[Lycanthrope]

Kimbers are some of the tightest shooting 1911's for the money. The base models, however, shoot just as well as the "match" models and whatever new parkerizing/grip panel scheme they come up with every week. All new Kimbers are really tight. You do need about 500-1000 to smooth them up and get perfect reliability. They get a bad rap for this, but they shoot one hole groups...pick your poison. Get the barest one that fits you.

I currently have a couple Kimbers, but for out of the box reliability I think the STI Trojan is a much better pistol. My carry piece is a Compact Aluminum Stainless Series I that has been trouble free. It has about 3000 through her. The Series II Eclipse Target II I have was plagued with problems such as the rear sight blade shearing while firing, the tritium in the rear bar going dim and the series II plunger breaking twice in dry fire. I eventually ripped that out. The weak link in the Schwartz safety is how the grip safety is set up. If the grip safety is set up to disengage with just the slightest movement you can drop the hammer before the series II firing pin block is out of the way fully. This will hammer the FP block over time causing it to break...or cause light primer strikes.

The Polymer frames for Kimber were made by Bul and are notorious for never running right. The mags were really expensive as well.

Being an IDPA SO, I've also seen a lot of the newer external extractor guns have problems. The first runs had the external extractor notch cut out of the frame where the hammer strikes the firing pin. The slide would crack there. The newer guns no longer have this machined out. I also know of at least one gun that was sent back a couple times and then fitted with an internal extractor by Kimber (not by customer request). The gun runs now. This isn't internet rumor, the shooter lives in Ohio near me....

So..being that it seems to be hit or miss with Kimbers, I'd currently go with the STI (or maybe a Dan Wesson). The 1911 is still one of the easiest and fastest guns to shoot and you won't be sorry.