Kimber Cdp

American Handgunner, Sept, 2000 by Cameron Hopkins

The ejectors are extended for more reliably tossing out the empties. All spent cases landed well away from the shooters, incidentally, and none came back to ding our foreheads as some of the mini .45s are prone to do. Kimber's literature notes that CDP pistols are equipped with "tactical extractors." I'm not sure what tactics are employed in its installation, but I would imagine it is tuned and fitted to get a solid bite on the case rim.

The grip frames and flat mainspring housings are checkered at 30 lpi and the mag wells are properly bevelled. Elegant checkered double diamond rosewood grips enhance the CDPs.

The five evaluators agreed that the features and attributes of the Kimber CDP series are on par with the best from the Big Name Pistolsmiths. Did I mention that each CDP carries the same retail price of $1,109? That's anywhere from a half to a third what the BNPs charge for a similarly accoutered gun.

Shooting Impressions

It was the former Marine marksman who, not surprisingly, shot the best groups of the five evaluators. The longer sight radius of the Compact CDP turned in the best group of 2" at 25 yards. It held the accuracy out to 50 yards where the Leatherneck kept a full magazine inside a pie plate-- one-handed.

None of us shot the little Ultra CDP very well. The miniature .45 was the only CDP whose sights were not set for point-of-aim, throwing its shots considerably high-left. They would be off the head of an IPSC target at 25 yards, a good 4" off at 15 yards. The goods news is that since the rounds were going high-left, the rear sight could be filed down and drifted right. The bad news is that I don't know how much material is left to spare around the tritium inserts. If I had bought this gun, I would send it back to the factory for warranty repair before I broke out a file.

The other two pistols were dead-on for point-of-aim and shot much better as well. It could have been the longer sight radii-- a 4" barrel versus a 3"-- or the guns simply could have been more accurate. Either way, the Pro CDP (short frame) and Compact CDP (standard frame) shot significantly better than the Ultra.

We did not Ransom Rest the guns, figuring that five fairly decent shooters should be able to get representative groups. The two 4" guns were both putting a magazine full into 3" at 25 yards.

Massad Ayoob has written that his technique is to shoot five rounds and throw away the first hand-cycled round from the group. He says this compares favorably with groups from a Ransom Rest, but I have never heard of him actually testing the technique with a Ransom Rest. I think it's hooey. A Ransom Rest will plop 10 rounds into a tight group, including the first hand-cycled round. This notion of a hand-cycled flyer is, in my opinion, bunk.

We didn't chuck out the first round; we shot the guns with full magazines, like anyone would do in a fight or at a match. Three inches might not be up to Camp Perry standards, but it is more than accurate enough for 99.99 percent of the uses for which a compact, concealable 1911 will ever be used.