I used to own and carry this exact pistol. I think I sold it maybe around 2009-2010 to another forum member. It’s a 3” model, alloy frame, stainless slide. Did he buy it used? There’s a reason I ask....Teamless wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 9:40 pm A good friend of mine bought his first non-plinking pistol this week.
He has wanted a Kimber for a long time and finally did it.
He and I went to the range today so he could test it out.
We ended up going through about 50 rounds of it before we gave up.
Each round went bang properly, only less than 5 actually cycled properly (bang, extract, eject, reload).
A handful stovepiped, but most never actually moved the slide.
I was hoping that it was “break-in” issues and 2-3 mags in, it would start to cycle properly, but it never seemed to get any closer to a properly cycling weapon.
So, for you Kimber fans out there:
- did you have similar experiences?
If so, how did you rectify the issue?
If you didn’t have experience with this issue, suggestions on how to move forward with this?
Thanks in advance
The cause of the problem in mine was a badly shaped slide stop lever. It would engage … or try to … even when the magazine still had rounds in it. So, the slide would either lock back or only go into partial battery when the mag was loaded. I’d get 2-3 FTFs/lock backs per magazine. It was a real pain.
I brought the problem to the forum, and somebody, I don’t remember who it was at the time, informed me that Kimber had released a bunch of Ultra Carry II pistols with a known issue, the defective slide stop, and that all I had to do was call Kimber and tell them the problem, and they’d ship me a new replacement slide stop for free. I did, and they did, and the gun ran flawlessly ever after.
Amusing end to the story .... I kept the "defective" part in the Kimber's plastic case, and one day at the range with my son, the slide stop pin on his Taurus PT-1911 broke in half. We tried substituting the "defective" Kimber part for the broken one, and lo and behold, it worked perfectly fine in that gun. It’s still in that gun today, and has run flawlessly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway, tell your friend to give Kimber a call and let them know about the problem. It may be a matter of nothing more than sending him a replacement part. Alternatively, they may suggest sending them the gun for a warranty repair. Either way, MY experience is that Kimber's customer service was pretty good. Maybe it still is.
Edited to add, here’s the original thread I mentioned: https://texaschlforum.com/viewtopic.php ... 70#p164070