Yeah yeah - it floats. If the canoe sinks, I got something. Most people don't even seem to have the life jacket at all up north! A ring would be better though - if I owned one.

-S

The AR doesn't have the problem becasue even though its based on the same system it doesnt have burst capability so the trigger group, specifically having one sear instead of two makes the difference.

Sounds like you are experienced in the field a bit. Now can you answer me this one - my Kimber Pro Carry .45 is having the occasional FTF (Failure to Feed) - happens once or twice every few clips. I didn't used to have this problem. Figured the spring must be getting warn, so I replaced it with a brand new Wolf spring. Didn't help. Tried all different ammo - no effect. The point is, one FTF in 20-25 rounds is not acceptable to me (I don't trust the gun to save my life if its going to have an FTF!) and the only solution one guy came up with is that I am limp wristing it (which I wasn't). So as an experiment, I purposely limp wristed it and the problem increased to almost 1 or more a clip.

Plan 2 - Replace the mags. So I own mags from several manufacturer. Have the Kimber factory 7 round mag, Shooting Star 8 round mags (which seem to work best), and even Wilson mags. Nodda - no fix!

Next plan, I replaced my Breakfree gun oil with Militec-1 (good stuff by the way, especially on the AR!) and this sort of made things better, but didn't fix it. I even scrubbed it to the point where you can't find a spec of dirt on this thing and nearly disassembled it completely - but no go. Federal Hydrashock 230 gr cycles best through it, better than 230 gr ball ammo, but this is a little expensive ammo to use to target practice with! :)

Any thoughts? I've dumped many $$$ into finding a solution but I am probably down to taking it to a gunsmith for a look. I don't want to replace it with A Kimber Pro Carry II since the earlier Pro Carry like I have is a much better gun - less complicated since a lawyer wasn't involved in its design to add a part that doesn't help anyway - some lawyer made Kimber put a saftey on the firing pin that prevents the pin from discharging a round during a drop of the firearm (Did he buy one and decide he didn't like the design?) - even though there has been no documented discharges from a Kimber from any drop and no one else puts a mechanism on their firearms like this that I can think of - so in essence, he made the firearm more complicated and less reliable - why doesn't he go after Colt to do the same thing since the design is the same? Anyway - that is why the older Pro Carry's are worth more online than the newer Pro Carry II.

-S

PS. The fun of mechanical objects.

I would have started with the mags which you already did and the spring, you weren't limp wristing. changed to Miltec (best lubricant out there, used it in Iraq and will never use anything else), the Hydra shocks work better I'm assuming because of the extra power I'm guessing or the actual shape of the bullet itself. The only thing I can think of is that there may be something out of tune with the barrel itself when it goes to chamber the next round or for some reason a rapid increase in temperature is causing the barrel to expand and contract maybe causing something equivalent to a dry bolt seizure going on with the round itself. Like I said earlier you covered all the normal fixes and then some. If it is headspacing or something like that though its gonna cost even more. Isn't there some kind of warranty on those Kimbers?

The old Colt 1911's had a single piece firing pin which did in fact have accidental discharges. I have the model 1991 and in that model it has a two piece firing pin so if the hammer would go forward or if something would strike the pin and the safety is on only the rear part of the pin actually gets hit and the forward part that strikes the primer doesnt get touched.

THe trick is, the slide doesn't close and lock either (forgot to mention that)- it gets caught on the feed. Looked at the barrel/ramp feed- looks perfect like day 1. I think a gunsmith is in my future.

-S

One more thing I forgot to mention - the bullet gets stuck nose down in the clip when this happens. Like it didn't feed right.

-S

Yeah, sounds like the gunsmith is the way to go. If it aint locking and it's pushing down the round its something more serious than a spring I'd think.

Figured. Thanks for the help anyway though.

-S

Always nice to have a talk about firearms. One of my favorite subjects, sure have spent enought time carrying them around.

Funny that....I'm in training to become a gunsmith (haven't gotten very far, it's only my second week).

Maybe you can do my Kimber as an exercise in your training! :) If you can fix this, you can fix anything!

I think i have a lifetime factory warranty on it though, so I think I'll see what they have to say about it.

-S

Yeah, check up on that.

I think it should cover all defective parts (does it cover wear and tear?)

But as far as I know the general swath of warrantes don't cover tampering of parts.

If I have time this weekend, I'll go put 250 - 500 rounds through it and study how bad it is. I'll get the dremmel out and buff up the feed ramp 1st too. Basically, this is my fav handgun and the one always readily available in my house. I need it to go off more than once if I need to use it! A jam in a scenario like that has got to be a nightmare!

-S