Kimber or Springfield 6" Long Slide 45 ACP?
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I voted Springfield for two reasons.
1. Historically, Kimber has an inconsistent record on the quality and reliability of their handguns. My understanding is that they are fine right now, but they have had their ups and downs.
2. I am not a fan of the Swartz firing pin safety that they use on their 1911s.
1. Historically, Kimber has an inconsistent record on the quality and reliability of their handguns. My understanding is that they are fine right now, but they have had their ups and downs.
2. I am not a fan of the Swartz firing pin safety that they use on their 1911s.
While I'am a Springfield fan boy . The longslide only comes in 10mm now .
The last 45acp longslides were made in 2014 . They were nice pistols .
Have you looked at Dan Wesson longslides .
https://danwessonfirearms.com/product/bruin-2/
The last 45acp longslides were made in 2014 . They were nice pistols .
Have you looked at Dan Wesson longslides .
https://danwessonfirearms.com/product/bruin-2/
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Springfield for sure as you probably want to shoot it......all the Kimbers I owned were good for malfunction drills.
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You mean Imbel? As in made in a Brazilian factory?
You say done WITH Embel? Your is’s and with’s really alter what you are saying....
Springfield was a parts gun, maybe that's changed. They didn't actually make anything, they assembled guns from parts they bought from whoever was cheapest. I don't know if that's changed or not but I know Kimber never has been that kind of company. The only Springfield I ever owned, the inside looked like the machining had been done with a chisel and hammer. The extractor stuck out of the slide 1/4 inch and it was supposed to be one of there better guns, a 40 cal. EMP. I would buy an RIA and have a good smith check it out before I'd mess with a Springfield, you'd have the same thing except you'd be the one dealing with the smith.
Well, I’ve been reading this with great interest since I bought a kimber .45 longslide target a bit ago. My first Kimber.
First off it is a series 70, no Swartz safety.
Secondly, I have to say I’m a bit of a Springfield fn boy as well, even though they were weren’t great to start with, my emp4 was full of dirt and machining debris to start with but worked well once clean up until the glued ejector came loose, I believe this was caused from the top round in the mag hitting it.
My 9mm ss r-officer was a total pos but after 1 1/2yrs of working on it, it has become a great & damn accurate piece for the last 10k rds. I think Springfield has improved their quality since all this. The main problem was a very tightly fit extractor that caused all kinds of issues,,,,,check & tune the extractor on anything new, it really affects the performance.
The Kimber, I initially started out looking for a Springfield longslide after shooting Bills SACS longslide, what a truly great piece ! But they haven’t been made for awhile now and when they come up they are very expensive, the Kimber was only $850, but the quality was reflected in the price. It was truly lacking.
On the Kimber the barrel hood to slide fit was very good/tight but the barrel bushing fit was very loose, a call to egw fixed that problem, also called for a oversized .201in slide stop which required me to ream the frame as well, the barrel link hole was still .005in bigger and I ended up changing it as well and in retrospect I would have just changed the link but the frame holes were different side to side as well.
All said and done the Kimber is now quite accurate and after tuning the extremely loose extractor it is totally reliable functioning. While the gun functions excellently the astetic’s leave a lot to be desired, it is not the quality fit and finish of Kimber years ago. But it functions very well. My Springfield’s are definitely better finished.
I’ll add that since buying my springer SS 9mm RO and all the trouble with it & my EMP4 I don’t know if I’ll buy another Springfield, it just depends, and the poor quality of the Kimber longslide has me thinking no more Kimbers either, think I’ll just enjoy what I have and spend the money on some beer & reloading supplies.
Personally I believe that just about anything short of a Brown , Wilson or ACW, is going to need some tuning and work.... my.02
First off it is a series 70, no Swartz safety.
Secondly, I have to say I’m a bit of a Springfield fn boy as well, even though they were weren’t great to start with, my emp4 was full of dirt and machining debris to start with but worked well once clean up until the glued ejector came loose, I believe this was caused from the top round in the mag hitting it.
My 9mm ss r-officer was a total pos but after 1 1/2yrs of working on it, it has become a great & damn accurate piece for the last 10k rds. I think Springfield has improved their quality since all this. The main problem was a very tightly fit extractor that caused all kinds of issues,,,,,check & tune the extractor on anything new, it really affects the performance.
The Kimber, I initially started out looking for a Springfield longslide after shooting Bills SACS longslide, what a truly great piece ! But they haven’t been made for awhile now and when they come up they are very expensive, the Kimber was only $850, but the quality was reflected in the price. It was truly lacking.
On the Kimber the barrel hood to slide fit was very good/tight but the barrel bushing fit was very loose, a call to egw fixed that problem, also called for a oversized .201in slide stop which required me to ream the frame as well, the barrel link hole was still .005in bigger and I ended up changing it as well and in retrospect I would have just changed the link but the frame holes were different side to side as well.
All said and done the Kimber is now quite accurate and after tuning the extremely loose extractor it is totally reliable functioning. While the gun functions excellently the astetic’s leave a lot to be desired, it is not the quality fit and finish of Kimber years ago. But it functions very well. My Springfield’s are definitely better finished.
I’ll add that since buying my springer SS 9mm RO and all the trouble with it & my EMP4 I don’t know if I’ll buy another Springfield, it just depends, and the poor quality of the Kimber longslide has me thinking no more Kimbers either, think I’ll just enjoy what I have and spend the money on some beer & reloading supplies.
Personally I believe that just about anything short of a Brown , Wilson or ACW, is going to need some tuning and work.... my.02
I hear what you're saying and wont argue the point. The problem I have is that you can read about problems with any 1911 manufacture on this web site, Wilson, Brown, L.B., any of them. I have 3 Kimbers and a D.W. PM9, all function perfectly and have since new, I guess you could say I'm good. If, and that's a big if, I was thinking about a new 1911 I'm not sure I wouldn't just go for an RIA and spend some money on it, or the cheapest Colt or Kimber. It seems that there is a good chance that whatever you buy there may be problems so go into it with the intention of working it over.
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You are confusing the Springfield with Taurus. :biglaugh:
I don’t own a Springfield, so I can’t speak to the quality and I did not know that they are/were a parts gun. Can someone confirm that? I hear somewhat favorable comments about them to the point that I doubt that would be the case for at least the last ten years.
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1,309 Posts
My understanding that that all Kimber 1911's, since the Custom II line came out, have the Swartz firing pin safety.
Am I wrong about that?
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NO, I am not kidding.
Kimber had problems with reliability of their external extractor when they tried to put them on the 1911. Unfortunately, they actually went into production with this being a known problem. That alone woudl be enough to keep me from buying one. Any manufacturer that goes into production with a known design problem is not somebody that I want to buy from. On top of that they had a tremendous amount of trouble getting the Swartz firing pin safety to work properly when they first started using it. Again, they went into production before they had it working reliably. Yes, I know that there were plenty of examples that worked just fine, and that is ok if you are talking about only being concerned about one or two. But when you have an entire production line that is hit or miss on the reliability of a new feature, I am not interested.
On top of that, I am just not a fan of firing pin safeties on the 1911.
As for Springfield buying cast frames from Imbel in Brazil... no, they have not be working with Brazil for a number of years now. They frames and slides are all US made now, although I do not know what their source is. But even if they were, Imbel is a reputable company and i would not hesitate to buy a firearm made by them. In fact I have two that were manufactured by Imbel. they have both been rock solid in terms of both reliability and accuracy.
Bottom line is that I do have my own opinion that may or may not agree with yours, and that is ok. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and just because it does not agree with mine or yours does not make it invalid or wrong. My opinions are based on my experience as I am sure that yours are based on your experiences. Since we do not have the same experience, I would not expect all of our opinions to be the same.
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If I wanted a 6" .45 for range fun....
I'd be looking at a 2019 Bruin like Billy1911 suggested.....or a Les Baer
http://www.lesbaer.com/UM6.html
I'd be looking at a 2019 Bruin like Billy1911 suggested.....or a Les Baer
http://www.lesbaer.com/UM6.html
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1,465 Posts
I have two issues with Kimber, one is mentioned above (Custom) :barf: Not directed at you at all their Black Jack.
(not reliable)
I have owned 4 Kimbers, all of them had function problems. In trying to find local Pistolsmith to help with the issues, I was always told no, they would not work on a Kimber. The Kimber warranty department was no help at all, in fact arrogant.
(misleading)
The deceit in branding a name CUSTOM, when there is nothing about a Kimber that is custom, never went over well with me.
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