My new Carry Gun

[blue68f100]

Yes I pulled the trigger on a Kimber SS Ultra II TLE w/Crimson Trace grips.



After all of the negative reviews I have read with feeding problems I did not known what to expect. Was hopping to have trouble free gun, which is what I got.

Took it out the range yesterday to do a shake down. I first fired some factory 230 gr ball ammo with no issues what so ever. This is what the factory uses for test firing. I then moved to some Berry's 200 gr FP reloads to test. All shot and feed good with with the exception of some mid loads with 231. For some reason the 231 loaded to mid range and just above would not work the slide enough and ended up with FTEject. Would not drive the slide back far enough back to the hit ejector. It did not junction properly till 0.2 grains off max. WST and WSF worked just fine at the mid ranges. The WST was the best powder of the 3 I tried. It functioned the gun flawlessly with milder recoil over the others. A very soft shooter. My starting load was 4.8gr of WST 1.225" OAL. One thing I have discovered is the grips are small enough for my small hands to actually get a normal centered grip. Partly due to it being a SA where my Sig is a DA/SA.

The dual recoil spring on this gun really tames the recoil. It has less recoil than my shooting partners SS Sig P226 in 40cal. He was surprised to that too. He said what a joy to shoot. Easy on the hand and wrist.

Now I need to make a new holster so I can carry it. Reload about 500 rounds of ammo to get me started.

[bearandoldman]

Blue, is that a 3 inch barrel gun? I he been carrying an SA Micro Compact with the aluminum frame for may years now and it is a great carry gun. Weigh=s in at an even 32 ounces loaded. You will find it like a fairly heavy load to function properly. Remember it has to do all thew things a 5 inch barrel gun does but has to d it in a40% less time. I worked up a practice load for mine until it ran the gun all the time/ 200 grain LSWC with 5.8 grains of Green Dot, had the powder from my shotgunning days and it woks fine. Used to shoot a lot of the Wolf steel cased stuff because the rang I used to belong to had a good price on it and at that time I did not reload.Wolf has a tendency to have a weak load now and then and the gun would not function, the switched to the Blazer aluminum case stuff and it is fairly heavy load and it never failed.

[blue68f100]

Yes, It's the 3" barrel. Has the dual recoil spring setup. Empty weight 25oz.

I've heard that the short barrel guns like the heavier loads. Kimber uses 230gr to test fire with. A user on another forum said his Ultra Carry II shoots the mid range 185gr bullets without any problems. Not taking a chance I ordered 200 gr and not the lighter 185gr, thinking I could push them if needed. And back off as things broke in. Kimber says there is a 400 round break-in period on their guns. At the range last week there was a guy shooting the Ultra II and he said his had malfunction the first 300 rounds then they all stopped. Been reliable ever since. I expected to have a lot of problem and was surprised that mine function with most any thing.

The WST powder worked great. I loaded from 4.8gr up to 5.1 gr behind the Berry's 200gr FP, 1.225" OAL. I figured the profile was very similar to a lot of HD ammo. This was very soft shooting and worked the slide with easy.

[Hakaman]

Nice looking hg you have blue, I'm thinking it might loosen up with some usage.
Haka

[Baldy]

Schweeeet looking little pistol you have there Mr Blue. It should do the job you want for the rest of you days. They are a fine pistol.

The wife has a Ultra CDP II that she has shot everything under the sun in and it has never failed her. I gave up on keeping track of the round count at about 5,000 rounds if I remember right. Good luck with yours..

We burn a lot of Win 231 & Bullseye in our pistols but we carry factory loads mostly.

[Yleefox]

Nice piece. I'm sure it will make you quite happy.

Yleefox

[Coach1]

Blue. It looks like you made a great choice. Two observations from the pic. 1. The sights look substantial. Some similar guns from other manufacturers make a feeble attempt at providing sights... assuming these are point and shoot / close range pistols and not for any significant distances.

2. The grip looks relatively long.. that is.. you can get your little finger on it for a full strength grip. true?

Be safe out there.

[stork]

I had the chance to shoot a friends Kimber SS Ultra II last year. With 4.0 gr 700x and a 200 gr SWC it shot a 6 shot 5/8" group, 7th shot opened it up to about an inch. That thing was stock with the exception of the hammer and sear surfaces polished. Smooth 4 1/2# trigger and very accurate. I was impressed.

Good snag Blue!

FWIW

[Slanteyedshootist]

That's a beautiful pistola! Have fun and stay safe.

[CoastieN70]

I too shoot and carry a Kimber Ultra (Eclipse Ultra II). Before I started carrying the Ultra I carried a Pro size Kimber.

I have had a Kimber of one size or another on my hip for 10 years now and have NEVER experianced a malfunction. Then again I have been a "1911 Guy" for as long as I can remember.

I am also a Kimber Master Dealer since 2002 and I have found that 99+% of all malfunctions with any Kimber I sold was owner induced. I could write a book about their (the purchasers) F'ups. Last week I sent my first Kimber back with an actual problem I could not resolve (without possibily voiding the warrenty).

FYI: The two most common owner induced malfunctions are:

1. Lubrication (mainly lack there of)

2. Cheap aftermarket magazines. I am amazed that someone would send $750 to $2000 for a quality gun and then get PO'ed because the $10 magazines they bought at the gun show or on line don't work and THEY BLAME THE GUN!