My son has been yakking at me non-stop about having a “single stack” option for IPSC and a CDP option for IDPA shooting.   He did a ton of research and finally decided the Kimber Desert Warrior fit his desire for match quality performance + rugged “tactical” looks.

 
So we started hunting around on GunBroker.Com and in local shops.  Sure enough Cedar Post Pawn in St. George had it an attractive price. And we walked home with the Kimber, a Kimber .22 conversion kit, and 1,000 rounds of Federal .45 ACP.

Initial Impressions:  Very nice!   It is quite accurate. It shot where I pointed it. And the crisp, light, trigger made tight groups a piece of cake at 10,15 and 25 yards. I’m talking “holes overlapping” at 10, and 2” freestyle at 25.  No malfunctions.

We had no malfunctions in the first 100 rounds fired.

11 Year Old Experience

I was concerned that Brian, age 11, might have trouble with the recoil. But that proved to not be a problem freestyle anyway.  He was able to do faster, accurate, splits with the Kimber than with his XD(m) 9mm. And because the trigger was so much better than the XD(m) his strong hand shooting was more accurate as well.  His times were about even because the recoil really moves his single hand shooting arm quite a bit.

.22 Conversion Kit

The .22 conversion kit factored big in our decision. With ammo prices sky high, being able to train with .22 ammo can pay off quickly.  The conversion is easy to switch out. And it is quite accurate. It cycles fast and we only had one jam (on the first shot).   The only issue I had with it was it didn’t want to lock back on an empty magazine. That makes emergency reload practice (IDPA) hard to practice. But we can do that with dry fire drills anyway.

Summary

Excellent pistol. I don’t have much experience with the .45 ( basic Officer training/use in the Army).   This one shot where I aimed, felt well balanced, recoiled smoothly, and had excellent tritium night sights that were easy to pick up even facing a quartering sunset.

Once our 1911 holster (Blackhawk), mag holders (Bladetech), and Chip McCormick Power Mag magazines come, one of us will be shooting Single Stack at the next match.

Note: If you have a gear you would like to review, please e-mail me. I’d be happy to post your review or to set you up with posting privileges.   I’d like this site to become an active place for shooters to learn the latest things of interest to our sport.