ARMY Kimber Warrior R28 1911 REVIEW

[Reaver_RRTS]

FORE NOTE: This is my first review, so try not to beat me up on mistakes or things I missed guys lol. I also apologize for any unclear or dark images, phone isn't too great for photos. Onto the review!~

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

First of all, my first impressions about this pistol. When I opened the cardboard box that had the word 'Kimber' printed on it,
all I said was 'Wow, what a beauty!' This is the first 1911 style handgun I've ever held, real steel or imitation.





I purchased the all black version, however there is a tan-on-black version of the R28. I picked up the pistol, and immediately could feel the weight.
It is completely metal on the exterior, save for the grips which feel like plastic to me. More on that later. The weapon, unloaded, is front heavy.
Obviously. But not overly so, it was still a very comfortable weight.




A standard 1911 magazine that is also all metal except the loading tip and the bottom plate comes with the package, and evens out the weight nicely. Of course, reports state the stock Army magazine is completely garbage, so further mentioning of this magazine will be minimal. Highly suggest to switch to Tokyo Marui or KJ Works at worst. Back to the gun itself.






The weapon has several features that I really like over my previous sidearm, the Hnk PX4. One, it has a green dot style iron sight set. Two, it features a pistol lanyard attachment point at the rear of the magazine well. Three, the very nice all metal rail under the barrel. It also has the standard grip safety, a nice easy to use magazine release, and the slide cycles nicely with a very pleasing 'click - clack' as it returns to battery. The trigger is a three-hole skeleton trigger, and the cocking hammer is a skeleton style hammer as well. This weapon also features a double safety grip, one on each side, however that will be covered later as well. It's also Tokyo Marui compatible inside, so upgrades will be fairly painless and extensive. It also comes with a spare set of various o-rings and a new hop up bucking and nozzle should they break... but why not switch to Tokyo Marui at that point? Over all, a very pleasing weapon at first impressions. Moving on to more details on the externals. Good and bad.













EXTERNALS

Okay, so overall it's fantastic. Great weight, balance, and look. Material is almost all metal save for the grips, which as stated earlier is plastic. Not
a cheap plastic, and actually feels pretty good to bare hands, and very good grip with my gloves. The are standard style, so replacements are an easy find.
The lanyard point seems quite solid, no movement at all. Should be able to easily handle the weight of the weapon on it's own. Moving upward, the grip safety is comfortable, and easy to engage. Very natural point of aim. Now, the safeties.... These are a little cheaply made to me. The one on the left side of the weapon is perfect, engages nicely but ONLY when the hammer has been pulled back and locked in place will the safety actually engage. However, the right side safety is loose, wobbles, and doesn't engage and disengage the safety properly. Either replace the whole set with a new aftermarket one, or remove the right side if it bothers you. I'm right handed, and will likely only use the left side anyway but I may switch it at a later date. The hammer itself is also metal, but unlike some 1911's it can't be 'half-cocked'. It'll either be against the slide, or against the grip safety. Not a big deal, but some people may dislike that. Otherwise, seems solid. Also, the back strap is grooved, but is removable along with the lanyard, however I believe it contains the hammer spring.






The trigger is nice, the etched grooves on the front surface offer nice grip and texture to bare skin, and the three-hole design is appealing to me. The trigger has a little bit of play but it doesn't bother me, and also seems to have a screw inside for adjustment but mine has a little piece of metal still attached to the hole. Looks like it didn't get drilled straight through. Minor fix, either remove and replace entirely or finish it yourself if you have the same thing. Not a big deal to me, I like the trigger as is. The under barrel rail is all metal as well, and is finished quite nicely. No sharp or unfinished edges.

Onto the slide. Some people seem to have some slop on the slide but mine seems to be pretty minimal. The rear grooves for grip are nicely etched, and offer great contact on the surface. No slipping there. The sights themselves are metal as well and have a small indent bored into them with some green paint. I'm not sure if they are night sights, I kind of doubt it, but that's something that can be purchased if you want them. The rear sight on mine was a little loose, so I tightened it with an allen key but later will possibly loc-tite it. Depends if I decide to swap the sights. Front sight has a little play as well, but I'll have to do a full
strip down to fix that but I don't feel like doing that now. Speaking of which, it's a classic 1911 tear-down, just move the slide to the first notch and pop the slide catch out and push the slide forward. No weird screw to undo or anything. HOWEVER the bottom guide with the spring is TWO PIECES and you will have to twist the forward half of the guide with a thin key to remove it. Reassembly is the reverse, obviously. Another thing to note, the slide catch groove is too short to complete a slingshot rack. For those who want to be able to do that, just sand/grind/machine it a bit longer.






TRADES! For all you trade fanatics, this pistol features a nicely etched, probably by laser, 'KIMBER' on the left side of the slide, and 'WARRIOR' on the right. '.45 ACP' is punched into the non anodized chamber guard. Below that, on the grip is 'KIMBER. YONKERS. NY U.S.A' That is all, folks.






Also, on the rear sight I noticed a little damage, nothing bad, but it looks like either a sticker was there for some reason, or someone was a little rough. Nothing too bad though, no scratches or noticeable markings on the finish without close inspection.

That's it for externals,


INTERNALS

HOP UP! This IS the hop-up version but oddly, unlike my old sidearm the hop up is located under the slide, as in you have to remove the slide to adjust. It's a bit of a pain to use it since it's not so easily accessible. Set it once, and never switch ammo weight lol.

The internals are plastic, the nozzle and hop up, but the barrel seems to be a nice steel barrel. Will likely switch out the hop up, nozzle, and barrel for some higher grade parts once something breaks, or if it doesn't perform to expectations.

For now that's it until I completely gut it to figure out how it works. Until then, I'm sure it's the same as any other 1911.

PERFORMANCE


This will be updated later once I have put some rounds through it, as a range/accuracy test and in at least one game if not a few. I'll update this section as I gain information, good or bad, updates, upgrades, damage, wear and tear, whether it decides to eat gas like a hog with Tokyo Marui magazines, or if it is worth the VERY reasonable price of $145 Canadian. I got it on sale for $125 and MIGHT purchase a second in the future depending on how the gun on performs.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Absolutely, completely, totally satisfied with my purchase. Thus far anyway. Very pleased with the external quality, and knowing it's Tokyo Marui compatible is very good news. Something breaks I can replace it with just about anything I want, within reason. Love the feel, love the weight, love the natural point of aim, and love the upgrade potential.

[jordan7831]

Thanks for the review Reaver. When I find a stainless springfield one im picking it up for sure now!

[Drakker]

What you call the back strap with the lanyard loop is actually the hammer spring housing, and it houses, well, the hammer spring, not the recoil spring.

Otherwise, great start for a first review. In the future I would suggest you do shooting test before you post the review though. I find that most reviews that get posted that promise to be improved in the future almost never are (ahem, GHK GBB box...). Not saying that I think you wont update it, just that it's a bit frustrating when it happens.

[Reaver_RRTS]

I don't have any gas, a decent magazine or an area to shoot it yet lol otherwise i would have done a test shooting first.

Besides, I spent four hours writing this up last night. FOUR!!! lol

[Zack The Ripper]

Pretty good review, but I will await the range test before purchasing anything to tinker with. Seems like a pistol you would buy for good externals to gut. Might be something to do as a winter project.

[DrunkenTeddy]

I ordered one of these just to play around with, I agree that it's actually pretty nice for the cost. I own a chrono so I shot about 10 BBs through it to see the fps. The box claims 370fps, the gun actually shoots 340 fps, but it is extremely consistent, through 10 shots it only went up or down by a few fps.

Haven't had a chance to test range/accuracy yet as I live in a small apartment and I just got it at the end of last week.

[Reaver_RRTS]

^ helps alot since I don't have space to shoot where I live so i never bothered getting my own chrono. Good to know it's indoor ready lol

[wind_comm]

I stripped mine down completely in order to tune and upgrade it.

all the workings were covered in the yellow-ish ky jelly-like substance that ACM companies like to think works in gearboxes. needless to say, some proper grease is in order.

I'd like to point out that it's not fully TM compatible:
the main issue with the whole shebang is the the BBU. it's proprietary. it uses a push-button retention getup in place of the rear BBU screw. God knows why they did this, the spring behind it gets chewed up instantly and obstructs the lower plate of the BBU, thus impairing nozzle operation. (I removed the spring right off the bat, but the push button assembly is now just a random cap thing that sometimes secures the BBU, blocks a tiny bit of gas from escaping, and mostly stops dirt). I spent most of the day trying to mod a standard BBU one to fit, but no joy (it probably needs a second day's worth of fitting...aint nobody got time fo dat.) for what it's worth, the R27 MEU has a TM-spec BBU.
the stock piston head had 1mm of fore to back play so I stuck something else I had lying around in (PDI winter head that didn't work in another build.) and it helped considerably.
the other nozzle assembly I had on hand (not counting the included extra) was a little rough (BBU tolerance issue) so I didn't drop it in.

other than that, most things should "fit", considering the tolerances are all over the place. aftermarket slides are questionable, but barrel groups and recoil guides should be alright. the slides I have on hand "work", but just aren't quite right.
the grips are cheap hollow plastic and just feel terrible. easily replacable though.
the front sight is kind of odd. the back angle (where the dot is) is actually angled backwards instead of sloped forwards like a regular front sight. it's retained via a screw drilled through the slide.
the trigger doesn't have an overtravel screw, even though there's a space for one.

it's no high-end frame/slide kit, but were you really expecting that? it's a fantastic choice for a low-end starter. given a full tune-up (not necessarily upgraded to the tits mind you. just a proper cleaning, regreasing, lookover and TLC by a gundoc) it should be more than satisfactory for the average player. given all the slop, it should run forever, just like a real 1911. it looks the part from a distance, but really really anal detailed kit recreators (who will never be happy anyway) need not bother. it's insanely heavy (almost as heavy as a real 1911), for whatever that's worth. if you're wholly satisfied with your main pistol (be it a hicapa, glock, 226, etc) and want a single stack to horse around with once in a while, this is a totally viable option.

all in all, my personal build I had planned for it didn't quite come together the way I'd hoped, but shame on me for not just getting a proper high-end frame kit.

[Reaver_RRTS]

Originally Posted by wind_comm

the main issue with the whole shebang is the the BBU. it's proprietary. it uses a push-button retention getup in place of the rear BBU screw. God knows why they did this, the spring behind it gets chewed up instantly and obstructs the lower plate of the BBU, thus impairing nozzle operation. (I removed the spring right off the bat, but the push button assembly is now just a random cap thing that sometimes secures the BBU, blocks a tiny bit of gas from escaping, and mostly stops dirt).

How did you manage that? Think I should do the same before I put gas through it?

[wind_comm]

Originally Posted by Reaver_RRTS

How did you manage that? Think I should do the same before I put gas through it?

*shrug* up to you. most people won't really notice as it'll still cycle.

[Reaver_RRTS]

Magazine wise I'm still in the air about. Looking for TM ones not having much luck for in stock, but just saw Socom magazines for the 1911. Think those will fit/hows the quality? Know anyone who uses them or has used them?

EDIT: Also now considering the 40rnd long mags as well, I noticed ILLusion had some so I might pick them up from him. But I'd like some normal sized magazines too.

[Reaver_RRTS]

UPDATE: Ordering a pair if not THREE TM long mags very soon. Should be able to do a shooting test once the weather warms up

[ILLusion]

- The right safety lever can be tightened up by pinching the tab inteface on its pivot.

- The "back strap" as you call it, is called the main spring housing. It contains the main spring, not the recoil spring. The recoil spring is located underneath the outer barrel, and is responsible for controlling the slide's... RECOIL. LOL. The main spring is also called a "hammer spring" in airsoft lingo.

- I agree that the recoil rod setup in this gun is stupid and makes no sense. If they're using a full length recoil rod like this, they should cut off the post on the hop up chamber. Otherwise, change it to a proper spring plug and spring guide setup (as a Kimber Warrior should have). It would make disassembly a million times easier.

- There's a high possibility you will not have the option to replace these sights ever, as they use a proprietary dovetail mount from what I recall. Not without re-machining, anyways.

- Socom Gear magazines will NOT fit Marui compatible guns. The two are proprietary from each other.

I've reworked a couple of these now. The biggest issue I had in them was the slide to frame slop/wobble. Thankfully, the craptastic receiver insert is made with such a soft and malleable post metal, that I was able to peen the rails down to create a tighter interface with the slides. It reduced wobble DRAMATICALLY after a bit of working in, and the final result was just as tight as some of my high end race guns.

[Reaver_RRTS]

First review and got it mixed up lol sorry! I'll go fix that (was going to before when it was mentioned and forgot) My gun has very little play from side to side on the slide so maybe mine is ok. It's a temporary gun anyway I think... maybe down the road i'll purchase a much higher quality tokyo marui compatible 1911 to swap parts into

[ccyg8774]

Got mine R28.
Issue:
The slide scratch the part of the outer barrel near the ejection port, leave terrible scratch marks.
The slide do not go all the way back, causing the slide catch not working. Could be caused by the increase of friction in the slide, or the magazine.

Fix (so far):
Sanded and polished the inside of the slide.
More sanding and polishing on the scratched outer barrel, then metal brushed the barrel to make it looks somehow close to the way it were.
Completely cleaned the slide assembly, reapplied grease.
Applied dry lubricant on the contacting surface of the slide and the outer barrel.

No more slide scratch now when I pull the slide. Will do a firing test later today.

Other comments:
This gun has the potential to turn me into a GBB gun doctor.


Update: did some dry firing test with propane (no BBs… don't want to shot BBs in my room). The slide catch still don't work, looks like the recoil spring is too strong. But at least the cycle is much smoother now, and the slide catch no longer catch the slide in the wrong location.