Kimber Pro Covert II

I received the Kimber Pro Covert II late one Thursday afternoon and decided to give the Kimber a quick once over while I. I opened the black plastic box to reveal the Kimber sealed in a blue plastic bag, along with a pile of paperwork, and three magazines (the gun usually ships with one magazine, but Kimber send us three, for our evaluation).

First Impressions

When I picked up the Kimber the first thing I noticed was the digital camouflage-patterned Crimson Trace laser grips with the Kimber logo, held fast with hex head stock screws. The bi-tone finish, which is nicely done, as is the carry dehorn job. Personally I do not care for the hex head stock screws, as I like to be able to detail strip a pistol without tools, but this was no big deal.

The activation device for the laser is a small button just under the trigger guard, covered by the black strap with the Kimber logo. The button is depressed by the middle finger while grasping the grip. The front strap provided thirty lines per inch of checkering, aiding in a good purchase of the pistol. Using the laser activation button took some time to get accustomed to, but once it became a known quantity the operation was simple and reliable.

The laser is provisioned to be switched on and off by a small black switch at the bottom corner of the left stock. In the up position the laser is on and can be activated by the button under the trigger guard; with the switch in the down position the laser cannot be activated.

The receiver is machined from 7075-T7 aluminum and has the Desert Tan KimPro II finish while the slide is made from steel and finished in matte black oxide. The slide stop, grip safety, thumb safety, magazine release, trigger, mainspring housing, stock screws, and sights are finished are also finished in matte black oxide. The mainspring housing is also checkered and includes a lanyard loop, which is a nice touch. The magwell is slightly beveled.

Dovetailed to the slide top are Tactical Wedge three dot, green tritium night sights.

The grip safety was well fitted, disengaged positively, and incorporated a palm swell. Looking to the hammer it is a rowel style, serrated on the spur.

The trigger is a three-hole design with an overtravel adjuster. The trigger broke cleanly at four pounds, two ounces, with some overtravel. Pull was measured with my Lyman mechanical trigger pull gauge.

Observing the muzzle, it is evident this pistol uses a bushingless system to index the muzzle of the match grade bull barrel to the end of the slide.

Also incorporated in the barrel is a loaded chamber indicator at the end of the barrel hood.

Detail Strip

With the bushingless barrel and Swartz safety the Kimber Pro Covert II is somewhat different from a standard Government Model that uses a barrel bushing in the way it is detail stripped. A supplied take down tool is needed to hold the recoil spring back for removal from the slide. Once again, I am against having to have tools to take a defensive pistol apart.

Pictures of stripping the slide.

The Swartz safety is a firing pin block actuated by depressing the grip safety.

The field/detail strip is a bit over complicated for me and I am not a fan of the swartz safety. I believe there is a reason the Swartz safety was abandoned back in the 30s.

Here is the pistol fully stripped.

Initial Range Trip

I got up bright and early on a Sunday morning and headed out to run some rounds down range through the Kimber and get it warmed up.

I set up my chronograph to get some velocity measurements from the four inch barrel. I started with one seven-round magazine of each of my test rounds. I started with Winchester 230 grain full metal jacket and through another magazine of Armscor 230gr FMJ, Independence 230gr FMJ, Federal 230gr JHP Hydra Shocks, Hornady 200gr +P JHP, Federal 185gr Gold Match semi wad cutters, and my own home-cast 200gr LSWC reloads. With a total of forty nine rounds run over the chronograph I had the numbers. Then it was to the seventy-five foot mark to get some seven-shot groups from a supported position for accuracy. One thing I can say about this pistol is it is plenty accurate. I had got almost to the 100 round mark, shooting an even cross-section of my test rounds, when I began experiencing the dreaded failure to return to battery. Now, Kimber recommends a break-in period as by the time round count 214 had been reached I had over a dozen failures to return to battery and about that many of the slide locking back with rounds in the magazine. The failures did not seem to follow any one magazine but the slide only locked back prematurely on ball rounds. I did field strip and clean the pistol at about round count 100 and the feed ramp and chamber was plenty dirty.  After reading further about the break-in from the manual it is feasible to say that the failures may be attributed to the break-in process but in my opinion there should not be a such thing as a break in period on a firearm for it function. While I do expect some wearing in and parts running more smoothly, it should not fail being brand new. According to page 27 on the Kimber manual, 400 to 500 rounds of ball ammunition is required to break in the Kimber while cleaning and lubricating every 100 to 150 rounds. To me this is very excessive and unnecessary.

A Trip to Tom Beliveau

I took the Kimber to my gunsmith to get his ideas on what could have been possible causes of the troubles. The Kimber did measure an overly tight chamber as well as a tight extractor that would have caused failures to return to battery as the chamber became fouled. The barrel throat was a little different than I am used to looking at. I am sure Tom could have fixed the Kimber while I waited and offered to do so but I thought it best to see what Kimber thought.

A call to Kimber

I called Kimber and explained about the failures I had experienced with the first outing. I explained about the tight extractor, and the tight chamber. He said to box up the Kimber uncleaned and he would send me a UPS call tag for return to see if there were any other problems. He called me back in a matter of days and told me that in the interest of time for my review he had sent out another Kimber Pro Covert II.

Initial Range Trip with the new Kimber Pro Covert II

Upon arriving at the range I sprayed the second Kimber with CLP and opened a new box of Winchester 230gr FMJ. I decided to go with the manual’s suggestion of using just factory 230gr ball ammunition initially. I ran through 100 rounds with just a few failures from the new pistol. The Kimber would be cleaned before the next 100 rounds.

Second Range Trip

I cleaned the new Kimber and ran another 100 rounds of Winchester 230gr full metal jacket and the failures lessened. Accuracy of the Kimber was on par with the previous gun. My shooting buddy, Clint, accompanied me to the range and ran a few magazines of his own Winchester 230 gr. through the Pro Covert II. He commented on the visibility of the sights and accuracy as well. So far so good at 221 rounds. I brought 75 230gr FMJs loaded with 5.3gr of Unique as well as 25 200gr LSWC with that same powder charge. I wanted to at least try some LSWCs at the end of the test to see how they would function. I ran the 75 rounds of ball without incident and then loaded up the LSWC. The LSWCs  ran without a  problem. That brought the total round count for the second pistol to 321 with just a few failures.

Conclusions

OK let’s get the whole “I had to send the first pistol back” out of the way. Yes, the first pistol did not prove to be reliable at the initial range trip. I also now understand Kimber recommends a break-in period, something, with which I was not familiar and do not really agree with. With that said, I do not believe the use of other than ball ammunition caused all the failures, but it could very well have contributed to them. For whatever reason, a quick call to Kimber and the problem was on its way to be taken care of.

On to the second pistol … well it worked after a bit of a break in period, and I was glad of it.

The Kimber Pro Covert II is an interesting pistol, with many bells and whistles. Those amenities can aid in its use but will not come close to compensating for lack of practice or training. Don’t believe a laser sight can take the place of range time. As far as the differences between the first pistol and second pistol for accuracy and specifications, there were none so the data is correct for both pistols.

Something about laser sights

I can see why they would be useful as a sighting tool, but I also think there are some inherent drawbacks as well. The first thought is they are battery powered and obviously that can fail. The laser is mounted on the right side of the stock and not inline with the line of sight from the muzzle. This means that there is a point downrange where the point of aim intersects with the laser depending on where the beam is adjusted. Much closer and the laser will be to the right of the point of aim and much further it will be to the left. Also, in daylight the laser is barely visible. With that, red dot sight acquisition is very quick (but keep in mind that laser works both ways). I can see where there is a place for a laser sighting system on a defensive pistol but my concern is that with the ease of use practicing with the sights on the slide may not get the attention needed to develop proficiency with the pistol. If one relied only on the laser sight they would be doing themselves a grave injustice on learning how to properly use a pistol, and may be placed in a bind if the laser failed.

The laser was somewhat blocked by the slide stop pin

That did not seem to affect the laser as I tried it without the slide stop installed, though the laser did seem a little spread out.

The warning labels.

Specifications

Model: Pro Covert II
Weight: 28 ounces
Height: 5.25″
Overall Length: 7.7″
Barrel length: 4″
Width of slide: 1.28″
Trigger pull: 4 pounds 2 ounces
Magazine capacity (.45 Automatic): 7 rounds
Twist: 1 turn in 16 inches left hand.
Sight radius: 5.7″
Recoil Spring: 22 lbs
MSRP: $1500

Acknowledgments

I want to thank:

Kimber
Hornady Manufacturing
Federal

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