Kimber Break In Question

[LongHairedRedneck]

So I took the Kimber to the range yesterday to break it in and shot 350rds(was going for the full 500 but ran out of time). It had quite a few FTE so I thought maybe it was just the ammo and/or not being in the round count for break in. But for the final rounds of the day I switched to Winchester PDX and had 2 FTE out of 40rd. According to the manual break in is 300-500 rounds.

My question is to owners of Kimbers: What if any problems(FTE,FTF) did you have during break in? And did these problems go away after break in?

[dicion]

So I took the Kimber to the range yesterday to break it in and shot 350rds(was going for the full 500 but ran out of time). It had quite a few FTE so I thought maybe it was just the ammo and/or not being in the round count for break in. But for the final rounds of the day I switched to Winchester PDX and had 2 FTE out of 40rd. According to the manual break in is 300-500 rounds.

My question is to owners of Kimbers: What if any problems(FTE,FTF) did you have during break in? And did these problems go away after break in?

I've never had a problem with my Kimber UCII... I've had a problem with a magazine that it didn't like, stopped using that mag, problem stopped happening.

Probably put 500+ rounds through it now, no problems except for the ones caused by the bag mag.

You might want to mark the mag every time a problem occurs, see if it's the same mag each time.
I had about 10 mags I rotated through, shorts, full size, etc, so I couldn't keep track unless I actually marked the mag.
Some may say 10 mags is too many for a handgun... I personally don't want to get caught having to reload mags if/when 'that day' ever comes ;)


... and by 'that day', I of course mean the Zombie Apocalypse.

[Stupid]

I wrote a blog on my Kimber experience.

http://thestupidopinion.blogspot.com/20 ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are pictures and stuff.

My Kimber Story

I used to be a die-hard 1911 lover. Loved the style, loved the design and loved how it felt in my hands.

My first gun ever was a brand new Colt 1991A1 Commander Stainless and I loved it, well mostly because I did not know better. The gun was a jammo-maniac, but I thought that was normal from some old/obsolete reading I did. My enthusiasm died quickly because I spent so much time doing malfunction drills at range.

Much later in life, I bought a Beretta 92FS out of many considerations, one of which was that i wanted to try a different platform. I had so much fun shooting that pistol! Yes, it's big and bulky, but I was shocked by its out-of-box accuracy AND there's not a single failure. In fact, it has never failed even once ever!

What a joy!!!

The Beretta 92FS showed me how a fine firearm should perform. Since then, I acquired many other handguns but none of them was 1911 style, and none of them ever malfunctioned.

Fast forward to 2005 when Hurricane Rita was looming around Texas coast. It was the first time I loaded all my guns at home getting ready for evacuation. To my horror, I had no concealed handgun license (CHL), and Texas laws back then prohibited car-carry. As a law-abiding citizen, I had to lock all my guns in their cases and put them in my trunk. It was truly a fun time driving in 100+ degree weather at 1 mile per hour traffic jam with people's temper getting even hotter. Needless to say, I promptly joined CHL class after that and now wanted a carry weapon.

I did a lot of research on what to carry. I was not so keen on carrying a loaded gun without any external safety - my own personal preference/comfort level. I was also a slim built person who weighed 170 lbs; therefore size of the gun was my main consideration.

I finally narrowed them down to:

Beretta 92FS - too thick
HK USP - I boycott HK, another story, and they are too thick
Kimber Ultra CDP II

The Kimber Ultra CDP II was a fab and was a sleazy looking pistol, designed specifically for concealed carry with its slim size and melt design (no edges.)

I was very leery about getting a 1911 style pistol. I spent quite a bit of time reading and researching this particular gun, and the general consensus seemed to be:

1. don't expect it to be problem free out-of-box
2. run through 500 rounds of full metal jacket bullets to break in before it becomes reliable
3. may need to be sent back to the manufacturer a few times
4. some did report that theirs worked since day one

Unfortunately, mine didn't.

The gun was pretty, and there was a lot of attention to details!!! Before I took on a range trip, I hand-cycled about 500 times using full metal jacket ammo - wouldn't do this again because I actually used live ammo. Bad idea on safety!

My first trip was a disaster. The gun kept on jamming!!! Mostly stovepipe. After about 50 shots, I quit shooting, called Kimber the next day and sent them some pictures too. Kimber service was great and they told me to send the gun back. Because I couldn't take time off work to wait for Kimber's free UPS pick-up, they promised to give me 2 Tac-mags to cover my shipping cost.

My second trip was not so great either. Upon advice from some forum member, I bought a few "premium" magazines to see if they worked better. Well, not really. After a few tries, I found that Kimber magazines worked the best because they really tilted the bullets up to feed into the barrel and their springs were stronger. I made a few more trips to the range, and somehow, the Kimber started to spitting ejected brass back to me. One time it hit my head so hard that I started to bleed profusely. After that, I started to fire a shot and dodge the brass right after. This quickly tripled the fun at the range: practicing clearing malfunctions, dodging brass and wondering if next round would fire or not!


(Note the feed ramp became shiny due to the bullets hitting on it. Actually, the bullets shaved metal off the feed ramp. To me this is a design problem. The feed ramp should have proper curvature but it didn't.)

Again, I called Kimber and again it went and came back.

After the second trip back to the factory, it started to behave much better. I now stuck to Kimber Tac-mags exclusively and malfunctions became very little. It still had occasional FTF and failure to chamber a round, meaning the slide returned but there's no round inside the chamber even though the mag was full. By then, I had put more than 1000 rounds of FMJ through it but hadn't really shot enough Hollow Points.

I just came back from another range trip (Jan 2009). This time I fired about 100 rd of lead round nose handloads with my Kimber. I had 1 failure due to the slide stopper was pushed slightly up for some reason - I didn't think that was my thumbs hitting it but it's very likely a cause.

I must say that I knew what I might get into when I bought the gun and the experience was not pleasant. For a $1000 gun, it should have worked right out of the box but it did not. For the amount of money and effort (original purchase, break-in ammo cost, trips back to the factory, and taking time off work to wait for UPS pickup&delivery), it was totally not worth it. On the other hand, Kimber does stand behind their products and I must give them credit for that!!!

Yes, I still carry and shoot my Kimber Ultra CDP II.

Update on August 2, 2009

I just came back from a pistol training class where we fired about 100 rounds in various conditions and scenarios. There were 11 people in the class with HK USP, Beretta 92F, Glock, S&W etc.; almost everybody's gun, including the instructor's, malfunctioned in one way or another except for my Kimber.

I guess it finally starts to run well from now on.

[The Annoyed Man]

I have a Stainless UC II, and my son has a Pro Raptor II. Other than a bad part in the Ultra, which I've detailed in a number of posts, neither of our guns has ever had a break in issue. The "bad part" was replaced by Kimber at no charge to me, a week after I bought the gun, and it dropped right in. The gun has run flawlessly in the over 2 years since.

The "bad part" was installed in a Taurus PT1911 over a year ago when it broke that OEM part, and that gun has run flawlessly since then.

Go figure. But I have never owned a semi-automatic pistol that didn't have a misfeed or FTE at some point in its life, including several 1911s, the vaunted H&K USP, a M&P 45, and a Glock 19. They have all (but one) been reliable within any reasonable expectations. The one that wasn't, was a 1911 from a manufacturer with an excellent reputation for reliability - a Sig GSR. She was a fickle and unreliable, and undeniably beautiful to look at piece of junk. I sold it and bought my UCII and have been happy ever since.

[LongHairedRedneck]

Dicion: It happened with both mags, the factory mag that came w/ pistol and the Kimber Tac mag. But definately fewer times with the Tac mag. Just ordered some Wilson Combat Mags to see if crappy mags are the problem.

Stupid: I really hope that my Kimber does not turn into your experience, but I'm glad to hear they will stand behind their product til the end.

[Stupid]

Dicion: It happened with both mags, the factory mag that came w/ pistol and the Kimber Tac mag. But definately fewer times with the Tac mag. Just ordered some Wilson Combat Mags to see if crappy mags are the problem.

Stupid: I really hope that my Kimber does not turn into your experience, but I'm glad to hear they will stand behind their product til the end.

My experience is that Tac Mag is the best. I have many many 1911 mags and none worked except for Tac Mag. Yes, I have the Wilson Combat too.

[MoJo]

Question, FTE = Failure To Eject or FTE = Failure To Extract? One is usually a shooter problem the other is a gun problem.

[WildBill]

I want to add my two cents about the "Break In Question." I do not own a Kimber so I have no axe to grind. I believe that the "500 round break-in period" suggested by Kimber is being misinterpreted by the handgun consumer.

My premise is that a handgun should work out-of-the-box. If the consumer is using the magazine supplied with gun and following the manufacturer's recommendations for ammunition and can not get one box of ammo through the gun without getting multiple FTFs or other malfunctions the handgun is defective. They should not be expected to have to fiddle the magazines and ammo trying to make them work.

Kimber likes to boast that they supply special ops military units and SWAT with their handguns. I don't believe that any military or law enforcement agency is going to accept a shipment of firearms with the intention of having the soldiers or LEOs spend the time and money to troubleshoot their weapon by shooting 500+ rounds through it to "break it in." They are not about to try swapping different ammunition or different brands of magazines to get the gun to work properly.

Using strong language, the purchasing department is going to let the supplier know that their shipment is defective and they are expected to fix their quality control problems before sending them another lot of firearms.

Why should the citizen consumer expect any less?

[LongHairedRedneck]

Question, FTE = Failure To Eject or FTE = Failure To Extract? One is usually a shooter problem the other is a gun problem.

I should have snapped a pic on the cell phone but i didn't. The empty casing would be about 1/4 to 1/2 way extracted from chamber.

[MoJo]

I want to add my two cents about the "Break In Question." I do not own a Kimber so I have no axe to grind. I believe that the "500 round break-in period" suggested by Kimber is being misinterpreted by the handgun consumer.

My premise is that a handgun should work out-of-the-box. If the consumer is using the magazine supplied with gun and following the manufacturer's recommendations for ammunition and can not get one box of ammo through the gun without getting multiple FTFs or other malfunctions the handgun is defective. They should not be expected to have to fiddle the magazines and ammo trying to make them work.

Kimber likes to boast that they supply special ops military units and SWAT with their handguns. I don't believe that any military or law enforcement agency is going to accept a shipment of firearms with the intention of having the soldiers or LEOs spend the time and money to troubleshoot their weapon by shooting 500+ rounds through it to "break it in." They are not about to try swapping different ammunition or different brands of magazines to get the gun to work properly.

Using strong language, the purchasing department is going to let the supplier know that their shipment is defective and they are expected to fix their quality control problems before sending them another lot of firearms.

Why should the citizen consumer expect any less?

Why should the consumer be the BETA tester? Kimbers are the most tempermental of all the 1911 handguns out there.

[MoJo]

Question, FTE = Failure To Eject or FTE = Failure To Extract? One is usually a shooter problem the other is a gun problem.

I should have snapped a pic on the cell phone but i didn't. The empty casing would be about 1/4 to 1/2 way extracted from chamber.

This is because of one or more of several things. 1. Improper extractor tension (most probable) 2. Lack of lubricant. 3. Limp wristing. A locked breech recoil operated firearm needs a firm backing to operate correctly. If you are "riding the recoil" (as seen on movies anf TV) you will get failures to extract and or stovepipes.

Here's a link to instructions on how to check and tune your extractor by Bill Wilson. http://www.m1911.org/technic2.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[gemini]

Question, FTE = Failure To Eject or FTE = Failure To Extract? One is usually a shooter problem the other is a gun problem.

I should have snapped a pic on the cell phone but i didn't. The empty casing would be about 1/4 to 1/2 way extracted from chamber.

This is because of one or more of several things. 1. Improper extractor tension (most probable) 2. Lack of lubricant. 3. Limp wristing. A locked breech recoil operated firearm needs a firm backing to operate correctly. If you are "riding the recoil" (as seen on movies anf TV) you will get failures to extract and or stovepipes.

Here's a link to instructions on how to check and tune your extractor by Bill Wilson. http://www.m1911.org/technic2.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Before you send any 1911 back....1. adjust the extractor 2. check for proper magazine function
3. make sure you're not limp wristing. DO NOT try to polish the feed ramp etc. too easy to change the correct
geometry and really goof it up. Dremels are a 1911's worst enemy.
I need to state that I own, carry and shoot 2 Kimbers. A Pro CDP and a Ultra. Neither of them has ever had
FTF, FTE, FTRB or any other problems.....good to go from day one. Good luck with yours.

[Aggie_engr]

Be patient. It seems to be a general consensus among kimber owners that a few malfunctions will follow with the break-in. Mine did as well, but once you pass that point where everything just starts working it will be worth it. I use my pro carry for IDPA matches and have put over 2000 rounds through it without any malfunctions. Heck, I can't even remember the last time my gun had a hickup! Btw it never had to be sent back to kimber either. This thing just flat out shoots, everytime I pull the trigger. Enjoy your kimber and just stick with the break in requirements!

[LongHairedRedneck]

I'm not limp wristing, and it happened to both my friend and I. I'm gonna finish the suggested 500rd break in but gonna try Wilson mags. If it still is problematic at that point it's going back to Kimber for them to figure out whats wrong.

[The Annoyed Man]

I'm not limp wristing, and it happened to both my friend and I. I'm gonna finish the suggested 500rd break in but gonna try Wilson mags. If it still is problematic at that point it's going back to Kimber for them to figure out whats wrong.

I recently bought some CobraMags for my 5" Springfield, and they work real well. At $35.00 apiece, they are a bit spendy, but they are very well made, and fully serviceable. Plus they carry all the magazine parts if you ever need to replace them. If you're interested, you can find them at Tripp Research. I bought 3 of the model 8R-45-RG, which is an eight round stainless mag with a bumper pad shaped to fit the angles of a magwell.