Kimber Ultra RCP II - Out Of The Box

Guns Magazine, April, 2004 by Jim Gardner

Need an ultra small, snag-free .45 auto pistol for concealed carry'? There must be a lot of people who do, as dozens of firms and small custom shops have been cranking out micro sized versions of John Browning's venerable self-shucker for years.

Most have taken the form of junior sized government models with varying amounts of material whittled from the slide/barrel assembly as well as from the grip frame. Some few builders have realized that a deep concealment pistol needs to be not only small but smooth--with a minimum of protruding sights, safeties and other widgets.

Kimber produces an incredible variety of 1911 pattern pistols in all sizes and styles, but recently announced just such a specialized concealment gun in the form of the Ultra RCP II. Standing for Refined Carry Pistol, this is the smallest and sleekest of Kimber .45s at a mere 6.5 inches in length and 4.5 inches in height. Weight is a skinny 24.8 ounces unloaded, due largely to the RCP's 7075-T7 aluminum alloy frame.

One look will tell you this pistol was designed for the most serious of uses. The entire pistol features "melted" surfaces to preclude snagging during the draw stroke. Grip and thumb safeties have been artfully abbreviated so there remains only enough metal for them to perform their function, with no excess protrusions. The heel of the frame is thoughtfully rounded und slimline stocks add a bare minimum to the frame's circumference. Even the hammer spur has been trimmed to minimal dimensions.

The most visual departure is the absence of conventional front and rear sights. In their place a shallow sighting groove provides more than enough precision for the intended purpose, as we soon round out.

Taking the RCP II to the range, we fired it with Winchester 230-grain ball and Speer 185-grain Gold Dot. Recoil was pretty snappy, as we would naturally expect, but controllability was surprisingly good. At seven to 10 yards, looking over the top of the gun and dumping full magazines in rapid cadence produced palm-sized groups centered just below our index point on the target.

That's the natural working range for such a gun, and we might well have stopped there, but we believe a defensive gun should be capable of across the street precision even if it's unlikely to ever be needed at much greater than arm's length. Posting a clean silhouette at 25 yards, we were frankly amazed to find five shot groups from the sightless Kimber clustering into four to four and one half inches. If that won't do, you'd better grab a rifle.

The surprisingly good performance of the little Kimber was due in large part to a very clean trigger which broke at just over four pounds.

There was one sour note during testing. We experienced several episodes of last round failure to feed with both ammunition types. Magazine timing is critical given the high slide velocity common to these short slide guns. We set that particular magazine aside and selected a replacement from the three seven round units furnished with the Kimber. Our feeding problems did not surface again, so we'll have to attribute them to that one unhappy magazine.

MSRP of the RCP II is $1,288. Is that cheap? No, of course not. However, it's only about 60 percent the cost of an equivalent pistol from the shops of several custom 'smiths.

Perhaps five years ago I had occasion to work on a pistol belonging to a local sheriff's department detective. His pistol was nearly identical in features to the Kimber RCP II and he paid well over $2,000 for the custom built gun before requesting a few additional modifications from my shop.

If you have a genuine need for this highly specialized form of concealment pistol, you should take a good look at the Kimber Refined Carry Pistol. It's a lot of .45 ACP capability in a mighty tidy little package.

TECHINICAL SPECIFICATIONS

KIMBER RCP II

Caliber: .45 ACP

Barrel: 3 inches

Capacity: 7 1

Weight: 25 ounces

Finish: Matte black

MSRP: $1,288