Potential to fire out of battery???

If I understand what you are saying correctly, by pushing back on the front of the barrel, you have moved the slide/barrel back far enough so that the barrel has unlocked from the slide and can go back no more. Then if you pull the trigger, the hammer drops?

If this is correct, then yes, you do have an unsafe condition. It shouldn't do that.

10Ring,
You are correct. If the gun is unloaded, I can manually cock the hammer, push the muzzle till the barrel begins to unlock and rotate downward, when the muzzle is at its rearmost position,,,,,basically, I've pushed the barrel back as far as it will go,,,,I can pull the trigger and the hammer will fall.

Does that indicate a faulty disconnect safety?

Thanks,
H4444

If I understand you, then I agree with 10ring, based on my experience and testing with a Colt M70. I haven't tried it with my new Systema, yet.

I have no experience with Kimber products, so I can't say for sure, but it could be that you have a real problem, and not a quirk of the Kimber line of 1911. I know that a Colt wouldn't do that, as I ran into some problems a couple of months ago, and discussed it on the forum.

I ended up doing what you did: push the barrel out of battery and try to drop the hammer. The Colt was much less forgiving than your Kimber, but it did sometimes happen.

Is it a flaw? I don't know. Is it unsafe? Yes, to a degree.

If you can afford to do so, you would do well to tell Kimber the problem, let them examine the gun for parts problems, and fix any found.

I don't know how far back the slide is when you push the muzzle, but if you can look down at the top of the frame and see the disconnector top, the pistol is functioning properly. If you can't, the disconnector is not being pushed far enough down to clear the sear and you do have a safety problem. It sounds like the disconnector is too short or the sear feet are too long. You can remove the grip safety and, leaving the rest of the pistol asembled, look in the back and move the slide back and forth to observe how the parts interact. You'll learn a lot this way. Try it, you'll like it!!

Bob,,,I think you were right on.

Kimber ended up replacing the disconnector.

It left my hands noon Monday,,,thanks to UPS' online tracking, I saw that it made it to Yonkers at 10:00 AM Tuesday, and was waiting for my when I got home Wednesday from work.

The gun made it and its new Wilson holster as well,,,,so I was happy.

Thanks for letting me know. Right or wrong, it's always good to get some feedback. It sounds like you got some great service and that's also good to know. Enjoy!!