Kimber Custom Two-Tone Next Gen 1911 Pistol

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In the handgun world, the name Kimber has been synonymous with the 1911 platform for a few decades, and while most recently the company has put a lot of focus on its full-size and compact double-stack 1911s, it hasn’t forgotten the traditional single-stack fans among us.

With the new Next Gen models, the Alabama-based company is delivering a Government-size 1911 in both .45 ACP and 9mm Luger that is within the financial reach of most folks. There are two base models —a stainless gun and a two-tone—with suggested retail prices right at $1,000. For the more well-heeled there’s also an embellished custom .45 version selling for twice that.

I tested the two-tone in 9mm, officially the Custom Two-Tone Next Gen (OR). It’s right up my alley because I have a thing for two-tone 1911s and am a convert to the 9mm chambering in this platform. It’s a sharp-looking pistol that incorporates both the old and the new.

The build is all stainless, with a black KimPro II-finished slide over a satin silver frame. The slide features the classic front-end cut, and it’s essentially a tri-top configuration but with an additional, subtle bevel on each side. The flat top is serrated.

Serrations

The front and rear slide serrations are angled, narrow and relatively shallow, with round bottoms. I wouldn’t exactly call them subtle, but they’re not overly sharp or aggressive either. They do, however, provide sufficient traction for racking the slide and doing press checks.

The slide is cut for optics, hence the optic-ready (OR) tag, and an adapter plate for the Trijicon RMR footprint ships with the gun. The C&H Precision slide cover plate has an integral plain black rear U-notch sight, and the rear pairs with a front blade set in a dovetail.

The front sight features a painted red dot. It’s of standard height and will not co-witness with an optic, and I think that plays into why Kimber decided not to incorporate a rear sight into the slide, but rather on the slide cover plate instead. In other words, if you go the red-dot route, you’re all-in.

The five-inch ramped barrel is stainless steel and is deeply crowned at the muzzle. The Next Gen employs the traditional short guide rod, which is also stainless steel, and a 12-pound recoil spring. The recoil spring plug is smooth at the front, not checkered as you usually see, and that plus the crowned muzzle and the tri-top slide give the Next Gen pistol a sharp, distinctive look at the muzzle end.

Design

While the Next Gen opts for the traditional bushing/GI guide rod, the extractor is external rather than internal. You can literally start a fight with John Browning purists over the internal versus external extractor. Makers like Smith & Wesson and SIG have long used the external extractor, and I recently reviewed two Ed Brown EVO models that had externals. So it’s a proven approach, and the external does have an advantage in ease of replacement, should that become necessary.

The Custom Two-Tone Next Gen’s grip panels are an interesting combination of black walnut and G-10. The latter is an inlay with a solid black border, and it is perfectly fitted with the wood—not a gap or glitch in sight. The walnut itself shows attractive figuring and would’ve looked great all by itself, but the G-10 inlay complements it well. The panels are secured to the frame with black 3/32 Allen screws.

The frame boasts a rounded cut at the bottom for better concealment. If you’ve never tried one so configured, you should. That rounded corner really helps clothing slide off and prevents printing. Plus I think it’s stylish.

The mainspring housing is black and checkered at 30 lines per inch, and the frontstrap is likewise checkered in that pattern.

Controls and Magazines

The black controls contrast nicely with the silver frame. The thumb safety is ambidextrous. The grip safety lacks a memory bump, although it does have a slight rise toward the bottom half.

The magazine release is a checkered round button, and in a nice custom touch the mag catch screw is an Allen, not slotted. It’s a small detail I appreciate because if you like to mess with your 1911s, it’s way too easy to bugger a slotted head when removing the mag catch.

The stainless steel magazines hold nine rounds. The witness holes in the sides are not numbered. The mags feature flat base plates that are adorned with “Kimber” in script.

Another nice touch is the unobtrusive disassembly notch in the slide. You actually have to tilt the gun slightly to see it. Continuing the theme of custom looks at a production price, the takedown lever hole on the right side of the frame is countersunk, HRT style.

Trigger and Testing

The trigger is Kimber’s new GT Performance. Advertised break weight is four to five pounds, but the one on my sample was snapping sharply at just under 3.5 pounds. The take-up is smooth, and the break couldn’t be crisper. While there’s overtravel adjustment courtesy of the usual screw accessed through the trigger blade, adjustment wasn’t necessary with this one. Reset was short and crisp.

There was a little slide-to-frame play that I would call in the acceptable range, and it didn’t affect performance at all. Both the thumb safeties and the magazine release exhibited just the right amount of tension.

For testing I mounted Trijicon’s new RMR Type 2 with 3.25 m.o.a. green dot on the pistol via the provided adapter plate. Bench testing came first as usual, and the Next Gen proved to be a real shooter. As you can see in the accompanying chart, it produced great averages across the board, and I managed three sub-inch groups at 25 yards—two with Federal Punch and one with Fiocchi CovertX.

After that was done, I switched to a series of 5x5 drills, which has become my gold standard for test pistols that come with multiple magazines and for which I have a holster. The ammo for the drills was 115-grain hollowpoints from Fiocchi.

Reliability

Boy, it’s hard to beat a full-size, all-steel 9mm 1911 for putting solid hits on target in a hurry. Red dots that are too high above the bore can give me fits when it comes to finding the dot on the draw. Thanks to the execution of the slide cut, the RMR sat nice and low even with its adapter plate, and I had no problems acquiring the dot quickly.

The attractive G-10 panels could be a little more aggressive, but they do provide more traction than you’d get if the grips were plain wood. The fine checkering on the frontstrap and mainspring housing helps anchor the gun in your hand.

Reloads were no problem. The mags dropped free slick and easy, and the slight bevel on the magazine well helped insertions go smoothly. Despite the lack of a memory bump on the grip safety, I never failed to deactivate it. The excellent break on the trigger was a big factor in getting hits on the “down zero” zones of the IDPA targets—especially the head box hits required on Stage 4 of the drill.

There were no malfunctions during bench testing or field shooting. Granted, this gun had already been broken in some by a prior tester, but it digested the entire spectrum of 9mm bullet weights without hanging up, and that’s a testament to the Next Gen’s reliability.

Complaints?

Complaint time, and the first one is totally subjective. The grip had a chunky feel to it. I say it’s subjective because I measured the grip from every possible angle and could not find a single dimension that was significantly fatter than your regular everyday 1911. It simply feels that way to me, and I can’t explain why.

I also wish there was an undercut behind the trigger guard for a higher grip. My final gripe concerns the front sight. While I didn’t spend a ton of time shooting the gun with irons, the red-painted dot doesn’t stand out as well as other types. And frankly I think it looks cheap on what is otherwise a distinctive, attractive 1911. It’s not a huge deal because replacing a dovetailed 1911 sight isn’t hard, and there are plenty of aftermarket options.

As I said earlier, the Next Gen’s cost is within reach of most shooters. At $999 it’s on the low end of Kimber’s single-stack 1911 stable, with only the aluminum-frame LW series costing less. In the wider 1911 market, if you don’t count the true budget pistols, the Kimber is on the low/middle part of the price spectrum.

For that grand, the Next Gen offers on-point features like the optics-cut slide, rounded frame and sharp looks. When you combine those features with its great trigger, terrific accuracy and 100 percent reliability—along with the undeniable panache that comes with the Kimber name—I think it offers excellent value for any 1911 shopper, particularly to those looking for their first or second single-stack.

Kimber Custom Two-Tone Next Gen (OR) Specs

• Type: 1911
• Caliber: 9mm Luger (tested), .45 ACP
• Capacity: two 9-round mags supplied
• Barrel: 5 in. stainless steel, ramped, crowned
• OAL/Height/Width: 8.6/5.4/1.4 (across safeties) in.
• Weight: 36.2 oz.
• Construction: black KimPro II-finished stainless steel slide, satin silver-finished stainless steel frame
• Grips: black walnut w/G-10 inlays
• Trigger: GT Performance; 3 lb., 7 oz. pull (measured)
• Sights: U-notch plain black serrated rear on C&H Precision cover plate, red dot front; slide cut for optics, Trijicon RMR-footprint adapter plate supplied
• Safeties: ambidextrous thumb, grip
• Price: $999
• Manufacturer: Kimber, KimberAmerica.com

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