3" Barrel SubCompact .45

[vegasgun]

Interesting post. 1911 pattern guns with shorter than 4" barrels have a bad reputation for malfunctions. A couple of months back I shot a BUG match where four guys were using 3" 1911s. I know one was a Kimber and another was a Springfield. Not sure about the other two. All of them suffered a failure of some sort. Mostly feed ramp jams that didn't want to clear quickly. Needless to say these guys did not rank well at the end. One made up his mind to get rid of his gun.

Have any of you folks with the 3" 1911s ever shot rapid fire strings through them? Have any of you had any reliability work done on them? I'm curious as the glowing reports don't match my personal experiences with the shorty 1911s.

I have the Kimber Ultra Carry in .45 and it is flawless; always has been. I have shot many ammo types through it and even various types in the same mag. I have fired fast strings and it did fine. It is off the shelf and on the range without mods. My Kahr PM45 is just smaller and lighter for concealed carry.

One more thing - I have heard a lot of these stories about the Kimber Ultra Carry II. In fact, one of the salesmen at BassPro said they no longer carry them because of the trouble they had with the Ultra Carry II. Might be something to keep in mind for future purchases.

[BrianB]

I have a Kimber Ultra Carry I, not the II. Best gun I own. I also have a Glock 36 which I haven't shot enough but it doesn't like to extract Winchester White box Wally World ammo reliably. Other stuff is fine but for some reason that WW hangs on me. For carry I use Speer Gold Dot. That's a big boom.

[BigCityPD]

I've owned a Kimber Ultra Carry II for about nine months now, and carry it as a back-up weapon. It's relatively light, and very accurate for me up to about twenty yards....which is the purpose it was designed for. It's a pricey pistol, but I believe its money well spent. I spent alot of time at the range with this pistol, and was impressed with its accuracy, relatively light recoil for such a small pistol, and the overall quality. I've put about 600 rounds thru my pistol, using all types of ammunition, with no jams or malfunctions to date. I've settled on Federal Hydra-Shok, 230 grain, jacketed hollow points.

[Vir Quisque Vir]

Try the Gold Dot Speer at $29 per box of 50, CorBon 185 gr +P or regular defense load, or one of their short gun ammo offerings. Weights of 165-200gr are fine. They are busy, if you need it quickly, try elsewhere. Otherwise, you cannot beat their prices. Hope this helps.