Kimber solo light primer strikes?

[TaylorS]

Picked one of these up because it was cheap and it said Kimber and after reading up on it I see why it was cheap. That said I have been having issues with handloads not firing off when I drop the striker. First time it happened I hauled the rounds home and gauged primer depths all were .000-.003 deep which should have been fine last time I was able to get out I took the trusty M92 out and ran the same 4 fail to fire rounds through it no problem. And another 2 mags through the Kimber and same issue3/6 won’t fire. But they still run through the M92. I’m leaning toward a short firing pin but could also be the striker spring any thoughts besides throw it in the dumpster? Pictures can be produced of the weapon parts if needed. Not sure I could find the brass.


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[Mauser 98K]

could be firing pin or weak spring, but it could also be too much headspace.. i had a cheap cobra arms a few years back that there was too much slop and the firing pin strike would just kick the cartridge forward and not fire. i have also seen things get stuck in the hammer assembly and keep the hammer from going as far forward as it should. if you can find a way to do it, take the slide off and push the firing pin forward from the end where the hammer strikes to where the firing pin protrudes out of the firing pin hole to check for length. if that checks out, then using a dummy round or empty case, put it in the chamber and let the slide close on it and see if the thing will move back and forth, this should tell you if it is bad headspace. there should be no movement at all in a chambered case or dummy round if it headspaces properly on the case. check the thing and see if there is anything caught behind the hammer that might prevent it from going far enough forward for a proper strike.

will it fire factory loads? if so then the choice of primers for the hand loads might be too hard.

[TaylorS]

It has worked well with the little bit of factory I had but it’s not every round it does it on most of the time it’s 2 failures per mag but it’s done it up to 3 times. I’ll pull it apart and find my dummy round and check headspace as well. I’ll keep ya updated


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[TaylorS]

Ok so got a chance to take it down while just dropping the dummy round down the pipe and doing the same with several other 9mms I have.


head space seems ok but if I pull the slide off the frame and chamber that dummy round the extractor hold it up agains the slide face and pulls it out of the barrel just slightly. The barrel and slide can wiggle side to side slightly with a round chambered. I did notice this while I had it apart. I measured the back of the chamber and the case head about where the 2 meet and had .008” slack. While I had the round in the chamber as above I measured down to the case from the nipple that protrudes and got around .015” give or take for my shaky hands.



There is obvious wear on the upper part of the slide and on the groves on the barrel. No idea what caused that.

I looked the firing pin over and everything looks good no mushrooming or deformation that I could tell the pins OAL was 1.615” and to the shoulder 1.357”


I did find while cleaning up today these 4 from the last range go you can see how light the primer strike was. All these are seated .000-.003” deep


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[Texas by God]

Buy a cheap box of 9mm such as Monarch or Blazer. If it doesn't fire 100%, get a new striker spring or call Kimber. The expensive Solo should work; a $150 Hi-point does!

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[EMC45]

My mother's husband bought one of these Solos. He and I shot it with some RWS 9MM ball ammo. It did great and was accurate. The pistol looks like a 1911 and a 1908 pocket auto had a gun-child.

[TaylorS]

It’s a good little gun, when it works I’ll call Kimber this week see if I can get some parts shipped


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