.... The Worst Gun I Ever Bought? NOT!

10 Lessons I Learned From The Worst Gun I Ever Bought:
*(this is a quote from the cited article ... this is NOT my opinion!)*

The day I turned 21 was one of the most memorable days of my life. Not only for the legal drinks at the local Applebee’s, but for the hour-long trek to a not-so-local gun store to make the most exciting, and ultimately worst, purchase of my life—a Kimber Stainless Ultra Carry chambered in .40SW.

(H/T: The Firearms Blog)

Ouch!

I guess that, in many ways, buying a new gun is something of a crap-shoot, but my one and only experience with a Kimber pistol might have been titled:

 "The Best Gun I Ever Bought".

It was 1997, I had been shooting IPSC on and off for over a dozen years, and decided it was time I got rid of that sad Smith and Wesson 659 (decidedly not the best gun I ever bought) and got myself a REAL gun!




A local gunshop had an order of new Kimber .45's coming in, so I saved my nickles and dimes and took an afternoon off to go gun shopping.   This was in 1997 or so, so when I bought the most bare-bones version (the Kimber Custom), it cost me less than $300.   The dealer also had an identical pistol with consecutive serial numbers.   If I had known then what I know now, I would have bought both of them.

(The current version, the Custom II, now has a MSRP of $871; that is not your father's Kimber!)

The gun I bought had all the bells and whistles I was looking for, as a Limited Competition Gun for USPSA:  Especially, the extended beavertail.

I also bought 3 or 4 8-round magazines and a case of Italian ammunition for the gun.   Can't tell you the total price, but the magazines and ammo, plus the carry gear, approached exceeded the price if the gun,

Thing is, that skinny single-stack grip was a bit small for my hands;  I had been shooting the double-stack Smith and Wesson 659 for a while, and it was big enough that I didn't feel the gun would 'twist' in my hands,s  So I had a gunsmith install a Smith and Alexander  funnelled Magwell/with arn arched, deeply checkered  mainspring housing  Then it not only felt comfortable in my hand but the reloads were faster and more reliable,

In all the years since, the only problem I had with this pistol was that if I tried to load a Chip McCormick 10-round magazine when the gun was in slide-lock, it would almost invariably jam when I dropped the slide by releasing the slide-lock.  The solution?  As the Doctor said to his patient:  "Oh, it hurts when you do that?   Then stop doing that.  NURSE -- NEXT PATIENT!"

The next year, my USPSA scores were high enough that I finally got out of the dreaded C-Class and bumped up to B-Class in Limited, using The Beloved Kimber.  (There's A Story here, which I won't tell because it's boring.)

SO ... it 's been possible to find a decent Kimber; or at least it has been.   I'd have to gather new data to determine whether their production values have deteriorated in the past 25+ years,.

The scary thing is ... the last time I shot The Beloved Kimber was last weekend when I shot the "El Presidente" for a hit factor of  6.28.  My sole student, who doesn't consider himself a good shot, shot a HF=6.21!

I've got to find a new sport.  Anyone know where there's a Tiddly-winks tournament in Oregon?