Kimber 1911 3"

[Chill Wills]

I had a chance to put a 1911 Compact through an ammo test to see what it likes.
I shot a new to me Kimber Ultra CDP II It is a compact with a 3" barrel and just slightly shorter grip holding 7 + 1.

I took with me an assortment of various handloads I had in the cupboard and headed to the snowy range.
I can give you a good report. This is a great little 45 ACP!

I was somewhat happy to learn that everything I had loaded from 185 SWC 200JHP 230 TFP and 230 lead hardball feeds and shoots well. The big surprise was just how accurate that little compact 1911 was. Wow!
Now, my full size 1911's have a little brother. :cool::cool::cool:

[Lloyd Smale]

My 3 inch cdp will shoot right along side my gold cup and gold match if i do my part. Its accurate and has been very reliable. couldnt think of a better ccw gun.

[square butte]

I have the Ultra TLE ll and like it very much. Seems to digest everything and not to snappy for muzzle flip. Just about to try and find some extra magazine s for it. Thinking about the Wilsons - although pricey. Any recomendations.

[Potsy]

Been drooling over a CDPII for a while now. I'll have one eventually. I want the short butted version though.
Square Butte, try Chip McCormick Power Mags. I don't shoot just a whole lot but I've got 2 Kimber Mags and a McCormick with a base pad (makes it nicer and less cumbersome when trying to reload quickly) and it seems to run just fine in my Gov't sized Eclipse Target II.

[Keyston44]

I have the Kimber Tactical Ultra I use for my daily carry gun and it will eat anything I put through it.
It's a great carry gun for when I don't feel like carrying the full size steel Kimber.

Key

[Chill Wills]

I have the Kimber Tactical Ultra I use for my daily carry gun and it will eat anything I put through it.
It's a great carry gun for when I don't feel like carrying the full size steel Kimber.

Key

OK! That's it! I am going to work up a load that won't cycle!:p

Keyston44, square butte, Lloyd, That is good to know. I just have the 50 or so rounds through it. Until now, I have only shot two full size Colts. I have been told that compacts can have trouble balancing slide mass, springs and load strength. I am glad to hear other Kimber 1911 compacts work so well too. I looks like Kimber engineered it well.
I like "reliable" in a handgun! It is a good trait.

[birdadly]

I've got about 250 rounds of Mihec's 200gr HP's thru my Ultra Crimson Carry so far. My only issue so far has been the slide not fully closing a few times (1/8" needed to close). Rounds 150-200 it happened fairly often, but then after a good cleaning, it fired the next 48 rounds without hiccup... 49th the slide didn't fully close but round 50 did. I'm guessing it's just getting dirty, or maybe I'm limp-wristing it... only more practice will tell! -Brad

[saz]

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine about the 3" kimber pistols. He has an Ultra carry II and says it will eat everything he feeds it. I do not have that much experience with 1911's, as I have only owned 2. One old springfield and my current Rock Island 1911 A1. Both of them were/are VERY perticular about OAL and a bit less finicky about nose profile- enough to the point that all I ran through them is round nose profile. Both were unpredictable with any type of SWC profiles but would feed RNs like butter from GI type mags so I just stuck with it. I have been thinking about getting myself a short 1911 for carry and I hold his advice in pretty high regard. It will be a bit before I can plunk any more $ down on a new shooter, but I think it may be my next piece.

[Keyston44]

I have the Ultra TLE ll and like it very much. Seems to digest everything and not to snappy for muzzle flip. Just about to try and find some extra magazine s for it. Thinking about the Wilsons - although pricey. Any recomendations.


Wilson magazines are worth the money. That is all I use in my 1911's. Full size and compact.

Key

[Lloyd Smale]

i use nothing but wilsons in both my cdps and for all my competitive shooting. Little more money but there a mag you can trust your life to.

[Dale53]

A gun trader friend of mine gave me a call one day. He invited me over to look at something I might be interested in. It was a Kimber CDP Ultra II. Bling generally doesn't do much for me. However, I freely admit this was such a good lookin' little feller, that I had to have it. I had a good Colt Commander that had had some work done to it - a very reliable carry gun that I swapped (along with some boot) and took the little beauty home.

A couple of days later, I managed to get to the range. The downside is all I had loaded was rather lightly loaded with an H&G #130 SWC. This bullet is NOT known as a good feeder in "off the shelf" 1911's. Well, I had to shoot the new gun, and if it had to be single shot, then so be it. I was going to shoot it. I put an NRA Timed fire target at 25 yards. I fired ten shots and took a look. Standing, with no support, the worst shot was a nine. I couldn't believe it. With that short sight radius I figured I would be doing good to stay in the black. Further, it gobbled those rounds up without a bobble. Now, how about that? My trader buddy witnessed this, and his eyes were as big as a grapefruit!

Here is a picture of the little darling:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Dale53/DalesPistolsRevolvers5Selects-0206.jpg

Dale53

[Chill Wills]

That Kimber sure look like mine! Yes, I mostly like my arms to be understated --- like blue and walnut. Not much for black plastic and SS but glad others like it.
This Kimber somewhat is the exception to the rule for me, I LIKE IT.

I have the two mags that Kimber provides with it. Are they good? I use Chip McCormick mags in my two 5" Colts. What's the story on these short mags?
How would you rate the options as to best to never-not even free?

[Dale53]

Chill Wills;
I don't really consider myself a bonafide "expert" on 1911 magazines. However, I loaded for and shot NRA Bullseye off and on for several years with a good 1911. Then I got seriously into IPSC back when it was a martial art (late 70's and early 80's). During a five year period, I cast bullets, loaded, and shot 75,000 rounds of .45 ACP. I had a pair of 1911's (one was my backup) that were both Full House by a local truly experienced pistolsmith (Harold Johnson of Cincinnati, Ohio). Harold was a Marine Gunnery Sergeant and built MacMillan's guns when he ruled Camp Perry. He was the "real thing". So, my 1911's are extremely reliable (like as near 100% as it is possible to make). I shot at least forty local matches (we had two top ten in the world shooters most of those matches) and several BIG matches around the country. I NEVER had a alibi that cost me points except one time that I retarded the slides return with my off side thumb.

During all of that time I relied on issue military magazines. I have nothing but respect for them. I have a couple of Wilson's and a couple of McCormick's (never used the McCormicks, as yet) but I have seen nothing that tells me that the foo-foo magazines are one bit better than my military ones (except the price).

So, that's were I stand (as pitiful as it is:mrgreen:).

Dale53

[MtGun44]

As long as you avoid the super short rounds like 185 target SWCs (say H&G 130s) the
military mags are great. The newer mags have all gone to some variation of an early
release design, which is not necessary with full length rounds, IME. With a military
mag, the 1911 is a controlled round feed gun, with the early release mags, the round
pops out of the mag before it is under control of the extractor. Cycle some rounds
super slow (pull firing pin to be safe) and watch what it does.

I AM NOT saying that the modern mags are bad or will not work, but they DO defeat
the controlled round feeding of the original design and were originally created to deal
with roof jams with H&G 130 type super short target ammo, and are pretty unecessary
with most modern ammo, altho some JHPs may be short enough to roof jam with
a military mag. I use military mags in my CCW Commander because if feels noticably
smoother during hand cycling than with modern mags. Did I ever have a failure to feed
with the modern mags? No. Did it feel 'notchy' when cycling a round into the chamber by
hand? Yes. Now it is dead smooth as it feeds, using Speer GD ammo and military type
feed lips. Universal solution? No idea.

Bill

[gmsharps]

Back in the early 80's I was building my first 45 from an Essex frame under the supervision of a AMTU armorer. It turned out okay a bit of an ugly duck but it sure shot well. I used the only thing I could afford at the time, surplus military mags. Some worked and some didn't. At a match one day a friend loaned me some Metalform Mags that were SS with removable floorplates (sure made it easy to clean) and rounded followers. That gun has never had a malfunction since due to a magazine issue. Other 45's I have picked up since that time mostly Kimbers use my old military mags just fine. I still use Metalform mags when it counts even if it's confidence just in my mind.

gmsharps

[MtGun44]

The Metalforms with the formed 3D steel followers are some of THE very best designs,
and I am convinced that the follower is the BEST out there. Wilson copied that follower
in plastic, as have several others. They eventually crack at the rear top corners, but will
usually work well enough for practice mags even after cracking.

The original design was a Laka mag, made for Laka by Metalform. I heard that Laka
(if that was the person's name, never had details) died in about 1982 and then Metalform
started marketing the mags themselves a year or two later. The original Laka mags were
set up with a long tail on the follower to limit them to 5 rds for bullseye competition. We
bought them and cut down the follower tails so they held 7 rds, before Metalform took over
and all of them were 7 rd mags until they stretched the body for their 8 rd mags. They
now sell many other designs, but I think the original is called the "747" mag now.

Bill

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive got probably 50 wilson mags for standard and officers guns. Ive used them in competition and for practice about exclusively. Some are at least 15 years old. Ive changed springs out in them routinely but ive yet to see a follower crack on one and im sure a few of them have had 50k through them over the years. I dont ever recall anyone at a competitive shoot make that complaint either. by the way i do like metalform and chip mccormick mags too. I agree that for the most part a good gun will work with about any mag but ive seen lots of problems with guns at shoots cured instantly by sticking one of my wilson mag in it. Id bet if i look around at the shoots in this area. 50 percent of the shooters use nothing but wilsons out of the other 50 percent probably 3/4s of them use shooting stars. I can probably count the shooters on one hand that are using GI mags. Got to be a reason for it.