TexasCHLforum.com

I have decided to sell the parts. A new 5" 1911 is on the Horizon :)

Thanks Andrew!

I had been seeing that term on several different forums lately but I had no idea what it meant.

Anybody know where I can buy a Caspian Frame locally? The only place i have found them so far is Caspian's Website

Baytown wrote:MIM parts

When I got my TRS and held it next to the Kimber, it was like night and day.

I MIM parts. (But I have to admit, I have never had one break.)

Glenn

What does MIM stand for?

Charles L. Cotton wrote: One thing I would do for sure is mount that blown barrel in some fashion and put it on your reloading bench as a reminder to be very careful! I have an old J.C. Higgins (Sears) 12 ga. that I blew up when a 20 ga. round found its way into the barrel and lodged just forward of the chamber, followed by a 12 ga. I was 16 and that was a very exciting day. It's a great tool for firearms safety classes.

Regards,
Chas.

Good idea Charles...very good idea!

My sentiments exactly!

I took the advice of our beloved forum leader Charles and took the gun over to Ed VandenBurg yesterday, within 5 minutes Ed had the barrel removed from the slide and we were able to see what actually happened...It was a squib.

Ed said that if I purchased a new receiver (about $150) he could reuse almost every other part (except the barrel, bushing and slide stop) and put it all back together for me for about $250. So I would then have a functioning pistol once again for about $400. I may very well sell thies good parts and just buy another new Kimber....What do ya'll think???

Charles L. Cotton wrote:Seadawg:
Even if Kimber won't cover this under warranty, all may not be lost. If the slide has not been damaged, then you can either have Kimber put a new receiver under it and fit a new barrel. Or, you could have someone like Vanden Berg fit the slide to a Caspian receiver and fit a match barrel. (That would be my choice.)

Good luch,
Chas.

Yeah, i got a little excited once the slide was removed and seen that there was not much more damage but I still cant get the barrel removed from the slide.

Well, today we got the slide off...here are a couple of pictures...

Thanks for you comments Charles, I really do appreciate everyone's insight and opinions.

I can see no traces of lead or a jacket in the barrel.

The powder I use is Bullseye and from what I have read it is either the fastest or second fastest burning powder available (can't remember which one).

I load 5.0 grns of Bullseye powder with a 230 grn Barry's Plated Bullet and Winchester Primers. This 5.0 powder charge normally fills the case up about half.

The other night while I was loading a batch I picked up a bullet, placed it in the casing and it immediately fell into the casing, aparently this bullet of another caliber had gotten mixed in (from the factory) with my bullets. I removed this bullet and I am assuming this is how I got out of sync. As a matter of fact I somewhat felt that I had made a mistake and the next mistake I had was that I did not stop and recheck everything.

I'm glad you mentioned Vanden Burg Charles, I was going to ask who you used and take it to him for his opinion. I spoke with Kimber a few minutes ago and they asked me to send it to them and they would see what they could do for me, they did indicate that it was most likely ammo related.

stevie_d_64 wrote:

seadawg221 wrote:What really stinks is that this WAS my favorite gun!

Glad you were not injured...Hav a friend off mine who had an M1 Garand literally explode in his face and did some damage to his right hand and upper arm a while back...

Pictures are here: http://www.tomeaker.com/Pages/Range.htm

Additionally I hope this incident is not the main reason your putting your reloading equipment up for sale...

Its discouraging...But I'd hate to see you give up that aspect of shooting because of this...

MAN! I hate to hear that about you friend! Glad it was not more serious!

As El Gato can attest, I never knew the danged gun blew up! It failed to fire so I figured I had a jam (real unusal for this gun), I removed the magazine and was still unable to rack the slide so I turned it upside down and seen the busted frame. Both Tom and I thought that the frame hade merely cracked. I put that gun down and started firing the new one I had bought earlier that day. After getting home I looked into the barrell with a flashlight and seen that the barrell had at least three cracks in it. As I said before I never heard or felt anything out of the ordinary.

Allthough I would love to be able to say that it was the guns fault I honeslty believe that I made a mistake while reloading! There was a young man at the range that was admiring my Kimbers so I asked if he would like to try them out and he did. I would have felt horrible had this gun exploded to a worse degree and that young man have been injured due to a fault of my own.The reason I am considering selling the reloading equipment is exactly because of this. I seriously do have ADD (Attention Defeicit Disorder) and it's really hard for me to concentrate on doing things that require a great deal of attention and I am begining to think that maybe reloading is something that I should not do...either give it up or start taking my Ritalin again

What really stinks is that this WAS my favorite gun!

flintknapper wrote:Is the barrel clear (no bullet lodged in it)?

Almost looks like you fired a round with no powder (primer only)/squib load, which will generally leave a bullet lodged in the barrel an inch or two, and then you sent a "live one" behind it.

That kind of damage can also occur if your link or link pin gave way.

Can you give us more details?

The barrel is clear, no obstructions.

I agree with your conclusion except that nothing felt out of the ordinary and the report was normal as well. That is about the best I am able to describe everything

Here is a couple of pictures of the inside of the barrel

I can not get it apart. And yes it does appear that the barrel is split in at least three places.

I will gladly bring it to someone if they think they can get it apart.