testtest

Kimber and Springfield 1911s…

The 9mm Garrison.
F0B607C4-8A9E-43A9-BD6E-5C5CECA78583.jpeg

758F9BBE-DA5A-474F-8D3F-140AE9ACFC7D.jpeg


In person, it does have a more traditional look, despite having modern features like improved sights, oversized beaver tail grip safety, skeletonized hammer and adjustable trigger. Like having a milspec with basic upgrades. Despite not owning one, I do very much like Springfield milspec. I have tried to talk my neighbor out of his once or twice 😁.

I believe I understand what they were going for and I do think they nailed it. I will likely swap the grips for a brighter set at some point. I’d like to get it home and clean the preservatives off the surface so I can see what it really looks like under the haze.

My previous 9mm 1911s weighed in at about 1.5oz less than this one. Those were soft shooters. I expect no less from this. Once I have it here, I’ll be able to give a better description of how it stacks up in the fit, finish and performance. I have another one of these coming in the near future also in 9mm.
 
Philmo11 said:
This type of thing is why I post reviews. I don’t get anything out of this. There’s no shortage of people who will blow fairy dust up your rear in support of a gun because they like the brand, are embarrassed to admit it wasn’t perfect or are just plain sponsored to do so. Not everyone likes what I have to say all the time, especially when it’s in response to a brand they support, but I’ll take the hits to be as honest and transparent as possible.

I honestly never thought I’d have to send any gun back to the manufacturer when this started. Certainly not one from each, BUT, we got a good sampling and got an opportunity to show what support was like after the purchase. That’s incredibly important for the lifetime of ownership of your firearm.

Plenty weren’t happy when I posted the issues on here with the Springfield Loadeds but Springfield stepped up as a manufacturer and made the correction without a hassle. Credit where it’s due. That is the second time I have had a Springfield sent back and I can’t say enough good things about the service I’ve experienced. Anyone who took the time to read this thread in it’s entirety should feel confident that if something does go wrong, they’ll make it right.

I can’t say the same for Kimber at this point. Everything that I shared here was also shared pretty much verbatim on a similar Kimber forum. No shortage of comments when Springfield had issues. I thought for sure the last update would kick open a hornets nest, been bracing for the onslaught of attacks but it’s gone silent for the last 8 hours. If Kimber had done the right thing after spending $900 on their product, the hassle of an hour round trip to ship it back, drafting a detailed account with photos, wasted ammo and time spent without my firearm, they’d be getting credit too, but they didn’t, so here we are.

I was hopeful this would be over by now but since it won’t be for a little while, there is finally a third Springfield I will be adding to this that is sitting at my FFL. It’s a stainless Garrison 9mm.
Click to expand...
Man, what a hassle! So sorry for your trials and tribulations.
Whatever fantasy I was entertaining of buying a Kimber similar in size to the Ronin EMP 3 (so hard to find the REMP3 w/o being gouged) has now evaporated.
I would’ve thought that replacing the barrel would be the most efficient, cost effective, and the correct way to achieve no failures. Really does boggle the mind!
 
Steverino said:
Man, what a hassle! So sorry for your trials and tribulations.
Whatever fantasy I was entertaining of buying a Kimber similar in size to the Ronin EMP 3 (so hard to find the REMP3 w/o being gouged) has now evaporated.
I would’ve thought that replacing the barrel would be the most efficient, cost effective, and the correct way to achieve no failures. Really does boggle the mind!
Click to expand...
The most reliable 1911s I have ever bought are built by MetroArms. I bring that up because they make an officer size they call the Amigo. I have two in hard chrome and after a couple thousand rounds they still look brand new. Been reliable since I took them out of the box. After 2000rds I finally wore out one of the factory mags and replaced it with some MecGar mags with polymer followers and they are still ticking. I can't speak for the Amigo but I can speak to the American Classic II.

E7929E38-4CFD-409B-891F-C3DFE838CE33.jpeg
 
Last edited:
So I took the Kimber 10mm apart and put the recoil spring from the working 10mm and was able to run 24rds without a failure. Unfortunately, I am now out of ammo so no further testing until I get more. May have to contact my little brother and see if he has some factory ammo laying around. I do not want to run hand loaded ammo until this thing is running as it should.

I had no idea if that was going to make a difference or not but it seems to have. two Kimber mags and one unbranded worked.
 
Well, I guess I could sacrifice some of these…
E8C555C8-D359-4AB1-800E-230DEF24CEF1.jpeg

I had to look these up. 544 ft lbs from a 6”. Probably slightly less from a 5”. I don’t recall for sure but I believe when I clocked the previous ball ammo it was at 565ft lbs. A little less umph but should have plenty.
 
Last edited:
Well that was short lived. Good news is, the JHP rounds fed fine. The bad news, the slide locked back again. It’s not going into a full lock, the stop is only partially engaged. This was the same last time.

C3C36C49-3724-4C4E-BFB7-AC1E6E5794E2.jpeg

179774FF-28F7-4A5C-812F-5497E8CC9B03.jpeg
 
I've put approximately 100 rounds through my Kimber Custom TLE RL since I got it back from the factory. Not one FTF and it also definitely fells like it operates smoother when cycling. The slide now goes back to full battery with more athority and less resistance. It is functioning much better now no doubt. Although I received no maintenance report from Kimber when I got it back, or from the dealer at my LGS when I picked it up. The man behind the gun counter I usually most always deal with, talked to about and gave my 1911 to personally to ship back to Kimber. Was not at the LGS when I picked up the pistol after the factory repair. I did see him a few days later. He told me Kimber replaced the slide lock, polished the slide rails, polished the feed ramp and replaced the extractor. I never looked closely at the extractor myself, but I'm assuming it got damaged by the two and only two cases that got stuck in the chamber. Both 220gr hard cast from both Grizzly and Buffalo Bore Ammo companies. Both cases had the primers blown completely out of the casings. I'm not sure Grizzly nor Buffalo Bore can even be called Ammo manufacturers! More like Pure Crap Manufacturers, but that's another topic for another day for sure! 👍
It has always been a very accurate pistol and is extremely fun to fire when operating and functioning properly. "If" the pistol continues to operate with no malfunctions for another 400 rounds l'll be satisfied and confident in it's reliability, and It will always have a place on my hip and in my gun safe. If not? I see a Springfield in my future! All depending on how and when I get my M1-A SOCOM CQB back from the SA factory! 🤔 If that firearm becomes an issue? As far as 1911's go, Les Baer will be getting my business sooner than I anticipated! ☝️ I'll also add the only three firearms I've ever had to send back to the factory for repairs and/or finer tuning. Was a Kimber 1911 and two different SA M-1A's 🤔hmmmmmmm!🤨
IMG_20220519_141211375_HDR.jpg
Shoot fun, shoot safe, and shoot straight!
 
Last edited:
Philmo11 said:
Well that was short lived. Good news is, the JHP rounds fed fine. The bad news, the slide locked back again. It’s not going into a full lock, the stop is only partially engaged. This was the same last time.

View attachment 27476
View attachment 27477
Click to expand...
Mine slide lock was being engaged by cartridges when feeding, but I'm not 100% sure on that. More like 85%. Like yours, the lock was not fully engaging when this action happened. The top corner of the lock would just barely catch the bottom corner of the slide stop notch in the slide. Just like in your picture. It's been cycling S&B 180gr FN flawlessly every since I got it back from factory repair. We'll see if this continues or not?
 
Kodiak Cowboy said:
Mine slide lock was being engaged by cartridges when feeding, but I'm not 100% sure on that. More like 85%. Like yours, the lock was not fully engaging when this action happened. The top corner of the lock would just barely catch the bottom corner of the slide stop notch in the slide. Just like in your picture. It's been cycling S&B 180gr FN flawlessly every since I got it back from factory repair. We'll see if this continues or not?
Click to expand...
Good information
 
Philmo11 said:
Well, I sent all the information, the pictures, the video and detailed description of the troubleshooting done to the customer support rep. Now we wait.
Click to expand...
I hope it all works out in the end for you bud.👍 I'll keep you posted on how mine continues to function. Seems like we've both been dealing with the same or similar issues for a while now with each of our Kimbers. However, sending mine back to Kimber for "finer tuning" definitely improved how my 1911 functions. At least for now anyway! I'm Still not 100% solid on satisfaction until it passes a few more hundred rounds with no malfunctions. My Glock has approximately two thousand rounds through it and has never once malfunctioned! A pistol than costs twice as much as a Glock should do the same in my option!

Shoot fun, shoot safe, and shoot straight!👍
 
Ok, so here are some clean pictures of the Garrison 9mm.

9915FC08-9B04-4B0E-AD1C-9604BAAFB851.jpeg

957B3AC4-4F4A-4C1C-8587-9BE8D2849CD4.jpeg

D77A5AAD-DEE2-4525-A9B4-3AFECF509BA8.jpeg

First thing I noticed was that the pressure on the disconnector was enough to hold the slide open on its own. I suspected I would have to sand the bottom as I did with the Loaded but I waited until I ran test rounds first.
233E14F5-57FC-404C-B75B-2A71A412A986.jpeg

I started off with some Remington UMC range ammo. The Garrison only comes with one magazine. Luckily I had a Kimber mag available. Magazines are identical, even stamped with the same patent number (assuming MecGar’s patent).
F2BA328F-D61D-4766-8F90-B51217DCF09B.jpeg

First two magazines only chambered the rounds manually. Of the first two mags, there was a 100% failure to eject. The giveaway was the failure for the slide to hold open on the last round. It was not cycling the slide far enough back to hit the ejector with enough force to expel the spent case.
7ED6B2C2-58C2-4897-B1CB-2868D7113AED.jpeg

Awesome right?

I took it back apart as sanded the bottom or the slide exactly as I did with the previous Loaded. I finished out that box with a 1 round per magazine failure to eject. That was a drastic improvement over the previous two magazines.

I moved on to a box of Blazer 115gr FMJ and averaged 1 failure to eject per magazine.

From there I took the gun apart, cleaned / oiled again and went to 124gr FMJ. I averaged maybe a little more than 1 failure to eject per mag, along with a couple instances of the slide failing to hold open on the last round.

The cycling manually feels pretty smooth. I think the recoil might be a touch heavy, preventing the slide from full rearward travel. At this point, there have been 158rds put through it. Only 3 mags ran without a failure and those were not consecutive magazines.
 
Not going to say anything much about Kimber or Springfield, but, my Colts are flawless……my RO Operator has the same issues with the disconnector, my Kimber’s, well, need broken in, just sayin
 
Annihilator said:
Not going to say anything much about Kimber or Springfield, but, my Colts are flawless……my RO Operator has the same issues with the disconnector, my Kimber’s, well, need broken in, just sayin
Click to expand...
The first 10mm Kimber I have is still breaking in. It runs fine just needs oiled every 50rds or it gets sluggish. That’ll stop at some point.

All 3 of the 45 are running smooth at this point.

The second 10mm Kimber needs to go back again. I got a response from the customer service rep around 3:00 today that said I should call in. I responded with asking why I would call in when he has all the information in that email. I got crickets… so Monday I think a call to CS management is probably in order. I have a bit of a temper when I encounter stupidity so it’s always best to wait a day or two before I chew on someone.

The Garrison 9mm, I may try some 9mm NATO for a little bit and see how this one does. Run another 150 through it then switch back to standard loads. See if it’s able to kick the slide back far enough to function. It’s seems that it’s right on the line between functioning and not.
 
Walked a few minutes ago and locked the slide back. Probably not get a chance to shoot again until Sunday afternoon. Going to let it sit like that until then. It may be in vain but it’s worth a try. See if it’ll shave the spring tension between the recoil and main spring. 2oz each is all I think it would need and it’d run fine. It’s chambering ok, just not enough backward motion to kick the spent brass clear 1 in every 8 or 9 rounds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top