Help me like my Kimber again!

[snowwalker]

I've tried the 1911, and have had a few nice ones, but just can't get the love affair going. So they got traded off for things that work better for me. Now I'm at the stage where I look, but have not seen anything that I must have. I like where I am and am content.

 

[Davecz]

Get some ivory grips

 

[gregkl]

I with the guys that said if you don't think your a 1911 guy(whatever that is), then no amount of work will turn it into a non-1911 gun. All it will do is empty your wallet and you may or may not have a more valuable 1911. Better, yes. ROI, probably not.

I saw a guy here trying to sell a highly modified M&P for like $1500. I hope he gets it, but I just don't see it. It's still a $475 pistol to me. But I am sure he has as much or more than he's asking for invested in it.

 

[gregkl]

I've tried the 1911, and have had a few nice ones, but just can't get the love affair going. So they got traded off for things that work better for me. Now I'm at the stage where I look, but have not seen anything that I must have. I like where I am and am content.

I have this rather large "list" of firearms I want. But walking around the gun show last weekend, I had one of those epiphany's. I realized that I have quite a few guns now, I don't shoot all that much, I am not in the financial situation where I can just keep spending money, I am a minimalist at heart and I just didn't see anything that had that "I just gotta have it" written on it.

I decided that I would not add any more guns to my stable until I get the ones I have fully set-up the way I want them.

I had this idea that I should have the guns necessary to shoot any kind of shooting sports. But then I realize that I can shoot most anything with what I have. Except Cowboy Action. I don't have the hat and the dialect down for that.

I am 55 and really need to start thinking about retirement in the next 20 years.

 

[88E30M50]

I'd buy a couple of boxes of ammo and spend a couple of hours at the range with it. If you still don't connect by the time you are done shooting, then selling to fund something that does tickle your fancy is probably the best course of action. When it comes down to it, how the gun feels when you are shooting it will be the thing that determines whether or not it's the gun for you. You can restore a bit of the new gun excitement by installing new grips, having it tweaked or some other mod, but how it shoots will ultimately be what keeps it in your safe or sends it to someone else's. I've had guns that should have been perfect for me, but for some reason were not. My first CZ clone was a TZ 88 and it should have been the perfect gun. I just did not care to shoot it and eventually sold it with no regrets. It was almost identical to the pre-B CZ that I love, but for the TZ, the love was not there. No matter how many grips I tried, I just did not connect with it. I had other guns that were similar. Great guns, but I just never could connect with them and they went on to owners that did connect with them.

 

[halfmileharry]

Imagine my poor wife. I bought her a stepladder so she could reach my face to smack me when needed. Incidentally, that thing gets a lot of use.

I welded handles on my cast iron skillets cause we didn't have room for a stool

 

[halfmileharry]

That's a nice carry Kimber and I think you'll love the gun IF/WHEN you put the time in with it.

 

[Mark 1911]

Kimbers may have a few drawbacks from the factory, but they have a lot of potential. I have two Kimbers that I had AllenM work on. I had dropped one of them, and it needed some work, so I went to the master - AllenM - who replaced the main spring housing and ignition group with Wilson Combat parts. It's a true keeper now, very reliable I might add. Here's an old link about the upgrade, there's a bunch of pics of the transformation on the last two pages of the thread:
https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...sion/282924-dropped-damaged-my-kimber-10.html

The other Kimber was a real nice one to start with, but combined with EGW and Wilson parts, and AllenM's superb craftsmanship, its a truly unique and special piece now. Allen included a bunch of pics of his gunsmithing work in this thread as well:
https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...ct-thread-kimber-gold-combat-stainless-5.html

 

[Dean C.]

Maybe he should sell it and buy a CZ?

Why not both get a Dan Wesson ?? They are a hell of a lot better than kimber ever will be....

 

[UGaARguy]

Personally, while I like and appreciate the 'romanticism' behind the 1911 gun, it is old technology. Good technology, functional technology, but old technology none-the-less. By the same token, while I like 'Old West' SAA Colts and clones, I wouldn't have one as an EDC, for the same reason.

That's ridiculous. 1911s are safe to carry with a round chambered, hammer down or cocked. SAA's aren't. With very exceptions, every successful locked breech handgun since the 1911 has copied Browning's tilt breech locking mechanism. Other than frame material (and you can even get plastic and scandium frame 1911s now) what about the technology is so old?

Being a lefty, when I started buying guns the 1911 was just 'wrong' for lefties. Ambidextrous thumb safeties weren't known, forcing a very awkward grip to manipulate the 'righty only' thumb safety.

Ambi safeties have been around for how many DECADES now, and you still think 1911s can't be made as lefty friendly as Glocks or SIGs?

I've never really liked the idea of manual safeties, though. Under the duress and stress of an actual combat situation, it's just one more fine motor skill

With a proper grip the thumb safety is disengaged as a function of drawing and grasping the gun. If fine motor skills deteriorated as much people think they do no one could make a quick mag change.

Don't care much for the 'cocked & locked' concept which is, really, the only effective way to carry a 1911 S/A. Some think it's 'okay' to carry a gun with the hammer cocked over a live round. Perhaps. I just don't happen to be one of those folks.

Yet millions of people safely carry Glocks and similar striker fired pistols that have identical weight and length trigger pulls to 1911s, but have no manual safety.

For those that are enamored of the '1911 Legend', more power to 'em. I understand it, and it's certainly their choice. I just prefer other options that work better for me.

Just because other options work better for you doesn't mean that 1911s don't work better for other people. Insinuating that people only choose 1911s because of nostalgia rather than actual performance is hogwash.