Kimber Stainless II Target

Can the Kimber Stainless II Target .45 be upgraded to a competitive Bullseye pistol?

Short answer, yes. I have a Kimber stainless wad gun that shoots 2.5 groups at 50 yards in a Ransom Rest.

Strong opinions will follow.

All of the Kimbers with a II in the name have a firing pin safety mechanism that isn't part of JMB's original design, and you will need a smith who can work with that system to get a good trigger.

Also, some smiths might not like working on the stainless slide and frame, but these days, with the machines and fixtures that bullseye smiths use, any smith that is worried about a stainless gun isn't the smith for you.

I have a stainless Springfield, so I am not going to talk you out of a stainless bullseye gun.  I do not like the Kimber firing pin safety in their series II guns.

Kimber firing pin safety is activated by the grip safety and a little pushrod next to the sear. IMO there is absolutely no effect on the trigger pull. This a much different system from the Series 80 guns. Only concern with trigger is metal molded components which won't last on long on  BE gun.

My Kimbers  are 2 1/2" to 3" 50 yd guns out of the box. Wouldn't buy a stainless gun for BE. But, if you already have it, put a barrel bushing in it and a trigger from KC and have at it.

The Kimbers I've worked on were less than stellar pistols. I don't particularly care for the coatings they use to finish the pistols because they can't be easily touched up. Firing pin block isn't a big deal as described above. They do shoot well when re-barreled with Kart barrel. I won't tighten a frame and slide on one either because it's not worth the hassle; good barrel fit makes up for some of the play between frame/slide. If using irons or slide mounted scope really doesn't matter.
Jon

left7hand wrote:Can the Kimber Stainless II Target .45 be upgraded to a competitive Bullseye pistol?

  My experience is consistent with the other folks here; 2.5 to 3 inch 50 yard groups.  Probably could benefit from some trigger work.

  DO NOT disable the firing pin block   At least one competitor was DQ'd at Camp Perry last year for doing that.  He had the parts back in in time for the team match.

I have a TLE II. Out of the box it was a 6-8 inch group at 50 yds (off sandbags). After a trip to Mr Salyer it would consistently shoot inside 3 inches (again - off sandbags). After KC gave the trigger a good talking to at Perry a couple of years ago it shoots 4inch groups (when I'm having a good day) hanging off the end of my arm. Getting a frame mount to consistently stay in place was a nightmare. Regardless of the amount of locktite used. The dust cover is about 1.5 turns of the screw thick. Not enough for it to be stable. I ended up going slide mount.

Having been that route - if I was faced with getting another production gun I'd go with the Range Officer. I really don't see anything that's worth the Kimber premium price. I got a new RO, with a Kart barrel and a KC trigger set for way less than a new stock Kimber. I use it for service pistol. It consistently matches or exceeds the Kimber performance.

Your results may vary!

I have both the Kimber and a Range Officer. With about the same amount of money in enhancements the Kimber shoots smaller groups. The Kimber was also higher end to start with so might not be a fair comparison. I had both pistols worked on by Roddy Toyota (trigger) and both were re-barreled and fit by me. Both would work to shoot Master scores. You would have to do a lot more work to make a HM happy.




My hardball pistol is also a Kimber with no special work done to it. I like Kimbers.