Post by rjm52 on Dec 20, 2018 18:51:26 GMT -5
Ever since reading an article many years ago in Guns&Ammo Magazine about a multi-caliber 1911 I have been wanting to put one together. Their unit would run .22 LR, 9mm, .38 Super, .38/.45, .45 ACP and maybe another...
Over the years I've had some Government Models and Commanders that would run 9mm, .38 Super, 9x23 Winchester, 9mm Largo and .22 LR via a Converson Unit but that was all. All the centerfire rounds were on the same slide.
Back about 2002 I bought a Kimber Stainless Target II in .38 Super that was one of the most accurate out of the box guns I have ever owned...nothing other than an arched mainspring house had to be added to make the gun perfect. Had the gun two years, won several matches with it but sold it to a friend who really wanted the gun...and I had a dozen other Supers so I let it go...about the only gun that I half way regretted selling.
After about 10 years I told my friend if he ever wanted to sell the gun I would buy it back...he said since he had only shot it once or twice in all those years he gladly would...
In 2016 the 10mm Bug hit me and after buying a Glock 40, RIA Combat Commander and a PARA-USA Elite LS Hunter I happened upon a mint Kimber Stainless Target II...and exact match to the Super. Also turned out to be a fantastic shooter...
A few months later I saw an add over on the S&W Forums for some Kimber barrels...10mm, .38 Super and .40 S&W...all like new...$100 each... Kimber wants $300 to install a 9mm barrel in .38 Super....plus postage. So I contact the guy and ask about the .40 barrel for the 10mm...he still has it. That is really the only one I need but the price is so low I make him an offer of $90 each for all three...he accepts...later on he asks if I want original Kimber magazines...he had a bunch of them for I think $20 each..this is great.
Don't remember how but about the time the mags and barrels arrived I found out that Kimber uses the same breechface cut for both 9mm/Super and 10mm/.40....and sure enough when I drop the new 10mm barrel in my old Super it runs like a top...and the same with the new Super barrel in the 10mm STT...this is unreal.
So to complete the set I want to find just one 9mm barrel....and low and behold a gunsmith on the 1911 boards posts about putting a match barrel in a customers Kimber Stainless Target II 9mm!!! So I contact the smith and told him if his customer didn't want the OEM barrel I would pay him $100 for it.... The smith says ok and will contact the customer... A moth gos by and I hear nothing so I ordered 9mm RemSport barrel off eBay....and of course by the time it comes in the smith gets back to me saying the customer accepted my offer....so now I have two 9mm barrels... Both needed minor fitting however....all the others just dropped in.
One day while looking for some other Kimber items on eBay I come across an auction with a BuyNow for a complete Kimber Target II minus the frame...in .45 ACP....and I buy it....
Comes in...99% condition except for some minor discoloration of the rear sight...barrel is perfect... But of course the slide will not go on to the 10mm frame because the 10mm/Super ejector is taller than the one on a .45 frame... So I call the smith who usually builds my 1911s and ask him if one deepens the ejector channel on a .45 slide to the same depth as those on a 10mm/Super slide will it work...absolutely...he does it all the time...
So I package everything up along with three oversize square bottom firing pin stops to be fitted to the slides and bring it to a GREAT local smith who has very fast turn-a-round time....a real Old Timey gunsmith who can do or make anything needed...retired LEO armorer... He blinks and it is all done...
10mm STT is fitted with barrels in:
10mm
.40 S&W
9mm
.38 Super (also runs 9x23 Winchester and 9mm Largo)
and an extra .45 ACP upper that will run:
.45 ACP
.45 Super
The original .38 Super has:
.38 Super (will also run 9x23 Winchester and 9mm Largo)
9mm
10mm
Have also had a Kimber .22 Conversion Unit since buying the Super back that runs on either frame... In addition I have mixed n' matched all the slides and barrels and they all will run on either frame....
The only thing I wish is that I had known that I could have added all the parts to my original .38 Super as it would have saved me the purchase of the second basically duplicate gun.... Guess it isn't a bad thing to have a backup frame or be able to shoot two 10mms, .38 Supers or 9mms at once....
10mm System
.45 slide on the 10mm frame...
10mm slide
.40 S&W/.38 Super/9mm barrels
.22 Conversion Unit (one day I would like to get one in silver to match the other slides...but this one shoots great)
With the original .38 Super and DeSantis Speed Scabbard holster...
Have shot test targets with everything and the only disappointingly inaccurate barrel was the .40 S&W... This was with some 180 grain subsonic loads...as soon as I changed ammo to 165s the groups shrank by 2/3s to what the other barrels were running... In swapping barrels on a slide very little sight adjustment was needed...really none at all if shooting within 15-20 yards...
Developed some loads in .45 Super that ran higher than Buffalo Bore rounds were running so I backed them down to 1100 for the 230 and 1050 for a 255 hard cast....
Others to be possibly added:
.357 SIG
.400 CorBon
.40 Super
7.62x25
Hope this didn't bore you....Bob
Over the years I've had some Government Models and Commanders that would run 9mm, .38 Super, 9x23 Winchester, 9mm Largo and .22 LR via a Converson Unit but that was all. All the centerfire rounds were on the same slide.
Back about 2002 I bought a Kimber Stainless Target II in .38 Super that was one of the most accurate out of the box guns I have ever owned...nothing other than an arched mainspring house had to be added to make the gun perfect. Had the gun two years, won several matches with it but sold it to a friend who really wanted the gun...and I had a dozen other Supers so I let it go...about the only gun that I half way regretted selling.
After about 10 years I told my friend if he ever wanted to sell the gun I would buy it back...he said since he had only shot it once or twice in all those years he gladly would...
In 2016 the 10mm Bug hit me and after buying a Glock 40, RIA Combat Commander and a PARA-USA Elite LS Hunter I happened upon a mint Kimber Stainless Target II...and exact match to the Super. Also turned out to be a fantastic shooter...
A few months later I saw an add over on the S&W Forums for some Kimber barrels...10mm, .38 Super and .40 S&W...all like new...$100 each... Kimber wants $300 to install a 9mm barrel in .38 Super....plus postage. So I contact the guy and ask about the .40 barrel for the 10mm...he still has it. That is really the only one I need but the price is so low I make him an offer of $90 each for all three...he accepts...later on he asks if I want original Kimber magazines...he had a bunch of them for I think $20 each..this is great.
Don't remember how but about the time the mags and barrels arrived I found out that Kimber uses the same breechface cut for both 9mm/Super and 10mm/.40....and sure enough when I drop the new 10mm barrel in my old Super it runs like a top...and the same with the new Super barrel in the 10mm STT...this is unreal.
So to complete the set I want to find just one 9mm barrel....and low and behold a gunsmith on the 1911 boards posts about putting a match barrel in a customers Kimber Stainless Target II 9mm!!! So I contact the smith and told him if his customer didn't want the OEM barrel I would pay him $100 for it.... The smith says ok and will contact the customer... A moth gos by and I hear nothing so I ordered 9mm RemSport barrel off eBay....and of course by the time it comes in the smith gets back to me saying the customer accepted my offer....so now I have two 9mm barrels... Both needed minor fitting however....all the others just dropped in.
One day while looking for some other Kimber items on eBay I come across an auction with a BuyNow for a complete Kimber Target II minus the frame...in .45 ACP....and I buy it....
Comes in...99% condition except for some minor discoloration of the rear sight...barrel is perfect... But of course the slide will not go on to the 10mm frame because the 10mm/Super ejector is taller than the one on a .45 frame... So I call the smith who usually builds my 1911s and ask him if one deepens the ejector channel on a .45 slide to the same depth as those on a 10mm/Super slide will it work...absolutely...he does it all the time...
So I package everything up along with three oversize square bottom firing pin stops to be fitted to the slides and bring it to a GREAT local smith who has very fast turn-a-round time....a real Old Timey gunsmith who can do or make anything needed...retired LEO armorer... He blinks and it is all done...
10mm STT is fitted with barrels in:
10mm
.40 S&W
9mm
.38 Super (also runs 9x23 Winchester and 9mm Largo)
and an extra .45 ACP upper that will run:
.45 ACP
.45 Super
The original .38 Super has:
.38 Super (will also run 9x23 Winchester and 9mm Largo)
9mm
10mm
Have also had a Kimber .22 Conversion Unit since buying the Super back that runs on either frame... In addition I have mixed n' matched all the slides and barrels and they all will run on either frame....
The only thing I wish is that I had known that I could have added all the parts to my original .38 Super as it would have saved me the purchase of the second basically duplicate gun.... Guess it isn't a bad thing to have a backup frame or be able to shoot two 10mms, .38 Supers or 9mms at once....
10mm System
.45 slide on the 10mm frame...
10mm slide
.40 S&W/.38 Super/9mm barrels
.22 Conversion Unit (one day I would like to get one in silver to match the other slides...but this one shoots great)
With the original .38 Super and DeSantis Speed Scabbard holster...
Have shot test targets with everything and the only disappointingly inaccurate barrel was the .40 S&W... This was with some 180 grain subsonic loads...as soon as I changed ammo to 165s the groups shrank by 2/3s to what the other barrels were running... In swapping barrels on a slide very little sight adjustment was needed...really none at all if shooting within 15-20 yards...
Developed some loads in .45 Super that ran higher than Buffalo Bore rounds were running so I backed them down to 1100 for the 230 and 1050 for a 255 hard cast....
Others to be possibly added:
.357 SIG
.400 CorBon
.40 Super
7.62x25
Hope this didn't bore you....Bob
