Kimber's Latest 2K11 Makes One 'Trés Chic' 1911

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Hands down, Kimber’s new full-size 2K11 double-stack Model 1911 is très chic. It has all the bells and whistles that have come to be required on a high-end 1911, and it also has a few new features that make this pistol very classy. Full disclosure: This pistol is so new that Kimber didn’t even have official specifications ready for publication at the time of this writing (all weights and measures were taken by me, using a battery-powered digital scale, my old Hornady electronic digital calipers, an RCBS spring-type trigger pull gauge, and a flexible tape measure), but luckily, Shooting Times was able to get a shooting sample for this report.

Form

The brand-new 2K11 pistol is a wide-body Model 1911, meaning it has a wide grip frame to accommodate a high-capacity, double-stack magazine. Wide-body Model 1911s shouldn’t be too surprising to readers because they have been around for a pretty long time (ever since the late 1980s and early 1990s, with Para Ordnance often getting credit for being the first major company to offer wide-body frame kits and later complete guns), and new versions of the type have been popping up quite recently.

In the case of the new .45 ACP 2K11 that I’m reporting on here, the magazine capacity is 13 rounds, at least according to the numbers stamped on the backs of the magazines. However, we were able to get 14 rounds of .45 ACP ammo in each of our samples. The pistol’s grip circumference goes from 6.0 inches at the bottom, just above the magwell, to 5.50 inches across from the trigger guard and over the grip safety, with the grip safety depressed. The bottom of the alloy grip frame has a wide, beveled magwell, and it is integral to the grip frame. You’ll notice in the photos that when a magazine is fully seated, it sticks out the bottom of the grip frame. A few of my compadres questioned that when they first saw the new pistol, so just in case you’re wondering, the extended magazine didn’t present any troubles for me during my offhand shooting drills. In fact, I believe this setup just may have facilitated faster magazine reloads while on the move because the empties quickly fell free of the pistol each and every time I activated the magazine release button.

Our review pistol came with three magazines. They are made by Check-Mate, and they have removable bumper pads/baseplates and plastic followers. The magazines functioned perfectly throughout my shooting sessions, and I must admit to being a bit surprised that I had no trouble at all loading 14 rounds of ammo in each one of them. Before loading up the very first one, I was expecting some difficulty with the chore because usually high-capacity, double-stack magazines are rather hard to load, especially the last few rounds, so I had my trusty UpLULA magazine loader nearby and ready to put into action. It turned out that I didn’t need it.

The checkered mainspring housing is flat, and its sides are shaped to match up very nicely with the pistol’s backstrap. The grips are integral to the grip frame, and the front and the sides of the grip frame are checkered in the same pattern as the mainspring housing. There is a nice, comfortable finger groove for the shooting hand’s middle finger just below where the upswept trigger guard meets the grip frame. It’s in just the perfect place for my medium-size hands.

This pistol has an extended ambidextrous thumb safety and a smooth beavertail grip safety. If you look closely at the photos, you can see that the grip safety has a very slight memory bump. Oh, and the magazine release button is extended.

The skeletonized hammer has a very distinctive shape. I’ll let the photos do the explaining. And the top of the hammerspur is ribbed. The trigger also is very distinctive, and it’s a new design for Kimber. It’s skeletonized, and it has a flat face. It features an overtravel adjustment screw, but my sample pistol didn’t need any adjusting. There is absolutely no noticeable overtravel. There is a slight amount of take-up, which every Model 1911 has, but the trigger breaks cleanly and crisply. The average of 10 measurements with an RCBS trigger pull gauge was exactly 3.0 pounds.

As I mentioned earlier, the 2K11’s frame is an alloy. It also is a modular design. Model 1911 aficionados will recognize it as what is known as a 2011 type. While Kimber has not stated this, I suspect the model’s 2K11 moniker is a nod to the well-established 2011 form. Sandy Stayer and Virgil Tripp are credited with creating the modular, high-capacity 2011 type of Model 1911 frame. The company they formed, STI International (now known as Staccato), developed a high-strength, fiber-reinforced-plastic wide-body frame that combined the trigger guard, the grip, and an integral magazine well, which was attached to an upper metal frame that included the dustcover area and the slide rails. That was back in the early 1990s, and in the years since, several other companies have utilized the 2011 modular type of Model 1911 frame.

Back to the pistol at hand. The 2K11’s frame has an integral accessory rail in the dustcover area. It has three cross-slots. And as our photos show, the trigger guard has a distinctive shape. The frame wears a matte dark gray finish. Up top, the slide has polished flats and distinctive grasping grooves at the rear and also up front. They extend up and over the beveled top edges of the slide. The top of the slide is smooth and flat.

The front sight has a green fiber-optic insert, and its housing is stamped “Kimber.” It is roughly 0.160 inch tall and 0.145 inch thick. The sight is dovetailed into the top of the slide. At the rear, the slide is cut for installing an optic, and the rear sight is integral to the optic-cut cover plate. It has a U-shaped notch that is 0.136 inch wide, and the sight’s all-black face features fine horizontal grooves.

The pistol’s barrel is 5.0 inches long and finished in a bronze color. The barrel is flared at the muzzle, fitted perfectly to the slide, and does not use a barrel bushing. The chamber has a small port in the top at the rear of the hood, which acts as a loaded chamber indicator. The muzzle is recessed and crowned. And the design utilizes an external extractor, which is easily visible in some of our photos.

The pistol also utilizes a full-length guide rod and a flat wire recoil spring. Most 1911s require a tool (either a bushing wrench for traditional designs with barrel bushings or some sort of wrench, paper clip, or other tool in the case of guns with two-piece full-length guide rods) for disassembly. The 2K11 requires no tools whatsoever for disassembly. By the way, Kimber says the tool-less guide rod is patent pending.

The new 2K11 weighs 40 ounces with an empty magazine inserted. It is 8.5 inches long and 6.56 inches tall from the top of the rear sight that’s integral to the optic-cut cover plate to the bottom of the magazine. It is 1.39 inches thick at its widest point, which is the ambidextrous thumb safety.

Our pistol came in a very nice zippered soft carry case with multiple pockets, a cable/padlock-style gun lock; extra green, red, orange, and black fiber-optic inserts for the front sight and the tools needed to install them; and an optic-mounting plate and screws that fit the RMR/SRO footprint. Again, the key features of the new pistol are the patent-­pending, tool-less guide rod; beveled magwell; the external extractor; and the new trigger design.

Function

So how does the new pistol function? Well, I fired seven .45 ACP factory loads through it, and it didn’t miss a beat. I put 175 rounds through the gun for velocity and accuracy data, and I fired another 300+ rounds at reactive targets during the action-shooting phase. Again, the pistol didn’t miss a beat. All rounds fed, fired, extracted, and ejected just as they should.

As for the accuracy, the results speak for themselves and are listed in the accompanying chart. I will draw your attention to just two loads—the Black Hills 230-grain FMJ and the Federal Syntech 220-grain TSJ ammo. The Black Hills ammo’s average accuracy for three, five-shot groups at 25 yards from a sandbag benchrest was 2.25 inches. That load’s best five-shot group measured a clean 2.00 inches. The Federal Syntech 220-grain TSJ did even better. Its average for three, five-shot groups at 25 yards was 1.75 inches, and my best group with it measured 1.50 inches. In my experience, that is very good accuracy indeed. Plus, the Syntech ammo was really soft shooting, noticeably more so than any of the other loads. For those who care, and I know some readers do because I get letters from them occasionally, the 2K11 shot several inches low and a few inches left at 25 yards for me.

I want to point out that the 2K11 was very comfortable to shoot with all of the loads, and it was loads of fun to shoot during the action-shooting portion of my test. To put the pistol through its paces here, I set up a couple modified action-pistol shooting stages. One consisted of a swinging steel plate and six “bad guy” paper targets spaced out from five yards to 25 yards. The routine was to shoot the steel target first with one shot, then put two shots on each of the paper targets starting with the closest one, and then put the last round in the magazine back on the swinging steel target. That’s a total of 14 shots (one full magazine). Then, as quickly as possible, I’d switch magazines and run the same routine a second time. Once that magazine was empty, I’d insert the third loaded magazine as quickly as possible and fire two passes on a row of seven, six-inch-­diameter round steel targets set out at eight yards. These targets were not the falling type, so I could make the first pass and then the second pass without having to reset them.

I didn’t time my action-shooting sequences because I’m not a speed-shooting competitor. In fact, I’m more of what you’d call a slow and methodical shooter. But I tried to go as quickly as I felt comfortable shooting. I’m pleased to report that I didn’t miss a single target, and the hits on the paper targets were all in center mass. The pistol was accurate, totally reliable, and comfortable to shoot. The fiber-optic front sight allowed fast target acquisition, accurate shot placement, and smooth transitioning between targets. The texturing on the pistol’s grip frame seemed to really stick to the hand. The pistol was bereft of any sharp edges, which made drawing, handling, and shooting it smooth and comfortable. The light, smooth, and consistent trigger pull obviously aided in the excellent accuracy I achieved.

All in all, the new 2K11 pistol performed perfectly. The high magazine capacity gives it plenty of firepower. Its feel, fit, and finish are excellent. Its balance is excellent, and it points very naturally and quickly. It is accurate and soft shooting. And its styling is très chic.

KIMBER 2K11 SPECS

• MANUFACTURER: Kimber Mfg. Inc. kimberamerica.com
• TYPE: Recoil-operated autoloader
• CALIBER: .45 ACP
• MAGAZINE CAPACITY: 14 rounds
• BARREL: 5.0 in.
• OVERALL LENGTH: 8.5 in.
• WIDTH:  1.39 in.
• HEIGHT: 6.56 in. (with magazine)
• WEIGHT, EMPTY: 40 oz. (with empty magazine)
• GRIPS: Integral to grip module
• FINISH: DLC
• SIGHTS: U-notch rear integral to optic cut cover plate, fiber-optic front
• TRIGGER: 3.0-lb. pull (as tested)
• SAFETY: Ambidextrous thumb safety; beavertail grip safety
• MSRP: $2,595

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