When the Supreme Court strikes down the DC handgun ban, this is the pistol I'm gonna buy to celebrate. I prefer a .45 anyway, and when I fired this baby a few years ago during a gun demo at Blackwater USA, I fell in love with it.
Here's a review of the Kimber .45 by our friends at Soldier of Fortune. You can read the entire article at Military.com's Warfighter's Forum.
After a long search for a .45 ACP caliber 1911 duty pistol, in 2002 the LAPD's SWAT team adopted a special version of the Kimber Custom II. Equipped with a few custom features over and above what already comes standard on a Kimber 1911, the LAPD Kimbers were issued to all of L.A.'s SWAT cops and are still providing excellent service.
Taking note of the LAPD's Kimber acquisition, the United States Marine Corps' Det-1 had ample opportunities to see and shoot these pistols, as the LAPD SWAT Team frequently trained at Camp Pendleton and a number of the SWAT cops were also former Marines. Getting ready to become part of SOCOM, Det-1 wanted a suitable CQB 1911 pistol for its 87 Warfighters to deploy with in Iraq; so, like the LAPD, it selected a Kimber pistol. Also adopted by Det-1 was a special limited edition MCSOCOM Knife designed by Strider.
As with the LAPD Kimbers, Det-1 specified a number of special features, a few of which are listed here: Front and rear slide-cocking grooves Slide dovetailed front sight Flat mainspring housing Lanyard loop Standard recoil spring system Novak LoMount night sights Being fortunate to receive test samples of both the Kimber LAPD SWAT and Det-1 pistols, I test fired them over a period of several months and found them to perform to perfection. Because of their unique markings, neither of these pistols was produced for commercial sale; but Kimber does offer commercial pistols based on them.
Called the TLE (Tactical Law Enforcement) II, the commercial counterpart of the LAPD Kimber 1911 has virtually all of the features of the SWAT model, and can also be had with LaserGrips from Crimson Trace. However, as great as the TLE II is, Kimber's commercial counterpart to the Det-1 pistol has a lot more to talk about.
The Kimber Warrior
Following the Det-1 pistol and the demand it created, Kimber introduced what amounts to a commercial variant of that gun. Appropriately called the Warrior, this Kimber embodies many of the features found in the Det-1 gun, as well as a number of others inspired by it.
Featuring the same stainless steel match grade barrel, the Warrior also has identical internals to those in the Det-1. But unlike the USMC pistol, the Warrior comes with Kimber's firing-pin safety. On the outside, although early Warriors came with Novak Lo- Mount tritium night sights, a more or less look-alike set of Kimber Meprolight night sights later replaced them. Forward slidecocking grooves are present, as are all other features now standard on Kimber 1911 pistols.
In addition to the normal features found on Kimber 1911 pistols, the Warrior comes with a light rail that is integral with the dust cover portion forward of the trigger guard. Reinforced to last the life of the gun, this dust cover is made to true M1913 specifications in order to properly mount any tactical pistol light, such as those from Insight Technology, Laser Devices, SureFire, and others...
Read the rest of the article HERE.
-- Christian
