when I load the magazine. I just received the new slide stop last week so I have not had a chance to fire the pistol, however one particular manufacturer of ammunition I am using, Remington HD ultimate home defense 230 grain, is still barely brushing up against the slide stop.

I will post results after I take the gun to the range.

Had the same issue. Called Kimber, they sent me a new one. I never measured either one, but the new ones seems to have fixed the issue. I have only shot about 40 rounds through it since replacing it, but I would have had it lock back about 4-5 times in that amount of shots before, it was flawless throughout.

Bring a file with you.

I installed the Kimber modified slide stop and ran 100 rounds through the pistol and I have had no problems. Even the Remington HD ultimate home defense 230 grain fed through the pistol fine (8 rounds). I bought Kimber because I had done the research and found it to be a high quality firearm for the price. I had not anticipated on spending $1400.00 on a pistol and having these problems however. So I wont say Kimber has made it right until I had at least fired another 400 rounds without any problem.

I know what you mean, but with all the joy my kimber has brought me, along with the bragging rights I've won because it is so damn accurate, I'll take a slide stop issue that they promptly fixed.

there just seems to be a lot more of out of the box issues with these guns than there used to be, more so than you hear about with SA or Colt.

Jimmyp, that is hard to argue of course. While I don't buy the "Kimbers are a gamble" line.... I feel people who have Kimbers are more apt to share their imperfections because of the bad rap that the guns have had in the past, and less likely to share their positives. I took a class in college, and one of the things the professfor taught was something along the lines of a negative experience is 10-15x more likely to get brought up/shared then a positive experience. I very much so think this applies to firearms etc.

There is data out there to that effect, as well:

http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=252140&highlight=Bouldertroll

granted, the poll is not scientific, but the trends among the owners is pretty clear, IMO.

I think that poll proves my point about bad experiences coming out in groves.


Dan Wesson 1911.......................18/69
Wilson Combat 1911....................7/56
SIG 1911...................................4/22
S&W 1911..................................7/44
Les Baer 1911.............................7/53
Kimber 1911...............................125/284
Ed Brown 1911............................9/36


Some of the TOP names in 1911's.... 25% of Ed Brown's have issues? Wilson Combat?

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?

Ok I have cycled about 600 more rounds now through my kimber (after installing the modified slide stop they sent me) without a problem. Kimber has made it right and I am satisfied. So if anyone reading this in the future is having the same problems I had, I would suggest that you contact kimber and have them send you a new slide stop. The easiest way for me to contact kimber was to go back to the store I bought the pistol from, they will have a more direct means of contacting the company.