Range Report: Kimber CDP II
Introducing a new Alpha Male into any gun safe is never really an easy thing. My rimfires almost went on strike when I finished my AR, and my tried and true Mossberg hasn’t spoken to me since I brought a new Benelli home.
To semi-alleviate this problem, I took my nickel-plated Springfield mil-spec with me to the range tonight to help break in my new baby.
Meet the Kimber CDP II. The CDP (Custom Defense Package) is a Kimber Custom Shop treated, aluminum framed 5″ 1911. Some of the options that come from the factory are Meprolight night sights, a beavertail grip safety, ambidextrous thumb safety, 30lpi checkering on the front strap and trigger guard, a clean 4lb trigger (tested) and a carry bevel treatment - what their catalog calls a “carry melt” - to round the edges for more comfortable day to day carry. Not really a problem for me, but it looks good.
Speaking of looks, the CDP is an inversion of the typical bi-tone 1911 one might see. A matte stainless slide atop a matte black anodized frame, as opposed to a black slide/stainless frame combo. The slide and frame are mated and fit in the custom shop, making it fit very nicely as the photos show. All the small parts are matte stainless, a feature that has grown on me over the couple years I’ve been considering one of these pistols.
The rosewood grips are a classy touch, too, though they’ll be coming off shortly.
“But Josh,” you’re saying, “how does it shoot?”
Better than I can, suffice to say. There were no rests at the range I went to tonight so I couldn’t squeeze all the accuracy out of it, but at 15yds I turned the chest cavity and head of multiple silhouette targets into large, ragged holes. The sights are easy to pick up and stand out well, but more than that this thing just shoots. I ran thru a few mags just point-shooting at 10yds and it is amazing how intuitive it is. Most of it is the 1911 platform, but I have to believe a good portion of it is the gun. Starting at low-guard, I could bring the pistol up, punch it out in front of me and peel off 8 rounds in a handful of seconds and loosely group them on target.
I got a chance to shoot Mr. Completely’s e-postal pistol match with it and my Springfield, though in my defense, I didn’t get around to it until the very end of the night, accounting for my crap scores.
This is where the aluminum frame showed it’s advantages and flaws. It’s light - very light - which allows it to be manipulated easily. I’d wager my XD weighs more loaded than the CDP. Of course, no results come without compromise, and in the CDP the compromise comes in recoil. It is noticably more than my all steel 1911, but negligable in the long run.
And a long run it was. I wanted to just go ahead and get thru that pesky break-in period so I could get down to brass tacks…er, shells. So, 500 rounds later, I emerged from the range tired, my hands a bit torn up by the checkering, and with a dirty gun. Absolutely no failures of any kind. After I clean and lube it, I plan to put another 500-1000 through it this weekend, albeit with the help of a few lucky friends.
Actually, I put a few more than that downrange. I had to check for consistent feeding of hollow points, so I took a few different kinds to try out. Winchester white-box JHP’s, Winchester SXT’s, Cor-bon 200gr +P HP, Speer GoldDot 230gr, Black Hills 230gr +P, and some Federal HydraShoks all went downrange in the interest of science. All fed flawlessly, all grouped more consistently than the cheapo ball I was running, so I can say all yielded satisfactory results. The GoldDot’s had the least recoil and flash, so I believe I’ll be sticking with those as the duty rounds.
All in all, I’m very pleased with the newest addition to my safe. A couple of things bother me, though. For one thing, the mainspring housing is plastic. I couldn’t freaking believe it. Of course, I didn’t notice until I picked it up after 10 days, but its easily remedied. Gives me an excuse to get a Smith and Alexander magchute on it. The other thing is the beavertail - it sticks out pretty far when engaged. I understand this is partially to make it easier to deploy the weapon in a defense situation, but in an extended range session the base of my right thumb was hating it. I’m going to continue evaluating it before potentially replacing it.
If only I had more money for ammo. This 2-3 times a week at the range is making me seriously consider getting a reloading setup.
2216 
471 
275 
80 
0 
2001 
509 
77 
54 
10 
3 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 