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My 1911’s

TheBackyardRange
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My 1911’s

Post by TheBackyardRange » Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:02 pm

Due to the way this site handles pictures of different sizes, I’ll be breaking this up into pieces.

So, I started off by selling off some 1911’s late last year. Had a couple low end Citadel and RIA’s I wanted to upgrade. I kept 4 of my original 1911’s with the intention of building up the collection slowly with some nicer stainless models. I kept my 2 MetroArms American Classics in hard chrome, 1 S&W E-Series and 1 RIA BBR 3.10, all chambered in 45. This was the base of my collection in February.

Well, I got a late start. About March, I started getting a few in. I started a thread on a couple forums comparing two of the new ones I had just received, a Kimber Stainless II and a stainless Springfield Armory Loaded. That’s when things got a little nuts. I ended up buying 10, 5 Springfields and 5 Kimbers. In addition, I just bought two more (one of each) this afternoon, for a total of 12 additional 1911’s in 3 months. This post is to try to explain what happened…

It started with these two… The Springfield Loaded (CA Compliant) and a Kimber Stainless II, both chambered in .45
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Both were put together very nicely, both ran great. Only issue was, the Springfield was shooting 6” high at 20 yards. Off to Springfield it went to have the sights replaced. This would be the first of many that would end up going back to the manufacturer.

Continued below…
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Cofisher
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by Cofisher » Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:14 pm

Beautiful pistols. Never been a 1911 fan, but you've got my interest.
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TheBackyardRange
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by TheBackyardRange » Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:22 pm

In the meantime, I had ordered two Kimber Stainless II’s in 10mm. I like them in pairs (which will also change during the course of this saga). I had actually ordered both 10mm before I ordered the .45 but be things as they were, stuff came in at different times. Long story short, I ended up selling one to little brother before it was ever fired. I figured I’d still have a pair of them even if they were two different cartridges.

Anyway, I had a new 10mm Kimber Stainless on hand, figured I’d add to the comparison review. It was a bit gritty out of the box, required deep cleaning, as in stripped it completely down to the frame and reassembled. That helped a little but it was still gritty. During breakin, it required an oiling every box of ammo or it would get gummy and start having issues.

Still not satisfied, I ordered a second Springfield Loaded, also in 45. This one had issues chambering and ejecting spent cases. I opened it up and identified the problem. The hand engraving of the building numbers had raised edges that were chewing on the disconnector.
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Long story short, rather than send another one back to the manufacturer, I grabbed some sand paper, knocked off the rough edges and smoothed it out. Put it back together and it ran perfect.

My anniversary rolled around in April and the wife wanted to buy me a new gun for our anniversary, so i took her to Scheels and we looked at a Kimber Rapide Dawn. A beautiful gun. I did the math and after taxes, it was going to be just shy of $1800. Told her I appreciate the willingness but I can’t spend $1800 on a 9mm. So I went home, found another Kimber Stainless II in 10mm for half the price and ordered it… man that was a mistake…

Continued below…
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TheBackyardRange
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by TheBackyardRange » Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:29 pm

Here we are, the first Springfield was back, the new Kimber 10mm was here. Ready for the range review!
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Of course, things wouldn’t go quite as smoothly as I’d hoped.
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“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.” ― Ronald Reagan

TheBackyardRange
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by TheBackyardRange » Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:39 pm

All pistols grouped well at 10 yards.

The newest Kimber Stainless in 10mm that the wife got me had a 90% failure to feed. Tried 2 ammo brands and 3 mags. Nada. I did manage to get the group though, loading 1 round at a time.
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The first Kimber Stainless in 10mm ran good and grouped well, however, could use a sight drift.
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The Kimber Stainless in 45 shot a great group, although could use a sight drift.
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The new Springfield Loaded was the tightest group at 5/8”, could not be happier.
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The original Springfield Loaded that got the new sights was spot on.
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When it was over, I packed up the Anniversary gun and shipped it to Kimber for warranty repairs.

Of course, that would not be the end of our story, I haven’t bought enough guns yet! Continued below….
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TheBackyardRange
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by TheBackyardRange » Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:55 pm

Now, first, let me say, my anniversary guns are special guns. Those will never leave my collection. That becomes an important point later in this story.

While the Kimber 10mm was out getting repaired, I decided to try one of the new Springfield Garrisons. So I ordered one. While waiting on it to arrive, I found another at a better price so I ordered it too. Both in 9mm.

My Kimber 10mm came back. I loaded up two mags and was a bit surprised that the first mag had a failure to feed. The second mag locked the slide back mid magazine. I filmed running those two mags and sent the video to Kimber. In addition, I also ran 3 more magazines through it with the recoils spring from the 10mm that worked and the gun ran fine. Swapped the springs back, sent all of the information and the gun back to Kimber for a second time. I also asked them for a second time to fix the screwups the smith did to it in the factory, then tried covering it up with a bead blast. I told the rep I had asked the previous rep to have it fixed the first time and they didn’t. He assured me that they would do it this time.

Quite frankly, at this point, I really wanted nothing to do with that anniversary 10mm. I talked with the wife and decided to order the original gun we looked at, but $400 cheaper online. When the 10mm came back, I’d auction it off. Just had bad juju all over it.

The new Kimber Rapide Dawn in 9mm.
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Continued below….
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TheBackyardRange
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by TheBackyardRange » Tue Jun 21, 2022 9:03 pm

I completely forgot to mention that this is what the feed ramp looked like on the Kimber 10mm compared to the one that worked.
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Yes, it came out of the factory that way. Instead of replacing the barrel, they tried “fixing it”. That was one of the major deciding factors in getting rid of it.

While waiting on the Springfield Garrison 9mm to arrive I also found a good price on a .45 version. As things always do, guns arrived out of order and I ended up with 1 in 9mm and 1 in 45 as the first to arrive.

Continued below…
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TheBackyardRange
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by TheBackyardRange » Tue Jun 21, 2022 9:10 pm

The Garrison 9mm.. well, the picture speaks 1000 words…
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This was all from the first magazine. Mag two ran the same. I brought the gun inside and checked the usual suspect and sure enough, rough raised edges on the engraving just line the Loaded 45. I sanded it down and smoothed it out. That took us from 100% failure to eject down to 10%. I ran several more mags through it before I decided that it wasn’t going to correct itself, I was going to have to send it in.

The Springfield Garrison 45 ran flawless and still is to this day. Not enough good things to say about it.
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“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.” ― Ronald Reagan

TheBackyardRange
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by TheBackyardRange » Tue Jun 21, 2022 9:19 pm

The Kimber Rapide ran excellent. Not a single issue with it yet. I took the wife out back for a 1911 day. I intentionally left her gun in the vault.
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When we unpacked everything, she looked at me with that look, you know the one im talking about.. I screwed up look and asked me what she was going to shoot. I laughed and handed her that Rapide. That was a big mistake. She now claims my Rapide as her own. She put 400rds through that gun almost non-stop. I’ve never seen her shoot a gun like that. 400rds in about an 8” circle as fast as I could load the mags.

Shortly after this day, the second Springfield Garrison 9mm arrived. That one had other chambering issues. Rounds were hanging at the base of the feed ramp and having a hard stop, so again… off to Springfield…
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BrokenolMarine
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Re: My 1911’s

Post by BrokenolMarine » Tue Jun 21, 2022 9:33 pm

I hate buying things that don't work as advertised... Especially when they know your name by now. I'd expect they would offer something for all your trouble.
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