horseshoeprovodnikov
New Member
Howdy folks. Sorry if this is the wrong forum. I tried my hardest to use the search function but unless I’m doing something wrong, I can’t seem to ever find what I’m looking for by using the search bar.
I’ve got a Kimber Pro Carry 2 that’s having trouble. Would have sold it off long ago but it belonged to a good friend who’s been gone several years now.
He rarely fired it, and thus never had any issues with it in the two years or so he owned it. His stepson carried it a while, and he fired it about 2-300 times. He had several issues, but he figured it was from using steel cased ammo and the less than stellar factory mags. Step son needed money so he sold the gun to me, knowing that it would “remain in the family”.
i bought some Chip McCormack and some Wilson combat mags for it, and I set out to shooting, determined to “break it in”. I put about 600 rounds thru it and had the same issues. It would light strike fairly often, and also eject weakly. When id get light strikes, the primers would be barely dented. When id hit them again, they’d go off and the indentions looked normal.
I did some reading and learned that a lot of the series ll kimber guns had issues with the firing pin block and the grip safety timing. I also noticed that the firing pin stop was very loose, and the extractor had zero bend on it at all. I couldn’t remove the rear sight at the time, so I couldn’t remove the block. I decided to get a series 70 firing pin from Wilson combat (which wouldn’t be slowed down by the FPB) and I also bought an oversized firing pin stop, and a bulletproof extractor from Wilson. I used a weigand extractor tool to tune the extractor per their instructions, and I tested it with a Lyman trigger pull gauge. I also bought a WC bulletproof guide rod and spring, because I didn’t have the takedown tool from Kimber and I broke a small Allen key when using it to capture the factory rod when disassembling. I got tired of having to fight that factory guide rod, so the Wilson was only put in to make disassembly easier. The spring is the same weight as the factory spring.
after putting it all together and firing, to my amazement, I had no more light strikes and I was extracting perfectly at 3oclock, well past my head.
however, I uncovered a new issue. The pistol is failing to go into battery after firing about 20-30 rounds. When it’s clean and wet, it runs great. When it finally gets a little dirty and flaked with carbon, it’ll fail to go all the way into battery, and it takes a good hard smack to close it. I tried six different mags and several types of fmj ammo. I even tried putting the original guide rod and spring in to no avail. At first I thought the extractor may have been too tight, but I checked it again and it’s exactly where the Weigand instructions say it should be.
it almost seems like the mouth of the casing is catching on the inside of the chamber somehow. When I’m pushing the slide forward i feel like I can see the very top of the casing fighting against the barrel steel up at the top of the chamber. When this happens, the nose of the bullet seems to be on the right track, so I can’t figure out why it’s only happening sometimes instead of all the time. Sometimes I can make it 30 shots before it happens, other times it’s within 5 or 6.
I haven’t touched the pistol in months but it’s really bothering me that I can’t trust it, and I want to get it into the hands of a professional. I’ve been scouring the forums and so far I’ve discovered two different smiths within about 60 miles of me. One is Trivettes gunsmithing up in Lenoir, and the other is Aquilla Custom Gun works. Aquilla is about an hour and a half from me so it’s a bit further. I’m near the Hickory area of NC. Really don’t want to have to mail my gun anywhere, I’d like to be able to drive to wherever it goes. I already talked to Kimber before I ever changed a single part on the gun. They basically told me that since I wasn’t the first owner, they’d have to charge me some ungoldly hourly fee, in addition to me paying a high price for two way priority shipping. They also kinda acted like it wasn’t a big deal, and that I should keep breaking it in (despite the gun coming up on a thousand rounds total thru it from original owner, to stepson and then me).
sorry for the really long post guys, just looking to see if anyone has any thoughts and I’m taking recommendations of good 1911 smiths within an hour or so of me. Thanks in advance!
I’ve got a Kimber Pro Carry 2 that’s having trouble. Would have sold it off long ago but it belonged to a good friend who’s been gone several years now.
He rarely fired it, and thus never had any issues with it in the two years or so he owned it. His stepson carried it a while, and he fired it about 2-300 times. He had several issues, but he figured it was from using steel cased ammo and the less than stellar factory mags. Step son needed money so he sold the gun to me, knowing that it would “remain in the family”.
i bought some Chip McCormack and some Wilson combat mags for it, and I set out to shooting, determined to “break it in”. I put about 600 rounds thru it and had the same issues. It would light strike fairly often, and also eject weakly. When id get light strikes, the primers would be barely dented. When id hit them again, they’d go off and the indentions looked normal.
I did some reading and learned that a lot of the series ll kimber guns had issues with the firing pin block and the grip safety timing. I also noticed that the firing pin stop was very loose, and the extractor had zero bend on it at all. I couldn’t remove the rear sight at the time, so I couldn’t remove the block. I decided to get a series 70 firing pin from Wilson combat (which wouldn’t be slowed down by the FPB) and I also bought an oversized firing pin stop, and a bulletproof extractor from Wilson. I used a weigand extractor tool to tune the extractor per their instructions, and I tested it with a Lyman trigger pull gauge. I also bought a WC bulletproof guide rod and spring, because I didn’t have the takedown tool from Kimber and I broke a small Allen key when using it to capture the factory rod when disassembling. I got tired of having to fight that factory guide rod, so the Wilson was only put in to make disassembly easier. The spring is the same weight as the factory spring.
after putting it all together and firing, to my amazement, I had no more light strikes and I was extracting perfectly at 3oclock, well past my head.
however, I uncovered a new issue. The pistol is failing to go into battery after firing about 20-30 rounds. When it’s clean and wet, it runs great. When it finally gets a little dirty and flaked with carbon, it’ll fail to go all the way into battery, and it takes a good hard smack to close it. I tried six different mags and several types of fmj ammo. I even tried putting the original guide rod and spring in to no avail. At first I thought the extractor may have been too tight, but I checked it again and it’s exactly where the Weigand instructions say it should be.
it almost seems like the mouth of the casing is catching on the inside of the chamber somehow. When I’m pushing the slide forward i feel like I can see the very top of the casing fighting against the barrel steel up at the top of the chamber. When this happens, the nose of the bullet seems to be on the right track, so I can’t figure out why it’s only happening sometimes instead of all the time. Sometimes I can make it 30 shots before it happens, other times it’s within 5 or 6.
I haven’t touched the pistol in months but it’s really bothering me that I can’t trust it, and I want to get it into the hands of a professional. I’ve been scouring the forums and so far I’ve discovered two different smiths within about 60 miles of me. One is Trivettes gunsmithing up in Lenoir, and the other is Aquilla Custom Gun works. Aquilla is about an hour and a half from me so it’s a bit further. I’m near the Hickory area of NC. Really don’t want to have to mail my gun anywhere, I’d like to be able to drive to wherever it goes. I already talked to Kimber before I ever changed a single part on the gun. They basically told me that since I wasn’t the first owner, they’d have to charge me some ungoldly hourly fee, in addition to me paying a high price for two way priority shipping. They also kinda acted like it wasn’t a big deal, and that I should keep breaking it in (despite the gun coming up on a thousand rounds total thru it from original owner, to stepson and then me).
sorry for the really long post guys, just looking to see if anyone has any thoughts and I’m taking recommendations of good 1911 smiths within an hour or so of me. Thanks in advance!
