zenner22
9th December 2006, 00:15
I purchased a new stainless NRM Commander and a used blue ORM Government Model I got for $500 on Gunbroker. While used, this gun had never been fired. It still had dried packing grease on it! Took them to the range with a friend who just bought a stainless Kimber Pro Carry II. I tried to convince him to buy a Colt, but what can I say?
I'd heard that Kimbers all come with match barrels so I was a bit nervous as to how well I'd do against him. I'd also heard that Kimbers had a tendency to jam in the first few hundred rounds and I wasn't worried at all about that with the Colts.
I needn't have worried. I outshot him with both pistols. The ORM Government was actually the most accurate one of the bunch. Then the Commander, and then the Kimber. I shot his Kimber too and it is a nice gun, solid, well made. Don't get me wrong, the Kimber was pretty accurate, it's not like it was shooting all over the place. But the Colts clearly shot better. I was definitely proud of the Colts that day. The Kimber had two failures to feed but that was probably due to the generic magazine that he was using at the time.
I let him shoot mine. An interesting observation he had was that he was expecting the ORM to not be a quality piece. He was relating it to the Springfield Armory GI he'd owned (traded for the Kimber) that had some problems: it was extremely inaccurate, the thumb safety was very hard to operate, bad trigger and the grip safety would leave marks on the web of your hand it was so sharp. I'd shot his GI before and his criticisms were not exaggerated. It almost put him off 1911s in general. When he hefted the Colt, checked the controls and fired off a couple mags he left with a new found respect for Colt quality. Springfield's basic model and Colt's basic model are definitely two different animals.
Oh and I don't have any pics yet. I'm working on it though. I've got the pistols outfitted with some nice smooth walnut medallion grips I got from Big Buck Enterprises. Those pistols look great and shoot even better! Just thought I'd share.
I'd heard that Kimbers all come with match barrels so I was a bit nervous as to how well I'd do against him. I'd also heard that Kimbers had a tendency to jam in the first few hundred rounds and I wasn't worried at all about that with the Colts.
I needn't have worried. I outshot him with both pistols. The ORM Government was actually the most accurate one of the bunch. Then the Commander, and then the Kimber. I shot his Kimber too and it is a nice gun, solid, well made. Don't get me wrong, the Kimber was pretty accurate, it's not like it was shooting all over the place. But the Colts clearly shot better. I was definitely proud of the Colts that day. The Kimber had two failures to feed but that was probably due to the generic magazine that he was using at the time.
I let him shoot mine. An interesting observation he had was that he was expecting the ORM to not be a quality piece. He was relating it to the Springfield Armory GI he'd owned (traded for the Kimber) that had some problems: it was extremely inaccurate, the thumb safety was very hard to operate, bad trigger and the grip safety would leave marks on the web of your hand it was so sharp. I'd shot his GI before and his criticisms were not exaggerated. It almost put him off 1911s in general. When he hefted the Colt, checked the controls and fired off a couple mags he left with a new found respect for Colt quality. Springfield's basic model and Colt's basic model are definitely two different animals.
Oh and I don't have any pics yet. I'm working on it though. I've got the pistols outfitted with some nice smooth walnut medallion grips I got from Big Buck Enterprises. Those pistols look great and shoot even better! Just thought I'd share.