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AndyC wrote:Some of them, perhaps. While ignorance doesn't mean stupidity, I still lay the bulk of the blame at Kimber's door.

So, essentially, Kimber is like pre-bailout Chevy? They can make some good products, but since the consumers will buy it like hotcakes, they come out with the Avalanche instead?

@AndyC:

I have no comment on the finish, other than to say that (so far) none of our four Kimbers, ranging from a Poly Custom (not a II) up to a brand new Pro Carry II, have had finish issues. Not saying they can't/won't, but my Painted Ordnance shows far more wear, and has been carried/shot far less than a couple of the Kimbers. Our Kimbers' finishes -seem- to be holding up well, and -seem- to be fairly even, about on-par with our other guns (aside from said Para).

As for the backwards dual-tone and the melt-job, I don't fault Kimber for producing what will sell. Sure, it offends the purists, and seems ridiculous to the eminently practical, but it SELLS, and Kimber is in business to make money. I can't see the logic behind half of Taurus' "innovation" these days either, but they're sure selling, and making Taurus a LOT of money. So it's not that Kimber have ruined the classic lines because they don't know what they're doing, or monkey-finished the gun backwards due to a misunderstanding, but that they've identified a market that wants a soap-bar gun with reverse pinto markings.

I just "acquired" (won) a Pro Carry II a few days ago and took it out today. No problems or issues whatsoever. Granted, most of our .45 shooting was done with the wife's Thomspon today, so we didn't put a punishing round count through the Pro Carry, but I liked it.

I think a lot of the supposed issues with Kimber lately have been people freaking out about the metal-injection-molded parts without understanding exactly what these parts are or how they're made. Yeah, there's some issues with any company, but so far Kimber has been good to us. This makes #4 for us.

Side note, stay away from the Solo. I've heard nothing but bad reviews on it. If you go the 1911 route, I'd not worry terribly much about it.