Brand new Kimber LW Dark Patrol troubles…..

Bull Durham

Bull Durham

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I purchased this BNIB Kimber LW Night Patrol from a big box store last night , 8 Jan.
I looked at it and worked the slide, safety, etc. at the counter and it looked to be GTG.
I did notice that it looked “wet” with oil seeping out of the rail/slide juncture. I thought it was a great deal on sale at $659 and took it home.
This retailer has signage advising “no returns/exchanges “ and that any trouble with the weapon would mean that I had to get a RA from Kimber and send CCW it back to them.
I got it home and was about to clean/lube it when I noticed powder residue and oil seeping from the back of the slide and around the hammer.
I took it out today to shoot it and it wouldn’t run a second 7250D073-61CC-49BF-B94E-C670C14E6E1B.jpegE6220DE7-A5D5-413F-8190-6AE1E9A2B671.jpeg03D995F5-0E3C-4A68-BD22-7C277991EE6A.jpeground without a feedway stoppage. It would not go into battery and appeared that the rounds were hitting the top of the barrel hood.
I tried the factory mags as well as Chip McCormick Power mags and Wilson 47D’s to no avail. Same problems.
Anyone got a clue what’s causing this? I’ll attach some pics.
I’m going to call Kimber CS tomorrow and get an RA.
It’s brand new and still under warranty for a year.
I could accept the hassle of returning it to the retailer for an exchange but I fer that a BNIB pistol should run more than one friggen round without a stoppage.
 

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What ammo? FMJ, hollow points?
 
Hey Ash,
I ran 230 ball.
It was Armscor brass.
 
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Thanks for the replies guys.
I’ve never messed with the extractors on 1911’s. I haven’t even taken the thing apart yet as I’d hate to “void my warranty “.
 
Thanks gents,
I appreciate the replies. I like tinkering on stuff but agree with y’all in that a new weapon should function as intended.
I’m gonna do the RA.
Thanks guys, I’ll post what Kimber does/tells me as it goes along.
Hopefully, it won’t take too long!
 
I just stepped out on the deck and tried the holly points just for grins and it ran all four of them like crap through a goose.
I’ve never heard of a 1911 that would not run ball but would HP’s.
Grrrr..,,..C918905D-8888-47D7-8A31-F48937E4DE61.jpeg
 
Bull Durham said:
I just stepped out on the deck and tried the holly points just for grins and it ran all four of them like crap through a goose.
I’ve never heard of a 1911 that would not run ball but would HP’s.
Grrrr..,,..View attachment 420824
Click to expand...
HP’s many times are a little “hotter” than bulk FMJ ammo. Check the ammo specs on the HP’s you ran.
 
Tried plunking the ammo into the barrel?
 
HannibalMontana said:
Looks like the extractor tension may be a bit on the tight side.

Or extractor/extractor hook may be too long. That’s a pretty common problem with production (and even some “high end” 1911s).
Click to expand...

Amp Mangum said:
Try some different ball ammo, the Armscor stuff could be out of spec.
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Jeppo said:
Tried plunking the ammo into the barrel?
Click to expand...

Before you send it back. I would take a round of the Armscor FMJ and then a round of the JHP and do the extractor test.



Then do the plunk test that Jeppo alluded to with both rounds. If the Armscor does not plunk then that could be your issue.

If you have another brand of FMJ I would try that. Armscor is not a super high quality round. It is not bad but as about the same level of QC as WWB.

If none of these yield answers or better results send it in.
 
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Speaking of plunk testing ammo…

A friend recently had feeding failures with his newish carry pistol that had been 100% reliable. It was suggested that carriers plunk test each round that they actually carry. I did it yesterday and was pleased to find no issues.
 
We just spent thirty minutes on speaker phone in his back yard. That gun just doesn’t like that Armscor ammo, and needs to be broken in good. It’s got a tight slide to frame fit, and that slows things down. It ran some other 45 ammo fine.
 
As mentioned above, that failure looks like an extractor issue. Did you keep any spent cases? Can we see close up photos of the rim area on that round in your F2Feed photo?
 
fieldgrade said:
We just spent thirty minutes on speaker phone in his back yard. That gun just doesn’t like that Armscor ammo, and needs to be broken in good. It’s got a tight slide to frame fit, and that slows things down. It ran some other 45 ammo fine.
Click to expand...

Good job! You did your good deed for the day!
 
wvsig said:
Good job! You did your good deed for the day!
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JD is good peeps. We needed to catch up on family, farms, whiskey, and kids. That 1911 was just a good excuse to do that.
 
Hey guys,
Thanks for the replies. As Fieldgrade said upthread, he gave me a call and talked me through a few things/scenarios.
The pistol is running a bit better now but not as it should. I’m going to switch ammo and will try to run some “break in” rounds through it.
I got rained off my pond dam so I left the brass laying. I’ll go down tomorrow and police it up and will get pics of the rims.
Thanks again guys for your help.
This thing may just end up running…,…
Thanks, JD
 
Bull Durham said:
Hey guys,
Thanks for the replies. As Fieldgrade said upthread, he gave me a call and talked me through a few things/scenarios.
The pistol is running a bit better now but not as it should. I’m going to switch ammo and will try to run some “break in” rounds through it.
I got rained off my pond dam so I left the brass laying. I’ll go down tomorrow and police it up and will get pics of the rims.
Thanks again guys for your help.
This thing may just end up running…,…
Thanks, JD
Click to expand...

Lube it up properly as well.

 
....not the first time I've seen someone have trouble with armscor .45 acp. Like someone said, its like wwb... for good or ill.

I bet the rims are slightly larger then some. Would certainly cause it to choke that way, if the extractor did not want to play nice.
 
In addition to the plunking test roll your carry rounds across a flat surface to see if they are round or slightly oblong. Some years back I had a box of damn Remington Golden Sabers given to me that over half were so bad they rolled like an old crooked pool cue … another reason I stopped buying Remington crap.
 
NCFubar said:
In addition to the plunking test roll your carry rounds across a flat surface to see if they are round or slightly oblong. Some years back I had a box of damn Remington Golden Sabers given to me that over half were so bad they rolled like an old crooked pool cue … another reason I stopped buying Remington crap.
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If they’re not round, they could still “plunk”?
 
A gun should shoot any ammo in that caliber. I know that quality and type of ammo impacts grouping and terminal ballistics, but on the front end a 9mm should shoot any 9mm, .45 the same, etc.

Either it's a gun issue or an ammo issue. But there's an issue.

I don't trust a gun that refuses to shoot a specific brand of ammo, or the ammo that refuses to be shot.

Glad you can shoot it, I'm glad your other gun can shoot the armscor, but you need to figure it out.
 
Palmer812 said:
@Bull Durham may I ask where you found the gun for $659? I’ve been looking at them. Lol.
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Hi Palmer,
I hate to say they’re name as they don’t accept returns or exchanges on weapons.
I got it at (replace the R with an N in my handle) Sports during a “Flash Sale”.
They email you during the flash sales and I think the sales are only three days if I remember correctly.
It was on sale for $699 and the flash sale email dropped it to $649.
@Jeppo is right as well!
 
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Ben Jefferson said:
I know that Kimber has gotten a bad rep but I have never had an issue with my TLE / RL
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Same with my little Ultra Carry. No issues, except for the operator not being able to hit the targets.

There are three (four) variables in a functioning pistol that all interact:
The pistol
The ammo
The magazine
The operator
One is wrong, everything fails.
 
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wvsig said:
Before you send it back. I would take a round of the Armscor FMJ and then a round of the JHP and do the extractor test. https://www.yuisushi.com/

Then do the plunk test that Jeppo alluded to with both rounds. If the Armscor does not plunk then that could be your issue.

If you have another brand of FMJ I would try that. Armscor is not a super high quality round. It is not bad but as about the same level of QC as WWB.

If none of these yield answers or better results send it in.
Click to expand...
I is confruzed... I didn't see the extractor test on the menu.
 
Get Off My Lawn said:
I is confruzed... I didn't see the extractor test on the menu.
Click to expand...
LOL wrong link posting in too many threads at once still had sushi on the brain from this thread.

https://carolinafirearmsforum.com/index.php?threads/i-can’t-be-the-only-one….105242/
 
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