Content provided in partnership with

Kimber's SIS series

American Handgunner, May-June, 2008 by Massad Ayoob

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A lot of choosing a carry gun comes down to the confidence factor. For some, the long and distinguished history of John Browning's 1911 masterpiece isn't cnouob In service configuration, it made its bones in the trenches and the hedgerows and the jungles, and some city-dwellers feel more reassured if their pistol was designed for city streets like theirs. They will find confidence in the new SIS pistol series from Kimber.

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Named for LAPD's elite Special Investigation Section, these pistols were literally designed not only for. but by, the members of that unit. For more about where those cops earned their creds, see the accompanying sidebar.

More Articles of Interest: The Kimber SIS .45 ACP: it's accurate, reliable and designed by seasoned good...; "He's got a knife!"; Kimber SIS; Bestest 1911; The .40 somethings: often compared to one another, the cruiserweight .41...

Genesis Of The Pistols

Kimber's Dwight van Brunt explains where the new series came from. "'SIS people were speaking with SWAT, who transitioned to our guns in 2002 and have been very satisfied, have in fact reordered twice since then," Dwight related to American Handgunner. "'SWAT guys often work with SIS. SIS came to Kimber with an idea for a pistol for plainclothes. Over a two-year period, the project morphed into a family of pistols, because they wanted different sizes. The one became four. Two 5" full sized (one with rail), a 4" Pro, and a 3" subcompact Ultra.'"

The new pistol's design work carried a most impressive pedigree. Said Dwight, "SIS gave us a combination list of features, and the Kimber Custom Shop took it and ran with it from there. Mostly, though, the gun was shaped from practical application and usage of the history of the team." The SIS folks consulted with Hilton Yam and Larry Vickers on design features, and Scott Reitz participated in their transition training. Reitz is a well-known trainer who has extensive experience with LAPD's crack Metro Division, while Yam is a full-time Florida SWAT cop and master 1911 'smith. Vickers is a SpecOps combat vet and another topflight 1911 specialist. All are highly respected "been there, clone that" guys whose input enriched the recipe for the SIS pistol.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Distinguishing Features

The first thing you notice when these guns come out of their boxes is the businesslike gray KimPro finish, and second is the distinctive slide grasping groove patterns. The grasping areas (fore and aft on the 5" guns, rear only on the smaller sizes) have serrations forming large letters spelling "SIS." A solid match grade trigger is installed.

Then you spot the big, industrial grade sights, built for "go instead of show." They have MeproLight tritium inserts, of course, in the time-proven three-dot format. But the rear sight rises in a sheer massif above the slide, with none of the sleek streamlining popular today. The reason is simple: these guys get into gunfights, they know how likely it is for a man in a gunfight to be hit in the arm, and they want the pistol totally operable one-handed. The style of the rear sight allows the slide to be activated by catching the front edge of that sight against belt, holster, steering wheel, etc., and pushing the frame forward.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It is with the same reasoning they insisted the guns come with ambidextrous thumb safeties, and with conventional John Browning recoil spring configuration. The long-trendy full-length guide rods prevent activating the slide from the front, one-handed, against the heel or another object in a wounded officer situation. This also makes the pistols easier to take down and reassemble, of course, and I, for one, sees no loss in using this design. Such top 1911 'smiths as Les Baer and Ed Brown are on record as saying they consider full-length guide rods useless. The closed recoil spring cap lacks the traditional checkering, and is rendered smooth and flat.

These pistols have a new hammer design, known at Kimber of course as the SIS Hammer. It's lighter than usual, affording faster lock time. The commercial pistols are Series I, which means they will not have the Series II firing pin safety. The "gun for the public" is actually what SIS originally ordered. Kimber was well into the project when they changed the specs to request the Series II design. Van Brunt says, "We made that change, but had to alter the rear sight. The rear sight in the Series II retains the spring for the system under the dovetail cut. We modified a standard Kimber rear sight for them. The commercial models will have no titanium firing pin, but Dwight assures me they're still drop safe. The last-minute change to the firing pin safety was apparently born in California DOJ requirements. Series I is not "California-compliant"; Series II is.

Shooting The SIS

Due to some scheduling cross-ups having nothing to do with the pistols, the test guns didn't catch up with me until dead of winter in a Northern metropolis infamous for its anti-gun atmosphere. With temperatures hovering around zero degrees with the wind chill factor, there was no way we could have given these guns a fair test on an outdoor range, and the best we could do was find an indoor range that only had about 50 feet. We didn't have equipment suitable for bench rest testing, let alone a machine rest, so the best I could do to analyze accuracy was shoot kneeling from the "auto hood position" with hands braced on a horizontal slat across the firing lane.

Kimber's SIS series

American Handgunner, May-June, 2008 by Massad Ayoob

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Health

Most Popular Articles in Sports

Most Popular Publications in Sports