Brother Disgusted With Kimber Tac Pro- With Pics

[Aggie_engr]

...So am I. Kind of got me wondering about my gun? The little piece of metal that sticks up when you push the grip safety in is sticking up, keeping the slide out of battery. If you rack it without the grip safety depressed, it goes forward fine. Grip it and it doesn't work. He is so upset he just dropped $1025 for a gun that doesn't work. We tried it at the store before we brought it home and as weird as it sounds did not notice the problem. Anyone have any similar issues? He will be sending it back to kimber asap...

[The Annoyed Man]

I'm having trouble visualizing the problem, but if I understand correctly, are you talking about the firing pin block?

[Aggie_engr]

Field strip the gun. Now there are two little pieces of metal, one sticking out already, one recessed (smaller of the two). Now depress the grip safety and the recessed piece pops up. Okay cool, but it doesn't always go back down. You can manually push it down, but it will not work during normal operation. It stays sticking up and catches the slide and keeps it from going into battery when chambering a round. That's the best I can explain it, I'll take some picks. Thanks for reading annoyed man.

[Oldgringo]

I've said it before and will say it again, there shouldn't be these kinds of problems nor should there be a 1,000 round break-in period with any gun that costs as much as a Kimber, IMO.

Although I own a Kimber Custom Target II, I ain't overly impressed with the Kimber line and do not hold it in higher esteem than my Taurus PT 1911 or my Springer LW Compact...so far.

[03Lightningrocks]

Oh boy...well...not to pile on but my Kimber Ultra Carry Eclipse has a problem. I mentioned on the forum when I bought it and I was pretty happy until I had a couple issues pop up. Issue one was the nasty habit of the gun to fail to fully feed Federal HST ammo. I have about 800-1000 rounds through it and it still does it enough that I am afraid to use it as a carry piece. Issue two is just down right frustrating... the front sight will fall off. When the gun heats during firing the sight will start working it's way to the side and come right off. It has done it twice now. I lost the first one and Kimber sent me another sight...oops...it falls off too. Now I have to send the slide back to Kimber for repair. I agree with old Gringo. I should not have problems with a 1200 dollar handgun.

[Aggie_engr]

Gun in full battery


Gun out of battery


Firing pin block recessed


Firing pin block sticking up


Wear on corner where firing pin block is hanging- matches notch in firing pin block


Pin wear- it may be hard to see, but there is and angled notch in the pin

[UpTheIrons]

Are y'all keeping it too 'dry'? Are these pics of a 'cleaned up' frame, or is this your usual lube situation? My Custom II likes to run pretty wet. I have not had a problem with the FPB (yet), and that may be because I keep the rails nice and oily. Just a suggestion - your mileage may vary.

[Aggie_engr]

Pretty sure it's not a lube issue. The gun is brand new and has factory oil all over it. The reason I know where the problem is, is because the slide only hangs up when the grip safety is depressed. Rack the slide without touching the grip safety and it works just fne, slide goes into battery. I have never heard of this before nor seen this problem in my kimber pro carry. As stated before, a $1000 gun should not have these problems out of the box. My brother is extremely displeased with kimber products at the moment.

[Skiprr]

Man, my first thought when I look at some of those photos is that is far from a brand-new pistol. It looks like somebody other than Kimber did a manual fluff-and-buff on the chamber feed ramp, the metal in the last two pics actually looks scored and pitted (even on external, non-contact portions of the frame), and those grips look like they're several years old and have seen rough times. You could show me that last photo and tell me the gun had seen over 20,000 rounds and less-than-careful care, and I'd believe you.

The Kimber quasi-Swartz safety has, in my experience, been pretty much a non-issue in guns that are well-maintained. But there are two conditions that can cause problems.

The first is maintenance. The firing-pin block itself is in the top of the slide, but the small pin your photos highlight is, well, just that: a small pin that presses up into the firing-pin block to release it. A lever, that is not spring-loaded, pushes the little actuator up to release the block. Like any small part, or sequence of small parts, it's subject to fouling by gunk and junk. If it's got crud around it, it can hang in the "up" position. IMHO, it would take a lot of crud to cause it to stick "up," but if it were to do so, firing the pistol while it was in that condition would almost certainly damage the pin...perhaps bending or abrading it enough that it would no longer function properly and continue to display the symptoms described.

(You mentioned "factory oil all over it"; was the gun disassembled, inspected, and thoroughly cleaned and lubed before firing? Was this purchased at a reputable gun store as a NIB pistol?)

The second condition is improper assembly. If someone doesn't understand that the grip safety must not be depressed while placing the slide on the frame, understandable frustration might ensue. If the person tries to slam the slide home repeatedly, even though he is still holding down the grip safety (or even, as I once saw, try hammering the front of the slide onto a tabletop to attempt to force it into position), the pin might also be damaged.

I've never heard of the pin being damaged in a gun shipped new from Kimber.

[Purplehood]

At first glance and not being a gun-expert in any way, that looks like a lousy job of manufacture to me. It looks crude. I would send it back and ask them to finish making the gun.

[HighVelocity]

It looks fairly obvious that that gun has been tampered with. The piece that's hanging up is part of the firing pin safety. The mainspring housing or grip safety may not be fitted properly. I could fix that in about 10 minutes.

[longtooth]

And I assure you he really can if you are in the DFW area.

[AEA]

He's not in DFW area, he is in Galveston area...

Looking at the Pics, it does not look like a new gun to me either.

And I believe someone has forced the slide with the grip safety engaged and damaged the FP Safety plunger pin. Possibly more than once.

[gregthehand]

That's why I have the firing pin block pulled from every 1911 I own. I had an incident with a Para I was carrying where that stupid pin kept the pistol from working at all. I posted a description of the problem here http://www.texasshooting.com/TexasCHL_F ... it=warthog" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

[The Annoyed Man]

Aggie_engr, I'm sorry you're having this problem. I have a stainless UCII, and it has worked flawlessly for at least a couple of thousand rounds now. It sounds like there must be some gunk or debris of some kind which is causing the part to hang up. Perhaps the best thing to do is have a gunsmith thoroughly dismantle the gun to get at those small parts and see what's up. I agree that you shouldn't have to do that for a new, expensive pistol, but there's also no telling what kind of treatment/handling the gun got from other customers or store employees before your brother bought it. Perhaps someone handling it got some crud in there. I guess what I'm saying is that it might not be Kimber's fault, but rather the store's fault. If it were my gun, I would take it back to the store where I'd bought it and have them make it right. As it happens, the store near me where I bought my Kimber (Euless Guns & Ammo) has a pretty good gunsmith, and I feel certain they would not have charged me to make a defective pistol right if it were in their power to fix it.