Thursday, March 2, 2017

Wee Kimber

Shooting Illustrated has a lovely little cover gun and a review inside.  A Kimber wee 9mm.




From the glossy pictures the fit and finish makes the gun look better than standard run of the mill, and it's a rather handsome Officer size 1911 style, with ambi-safeties.  Look at the machining on the back of that guide rod.  I am impresses with the styling, the aesthetics.  I am a sucker for that chainlink 'checkering.'  Solid trigger body is nice.  I find skeletonized to be getting a little dated myself. 

The single coil recoil spring concerns me a little bit.  Not a lotta length to the slide operation, nor a lotta mass so these little guns ask a lot of that spring.  I've heard folks say not to expect more than 200 rounds out of one before needing to replace it.  Who knows.  I do now that if I were to get a pistol like this I'd go in knowing that that was a distinct possibility, and plan accordingly.  Maybe I'd be pleasantly surprised with the spring performance and have less to worry about.

What did pique my curiosity was this:


What is that roll pin in the frame above the trigger for?  There is another one back by the thumb safety but I have a half an idea what is does.  Interesting.

3 comments:

ASM826 said...

I think those Kimbers have a hinged trigger, not a typical 1911 trigger. Something like a Sig 238 that has a pin in the same location.

Tam said...

That's not a chopped down 1911, that's a bigger .380, like the Sig Sauer P938, which are based on the little Star pistols.

Will said...

Wolff made single springs for the Officers .45acp that worked better than the original double spring setup. Also in the Mustang Lightweight. Good stuff.