Help Me Choose What To Get!

[kitestir]

I am looking at getting a single stack to shoot limited 10 and single stack in the future. My local shop has the following:

Kimber Custom series I stainless in .40 with front strap checkering, beveled mag well, heine fixed sites and trigger cleaned a bit. gun is in great shape. price is $699

Kimber TLE II stainless. Like new $699

and Doug Koenig 1911DK new is $869

also I reload both calibers so that is not an issue.....

What would be the best bang for the buck? I like the looks of the DK, but is it worth the extra money? on the plus side it does have adjustable sites.... I have shot and own a couple of kimbers, just nothing I want to put thousands of rounds through and have never shot Smith's 1911...

any thoughts???????

[Thomas Moore]

buy two, you never know when you'll need a backup.

if you can only buy one, i don't think you'll go wrong with either of the three.

[Guy Neill]

Any of the three are capable. It would seem to come down to whether or not you want the added firing safety of the Kimber Series II or S&W versus the lack of same in the Series I. I tend to the Series I (old fashioned), but the others are good guns. I've had no problems with my S&W.

Guy

[Flexmoney]

S&W seems to support our sport more than Kimber...if that factors into your thinking.

[Zerwas]

Hard to say without actually being there to see the different guns to see their overall conditions. On the face of it, I would opt for 40 cal series 1 because it is a series 1. On the other hand, the series II is a 45 acp which punches bigger holes in the target for those times when you are right "on the line". Take into consideration the 40 caliber will have much faster slide cycle times than the 45acp will as well. After shooting my 40 cal SVI all summer long, I pulled out my 45 1911 and I couldn't believe the difference at how I felt I was waiting on the slide before I could pull the trigger again. Take into consideration the 45 could double as a nice personal protection pistol for ya.

Tough call, no doubt.

[Newguy]

My vote easily goes to the S&W because of the service. If there's a problem with the gun, they send you a free overnight fedex label. No cost for shipping either way. You get the gun back in an eye-blink, sometimes the same week. That tells me a lot about how Smith supports their product. I don't think the same is true for Kimber, at least when I owned one.