I picked up a used Kimber TLE II a couple of weeks ago. My first real experience with a Kimber. So far, very impressed with the gun, especially at this price point. Close to 200 rounds of factory ball ammo, no problems feeding or ejecting. I had to do a little work in the thumb safety to prevent it from hurting my thumb, and the grips were a bit too aggressive for my tastes. But those were very easily fixed.
Will carry this one some. Not a fan of the finish they use, wears pretty fast, but no big deal, I like the look of a well loved gun. On the fence as far as the Swartz style firing pin safety, makes more sense than the Series 80 stuff, but will most likely disable it. Firing pin safeties on a 1911 seem to be more of a solution looking for a problem (in my opinion).
The fit of the gun is certainly as good or better than some of the semi custom guns out there. It is not perfect, but good overall.
I sold my Kimber, you know that the lever to remove the slide is the slide stop and I kept scratching my stainless slide every time I went to clean it. Man I would get upset and it seemed so unavoidable.
I actually kept my Covert just as a reminder, when I messed up that beautiful flat dark earth finish on my brand new $1500 gun, I realized why gunsmiths call it the idiot mark. Since then I had it replaced and I’m way more cautious with the rest. However, even on my stainless you can see a slight marring. It must be the finish, because all my time in the service with Colt 1911’s none of them had that mark. They just don’t make em the way they used to.
I think the “Swartz” will not be with me for much longer… But yeah, it would be easy to mess it up, as I usually grab the gun in a shooting grip to re assemble it.
Dawn, I used to own a couple of Wilson Combat 1911’s… I sold them and moved to what I consider a better guns at a better price point. I think I got a steal on the Kimber. Not a whole lot more than I paid for my Sig P365.
Now is a good time to buy used semi custom guns, if you have the $.
The day Randall and I went shooting, I was shooting my Dan Wesson PMC in .38 Superb, and a customized SA Range Officer in 9mm. The RO is a crazy accurate gun.
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