perfidy

Kimber reinvented the 1911 pattern semi-automatic when it introduced the Custom .45 ACP. Before Kimber, getting an accurate .45 meant spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the tuning and accessories necessary to create a first-rate .45. The Custom came with many of these features standard, and had out-of-the-box accuracy rivaling the best match grade pistols.

After I purchased my Custom II, I rushed over to my local shooting range. I loaded up my eight round magazine, grabbing ear protection and safety goggles, and picked a lane. I am not a marksman. I don’t have time to polish my skills. But you could cover my first eight shots at ten yards with a playing card. From a gun I had never fired before, of a type I was largely unfamiliar with.

The rangemaster walked over and asked, “Kimber?” Shit! They’ve got mind reading rangemasters!

“Right in one. How’d you know?” I asked.

“I heard you say it was a new gun. Only Kimber and an accurized Springfield are that tight fresh out of the box. And the Kimber’s a thousand bucks cheaper.”

That made me feel very happy with my new purchase.

From a distance, the Kimber looks like a standard issue M1911 pistol. But clever Kimber gunsmiths have added lots of goodies. Metal Injection Molding makes all the smaller parts stronger than earlier cast metal parts. The gun is constructed to extremely fine tolerances. The fit is tight but smooth – you can feel it when you operate the slide, and when you pull the trigger. It’s like the difference between the sound of a door closing on a Mercedes, and on a Yugo. You can just tell that one is made a lot better than the other.

The Special Forces are known to be fond of Kimbers. The LAPD SWAT team recently adopted stock Custom II’s as their standard sidearm. And I love mine. The 1911 is a big gun, over two pounds in weight. This, however, helps the shooter control the heavy recoil from the big .45ACP round. For me, the 1911 feels like an extension of my arm, and shooting is an utterly natural process. The big grip fits perfectly in my hand; and as I mentioned, the Kimber is a finely made piece of iron.

From the shooting times article:

The 1911 continues to be cloned by dozens of companies both here and abroad. And getting what you pay for doesn't necessarily apply as one can easily spend twice as much for one pistol that won't perform as well as another. First and foremost on the performance list is reliability. The pistol simply must work every time all the time. The pistol must also be "combat accurate." While the definition of this somewhat elusive term varies, any pistol that works every time and can break four inches with five shots at 25 yards is combat accurate. It's a plus if it'll do better than that and reliability is not compromised. Following reliability and accuracy comes stopping power, and the .45 ACP cartridge pretty much takes care of that by itself. It goes without saying that the pistol must contain reliable safety devices, good sights, ergonomics, and a good trigger. In its search for a new 1911 pistol, the LAPD SWAT team selected test pistols from what it considered the five major manufacturers. As one would expect, the testing was rigorous. Every aspect of the pistols was tested, retested, and evaluated. One by one, the guns were eliminated until the final selection was made.

Kimber won by an impressive margin. Kimber makes more than a few 1911-type pistols, but if you're thinking the Kimber tested by LAPD SWAT was one of the top-of-the-line Kimber Custom Shop Target .45s, think again. The pistol the LAPD chose was Kimber's entry level 1911, the Kimber Custom II. A spartan pistol by Kimber standards, the Custom II comes with plenty of special features to qualify its name. These include fixed combat sights (dovetailed front sight), rounded (no-bite) speed hammer, stainless-steel throated barrel, polished feedramp, lowered/flared ejection port, four-pound trigger, extended thumb safety, beavertail grip safety, beveled magazine well, and black checkered rubber grips. Before Kimber most of these features were found only as aftermarket custom options. The Custom II is probably the most .45 ACP 1911 for the money--ever.

That’s why I decided to get one. A .45 is not the most concealable weapon. It would be rather bulky in a shoulder rig. Shooting .45ACP is not the cheapest way to go. But: the Kimber is a joy to shoot, and there are very few handguns better for when the zombies come.

The Kimber is a good zombie defense weapon. By combining accuracy with a big round, while remaining an easily portable handgun, you can’t have a better backup. If you’re shooting (as I will be) Federal Hydra-Shok rounds, you get an extra boost in lethality. These center-pin hollow points make very big holes on the way out. I tested a couple mags on some innocent watermelons, and each melon looked like it had been hit by a 24lb. sledge after only one shot. And you can do it repeatedly from outside the range of claws and teeth – if you’re a half-decent shot, you can get a head shot at respectable (for handgun) ranges. If the zombie come, and all you have is a handgun, I can confidently say that this is the one to have. Bigger guns have problems with accuracy, or even with finding ammo. .45 ACP is common, and you won't find a better combination of stopping power and accuracy.

Final stats and gun porn below the fold:

• Rate of Fire: 3 (you can rip off a full clip pretty quick, and you can reload faster than a typical wheelgun.)
• Magazine Capacity: 2 (8 rounds per mag.)
• Effective Range: 4 (I can get four out of five rounds in the head thingy on the target at 50’ regularly, and I am not an action movie star.)
• Humpability: 6 (for a handgun, it’s a big, albeit reassuring piece of iron.)
• Melee Combat: 3 (I don’t recommend pistol-whipping zombies. If you’re out of ammo, drop the gun and use a Louisville slugger.)
• Zombie Hole Size: 7, or an exit would the size of a cute little kitten. (Using the Federal Hydra-Shok rounds recommended by my friendly neighborhood gun nut. If they can blow the entire back two-thirds of a watermelon away, I think it would do a good job on a Zombie noggin. This would be 6 or even 5 with standard slugs.)

Zombie Incapacitation Potential: 4.6/10*

*Note, again, that in the event of a close-quarters head shot the Hydra-Shok will certainly pulp the zombie’s head. A slug would likely do the same.

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