Recently I purchased a Kimber Compact for a decent price. I had never shot a 1911 style firearm, nor had I shot a .45 caliber firearm. I have now shot it twice, with roughly about 200-250 rounds through it over the last week. I have shot a few glocks before, but it has been a long while. My delimma stems from a few things that I have noticed through my limited experience. First, I absolutely love how the Kimber fits in my hand. It is comfortable, it feels very balanced, and aims relatively naturally, although I dont have a lot of experience with sidearms in general. The recoil is not as bad as I expected out of a .45 ACP round, I feel like its very similar to the glock 23 I had shot before. Here is my delimma: I got this firearm because a deal had fallen through on a EXO Glock 23. Yes, the Kimber is an AMAZING sidearm, and it looks great compared to a glock as well, but it is different in a lot of ways than I am used to. I am very afraid to damage it (scratch it) because it is such a nice firearm, I treat it like a baby half of the time (making sure not to put an idiot scratch on it). I feel like if I made a mistake with this firearm (dropping it, scratching it, etc.) I would be pretty upset with myself. To make matters worse, I was at the range today and had a FTF. This is kinda lingering in my head now, 200 rounds and a FTF, that would never happen with a glock, at least never has with me. Am I just overthinking things way to much? I havent given it a whole lot of time, and maybe i'm expecting to have all these answers really quickly, but I just want some opinions honestly. I could sell this firearm and get a firearm i'm more familiar with, more comfortable with, and customize it one hundred different ways, but is that really a smart move considering I just got this firearm less than a week ago and am completely new to this platform and caliber? I'm very unsure of how I feel about all of this right now, how about some opinions?
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Big Dilemma, need some founded advise.
- Thread starter Str8himalaya
- Start date
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First, do you have the luxury of letting it be a safe queen? If not, shoot it, carry it, and do not worry about it getting scratched.
Second, do you plan on reselling it in the future? If so, keep in good condition until you do so. Otherwise, enjoy your firearm and do not let the little stuff bother you.
Second, do you plan on reselling it in the future? If so, keep in good condition until you do so. Otherwise, enjoy your firearm and do not let the little stuff bother you.
I know how you feel. I can tell you...I have an FNP40 and Kahr CM9 and I shot both right out of box with no problems at all on the same day my friend brought his Kimber Combat for me to try. As I said mine shot perfect through 100 rounds and the Kimber had (3) stove pipes and (1) FTF with same ammo brand and the cartridge on FTF lodged in chamber and had to be removed by guns store employee. The Kimber shot great but I would left happy with my purchases. Ironically an older employee who carried a Kimber and my friend tried to convince me to get a "real" gun (Kimber) and it was the Kimber that had issues. they even spoke about how Kimber needs to resolve issues inherent with the "Solo" model. Not saying to get rid of Kimber but they are in a price range that make owning a gun too much of a dilemma. No probs at all with several guns in the $500 range.
Unfortunately, this is not going to be a safe queen. This is my first sidearm, and I would like to carry it. I love how it shoots honestly, and there is a league that shoots two nights a week at the range I belong to, I would like to get into shooting there as well. I just dont think a Glock will be the same performance wise. I am definitely worried way to much about scratching it or messing it up
Yep, it may just not be your cup of tea.
Its not even a feeling of not being comfortable. It's the most comfortable gun I have ever shot. It feels great in my hands (I have relatively small hands), and I can actually shoot it very well on target, especially from self defense range (20-30 ft.). I am just overthinking it like John Galt said, no reason to get worked up over something silly. As long as it doesnt FTF again, it will be my carry gun for a while. Its the best of both worlds.
I would still have some concerns about the FTF, unless you are certain you know what happened and can eliminate the problem. If it was factory ball ammunition I'd be very concerned. If it were JHP, I'd switch to something 100% reliable in my gun. If it were reloads, you might have some tweaking to do. I don't believe a carry weapon has to feed anything and everything that you can buy in this world, but it needs to absolutely be 100% on at least one cartridge that meets your needs for self defense.
It was some factory 230 grain federal FMJ. I got one shot off, and it was like a double feed almost after the first shot. I had literally just finished cleaning it about a half hour before I got a call from a friend that wanted to shoot, so we went. It was maybe an hour after I cleaned it that I started shooting it again. Do you think maybe it had a little bit too much oil in it from the cleaning and that caused a malfunction? Any ideas?
Too little information for me to want to make a guess at it. There are some real 1911 mechanics on this forum that could probably diagnose it if they saw it, but it's hard for me to visualize a true double feed - do you mean that the prior brass had not extracted from the chamber and when the returning slide stripped the topmost round out of the magazine it jammed against the back of the not fully extracted brass of the prior round?
No it definitely ejected the first round, but I went to pull the trigger again, and nothing. So i went to drop the clip and it was stuck to the point where I had to pull it out, and then a round fell out the magazine channel. When I looked at it, it looked like a round was chambered, but I honestly was suprised and cleared it before I really looked at it closely, stupid mistake obviously. I had just switched ammo types from sellier and bellot to the same grain federal. I'll just have to shoot it and if it happens again, pay more attention to what could have happened. I know it was oiled pretty well, so who knows what it could be.
Reliability is numero uno in a carry gun. Make sure you are absolutely confident with the gun, magazine, and ammo combination that you will carry. For most people that means anywhere from 200 to 1000 rounds in a row with out a burp.
Dunno what prompted the FTF -- "too much oil" seems unlikely unless you dragged it through the dirt first. Magazines can be a problem; if you have more than one magazine, number your mags and run lotsa ammo through each of them. If you don't have more than one mag, buy some more quality ones. Either get rid of the mags that seem to cause failures or mark them and save them for training malf drills, If your gun burps with every magazine, then you have another problem.
As far as scratches etc -- if it is a carry gun it will get worn spots, scratches, and dings. If you are too much in love with the finish, it might encourage you to do bad things if you drop it, namely trying to catch it. That is one path to an ND and who knows where the barrel will be pointing when it goes off. If you drop it, don't catch it, let it hit the ground and take its lumps.
The solution might be to go back to the Glock. Nothing wrong with that.
Dunno what prompted the FTF -- "too much oil" seems unlikely unless you dragged it through the dirt first. Magazines can be a problem; if you have more than one magazine, number your mags and run lotsa ammo through each of them. If you don't have more than one mag, buy some more quality ones. Either get rid of the mags that seem to cause failures or mark them and save them for training malf drills, If your gun burps with every magazine, then you have another problem.
As far as scratches etc -- if it is a carry gun it will get worn spots, scratches, and dings. If you are too much in love with the finish, it might encourage you to do bad things if you drop it, namely trying to catch it. That is one path to an ND and who knows where the barrel will be pointing when it goes off. If you drop it, don't catch it, let it hit the ground and take its lumps.
The solution might be to go back to the Glock. Nothing wrong with that.
GoBoilers!
Marksman
- Sep 2, 2008
- 211
- 28
I can relate to your uneasiness concerning scratching and denting the Kimber. My guns are like tools to me, each has it's own role or niche. I've had some nice ones that only saw the light of day when taken out of the case at the range. I had no plans to carry them since I wanted to keep them in top shape and maintain their value since I do resell and trade a lot.
On the other hand, the ones I carry I expect will show some wear and have some "experience" marks. To me that adds character. It would really bother me to carry my "nice" pistols for fear of marks. So, if it were me, I'd keep my game gun (Kimber) only for range, and not carry it. If you really want one gun for both, go with the Glock.
On the other hand, the ones I carry I expect will show some wear and have some "experience" marks. To me that adds character. It would really bother me to carry my "nice" pistols for fear of marks. So, if it were me, I'd keep my game gun (Kimber) only for range, and not carry it. If you really want one gun for both, go with the Glock.
Both the Glock shooters next to me at the range yesterday had FTF. It will happen in any auto loader. What ammo are you feeding it, Are you gripping it properly, Mags are criticle in a 1911. Just a few things to consider.
I had shot about 50 rounds or so, no problem. I reloaded my magazine, fired one shot, the casing ejected, went to pull the trigger again, and it didn't let loose. I looked at it, and the slide was back slightly, so I went to drop the magazine and it didn't drop. I pulled the magazine out and then popped the slide back, the round fell out through the magazine channel, nothing in the chamber. Never experienced that before, it surprised me to be honest.
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