Kimber TLE/RL II First Firing

[Craig Faulkner]

Well, I finally got this bad boy out to the range today. Fun, fun, fun! Anyway, I just finished taking some pictures and composing a letter to Kimber. Does anyone here have any input? Here is what I sent to Kimber...

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I recently purchased a new TLE/RL II and finally got it out to the range today. I believe that I may have an issue. In any case I would like someone’s recommendation on making the gun more reliable.

Out of 250 rounds (new first fire, FMJ) I had over a dozen failures to feed. I know that it takes 500 rounds to break the gun in, but this seems excessive.

Here a few pictures that show some issues that concern me. Please click on the link or cut and paste the link into you browser.

The edge of the casing on some of the failure to feed rounds had the edge of the casing damaged during feeding. I’ve never seen this happen before.

http://209.43.39.162/kimber/K144716_0519edge.jpg

The cases are being dinged. This will cause a problem with reusing these casings.

http://209.43.39.162/kimber/K144716_0516case.jpg

Here is a picture of the ramp so that you can evaluate any enhancement.

http://209.43.39.162/kimber/K144716_0506CH.jpg


I used 6 new Wilson Combat mags (4 – 8 round and 2 – 10 round).

I have an USPSA workshop in a couple weeks and I will be very embarrassed if my gun is as unreliable as I experienced today. I do plan to put a few hundred more rounds through it before then. Do I have an issue or does this meet your quality control standards? What can I do to make this gun 100% (I know nothing is 100%, you know what I mean) reliable? I will be using this gun for USPSA competitions as well as for my home defense gun. In a year of so this will only be my home defense gun and I will be purchasing a higher capacity 45. I’d like that to be a custom Kimber but this experience is nothing like my custom Springfield Armory. I had two failures to feed out of the first 5000 rounds with it.

Please let me know if you think that I have an issue that you can correct and also what modification that you recommend and what the cost would be. I may have to bet my life on this gun some day. Help me get it right please. I’ll pay what I need to. I can get the gun in the mail ASAP just let me know.

Thanks
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I'll post Kimbers repsonse here. I know there is some great people/experts here. Any thoughs would be appreciated.

Craig

[Recon]

I'm probably way off base but I was reading the other day about breaking in magazines. It seems like shooters around here have more problems with magazines causing your problem than a problem with the gun.

[Craig Faulkner]

..........

[JJ45FAN]

I had some of the same problems while breaking in my custom II. The only time it happened was on the last rnd in mag, wilson 7 rounders. These weren't new & have alway's worked perfectly in my other guns. I started using mccormick shooting star 8 rounders & the problem seemed to go away. After I've put a couple hundred more rnds through it I'm going to try the wilsons again to see if maybe it was just the break in period, or my gun doesn't like wilson mags. I love the way the kimber shoots, but for that price you would think it would work with all quality mags.

[mlotziii]

did ya get a reply ...

I've had about 5 ftf out of 1000 rounds through my kimber ...

1 was because of the ammo ...
4 were because I didn't grease the slide :(

[cottontoptexan]

Craig, Are these reloads or factory rounds you were shooting. I have to use the factory crimp die (taper crimp) from Lee to make a nice crimp for the autoloaders. Just a suggestion but i saw the dents and it is like the lip is hanging up on something. Maybe the mag is faulty???? Curt

[brickeyee]

It does not look like there is very much crimp on those rounds. If you are seating and trying to crimp at the same time, consider purchasing a taper crimp die and seperating the process. There are a number of good taper crimp dies available.

[Craig Faulkner]

Those were commercial reloads from Denver Bullets. I have not got back into reloading myself yet. I will keep your advice for then though, good stuff. I did notice a big difference in the way the Winchester white box and Federa red box look. Big enough to make a difference. Do you know if one or the other is preferable? The crimps are totally different. I can post a picture if you are not familiar with these.

[Big Sky Rancher]

The crimp on Win .45 bulk pack wasn't very good imo. That and the ammo is really dirty. I like the Federal American Eagle much better. I also like S&B ball.

[John]

Even though it is rather difficult to help you, without full description on how the failures occur (where was the round when it happened etc), I do not see any problem with the barrel throat and ramp. Maybe the barrel's stopping a little bit too far from the edge of the frame ramp, but I do not think this was causing the dimples. I also noticed some dimples on the circumference of the rounds rim. How was that caused?

Somehow I have the idea that your failures were more ammo related than gun related.

Rgds

[texasbatman]

Hi Craig,

I have shot a lot of Winchester 230 gr FMJ factory and have then reloaded them. I have had good results with them in both situations. I have not seen anything like you are having.

Good luck.

Jim