Kimber Ultra Ten Ii

American Handgunner, May, 2001 by Cameron Hopkins

A New, Dedicated, 10-Round Double-Stack .45 ACP From Kimber Is Ultra-Light, Ultra-Compact and Ultra-Potent.

Plastics. It was the one word of wisdom delivered to a newly minted college student played by Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, advice from a jocular uncle who knew the path to financial success lay in the next great growth industry-- plastics.

From the Greek plastikos, to be plastic is to be formed or molded, susceptible to change or modification, capable of being deformed. To be plastic is to be pliant, yielding, malleable. "In these plastic moments, anything is possible," said Bela Menczer.

But it was manufacturing, not philosophy, that motivated the well-meaning businessman to steer the young graduate into plastics. Plastic is a substance that at some stage in its manufacturing can be shaped by flow, possibly with the application of heat or pressure, often with the addition of reinforcing agents, fillers and compounds called plasticizers. The liquid "flow" is transformed into a solid, yes, a plastic, that retains a rigid shape under conditions of use. You can throw a plastic object, beat on it, bend it, work with it, machine it, even shoot it. Plastic is tough. It's everything from the dashboard of a car to a child's toy. I'm writing this on a plastic keyboard. Plastics surely were the future.

Polymerization is a plastics manufacturing method that involves materials with high molecular weights and semisynthetic organic compounds. The process forms products such as polystyrene coffee cups and polyvinylchloride (PVC) plumbing pipes. Polymers are the types of plastics created by polymerization.

Plastics can be molded, injected, cast, extruded, drawn or laminated under a variety of conditions. Heat is used to form thermoplastics. Casting is often used in polymerization to form objects of all sizes and shapes.

The gun industry has preferred the term polymer and shunned the use of "plastic" as somehow derogatory, but that is rather like saying you like wine, but not alcoholic beverages. A polymer is nothing more than a plastic that has been formed by polymerization. I don't mean to be polemical about all this, but a polymer is a plastic.

Plastic Pistols

Plastics first came to the gun industry courtesy of Remington when the old-line manufactuer introduced the radical Nylon 66 in 1959. With its sleek lines and- shudder- a plastic stock, the Nylon 66 represented a paradigm shift in gun technology. Remington then applied its spaceage design principles to the XP-100 pistol, which sported a rakish "Zytel" grip. Zytel was, of course, a fancy term for plastic.

As innovative as the Remington guns were, it was the Europeans who perfected synthetics in handguns. HK created the first "plastic handgun" with the VP7OZ. Steyr produced the GB 9mm, but polymers really started to roll when Gaston Glock tipped the handgun market upside-down with his eponymous sidearm. Dubbed a "terrorist's pistol" by columnist Jack Anderson, the Glock 17 garnered incalculable publicity on network television and in newspapers nationwide. The anti-gunners decried the certain prospect of a sky full of plastic pistols. Needless to say, a Glock shows up just as clearly on an airport X-ray machine as an Uzi, but it was too late. The world was now very much aware of the radical new handgun from Austria.

Since those halcyon days of the mid-'80s, every major handgun manufacturer has introduced a plastic pistol of one sort or another. Some have been design breakthroughs, like the brilliantly engineered HK USP, while others have been utterly uninspiring, like the defunct Colt All-American 2000. Kahr Arms, Beretta, Browning, Ruger, S&W, Taurus, Walther--every major player has followed the sage uncle's advice and gone into plastics.

Most of these polymer handguns were designed in-house by the different engineering departments of the manufacturers, but some were contracted from outside sources, such as Tripp Research's "modular 1911" collaboration with independent engineer Sandy Strayer, which is today made by the successor firms to Tripp Research, STI and SVI.

Springfield Armory went to Israel for a plastic-framed 1911 with which to enter the polymer market. There they found an arms company named Bul that produced what can best be described as a plastic version of the Para-Ordnance P-14. Springfield imported the gun for only a brief time, in 1994, under the name XM4. When the Brady Bill passed in late '94, a lot of the wind fell out of the high-cap sail, and Springfield abandoned the Bul.

Kimber acquired the rights to import the Bul in 1997. It came to America under the utilitarian name of Polymer Model. No longer utilizing Para magazines, the Polymer Model utilized a Kimber 5" slide with McCormick fixed sights. Add adjustable sights and it becomes the Polymer Target Model.

A switch to a stainless slide in 1998 rendered the Kimber Polymer Stainless. Going back to a chrome-moly slide in 1999, shortening it to 4", and adding a bushingless bull barrel produced the Polymer Pro Carry. Substitute a stainless slide and it morphs into the Polymer Pro Carry Stainless. Add some target upgrades and the Polymer Gold Match materializes.