NC Alcohol Bureau has to ditch their unreliable weapons.
This is an interesting article and needs to be read. To see what these guns are, take a look here. As you guys know, I am a huge fan of the 1911. It is a romance kind of thing. I can’t help myself. However I am also a huge fan of the Glock, because, well, Glocks take away doubt. Doubt about reliability. Doubt about reliabilty can really put a sour taste in my mouth about any gun.
As much as I love the 1911, one company has caused more than one raised eyebrow for me. And that company is Kimber. About two years ago I started seeing some Quality Control issues with Kimber. Some of them minor details, others glaringly obvious factory fumbles. I had to send two guns back to the factory that had just arrived. In my Defensive Pistol training classes, I had a couple Kimbers come through that didn’t want to run… one in particular, a full sized SIS, just about refused to function altogether. That thing jammed like a jazz band.
When I first read this article, before I even got to the company name I thought “Kimber”. Sure enough. This was disappointing to be as I had just become somewhat of a fan of Kimber. I had purchased 3 of them, and they had all proven themselves to be outstanding firearms that gave me no trouble whatsoever. And then their QC tanks.
I’m not surprised that this happened to NCAB. Especially when you combine spotty QC with one of their Ultra series guns. These sub compact 1911’s are finicky to say the least. They are more sensitive than a 14 year old Emo Girl with a weight complex.
I have two brands of Production 1911’s that I personally go for… Springfield Armory and SIG SAUER. These guys are making some solid 1911’s and are my first choices.
Dan Wesson makes an awesome 1911 as well, their V-Bob is amazing and is on My List.
You know who else is making some suprisingly good 1911’s? ATI. American Tactical Imports. As the name implies, they dont make them themselves, but import them. You can pick them up all day for 449 and you are getting a solid 1911.
Back to the NCAB guns. These Kimbers look good, I like the stainless and the nice wood with the mag well funnel. But I would never have selected this pimped out gun for an Agency Buy. Thats spending a lot of money that they didn’t have to. In fact, that’s spending about double. The good old Glock would have been a top choice. Or the new M&P series. The M&P Compact .45s would have fit the bill nicely and would have saved the NC Taxpayers a huge wad of cash. And it might have saved S&W from dropping the Compact .45. This is disappointed to me as that one was a personal favorite of mine. Oh well.
Wilson Combat turns out some of the best 1911’s ever!
Mad:
I have just started to see reports of malfunctions with Glock 40s.
I think the model was the 22.
One report said several failures to fire occured with police Glocks during a recent shooting affray.
Heard anything about this?
Even Glock need some springs replaced once in awhile… and Police Departments NEVER replace their springs. You should have seen some of the Police Trade Ins I’ve seen over the years. Good hell.
My Kimber Gold Combat RL II had the plunger tube loosen up after only 4500 rounds. It was past the one year warranty but Kimber agreed to fix it … as long as I paid for the overnight shipping both ways. Remember, this is a $1900 gun from their Custom Shop. Oh yeah, they also offered to clean and lube it for $175. I ended up having a local gunsmith fix it for $30 (I didn’t have the needed tools). I love my gun but I think somebody at Kimber fell asleep at the wheel.
Kimber has truly disappointed me. And that right there… just another reason.
Seems to me that I read more than one article bringing into question just how unrelable they are in that after only a year or so they replace the Kimber’s and allow the troops to buy them for a song. In fact did not the agency head buy his for a buck when he retired. Seems that they have a habit of getting “bad” guns about one year apart then are “forced” to replace their guns a public expense and buy all new ones with the old “bad” guns being picked up by the troops…or am i think of the wrong agency?
George,
Been awhile since I heard you say much about the XD. What’s your position on them anymore? I think I prefer the non-“m” version still and I shoot them great and I was just curious to what you think anymore. Thought about giving glock another goround with the G4 but just not sure I care that much
Been hearing quite a bit of chatter online about how Kimber’s QC has gone out the window over the past couple of years. Tam from http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/ brought this up not so long ago too and pointed out that Hilton Yam over at 10-8 Performance has taken Kimbers off his list of recommended 1911s. Some good info over at his blog BTW. Now, he’s mainly concerned with duty-type guns being run by organisations that need a minimum of downtime but his arguments are persuasive. Kimber are charging high prices for what’s supposed to be a quality item but are failing to deliver.
Be mighty interested in your pick of top five 1911s around at the moment George.
Top 5 1911’s? Okay…. Stay tuned.
Excellent- looking forward to it!