Competition. Carry. Is it possible to buy a pistol which satisfies the IDPA-driven need for speed and accuracy with self-defense safety and concealability? Over the last few months I narrowed my search for one handgun to rule them both. I set my heart on a high quality an-all steel 1911 with a four inch barrel. And there she was, lingering inside the gun show loophole: a month-old Kimber Super Carry Pro HD. Kimber’s first all steel 4″ carry model. All it took was two checks, my background and my money . . .
Size & Weight
Carrying the all-steel Kimber Super Carry Pro HD requires commitment. The 35-ounce handgun weighs slightly more than a box of Aunt Jemima’s Original Pancake & Waffle Mix, a 32-ounce product that seems carefully designed to encourage shoppers to swap their handbasket for a cart. Although the Pro HD’s barrel is 1″ shorter than my Custom II, the smaller gun weighs just three ounces less. With a full magazine, the two guns feel equally heavy.
The Super Carry Pro HD is an ergonomically sound firearm, as is. Which makes it a perfect starting point for people who can’t leave well enough alone—or need to raise their game. The Pro HD’s grip-safety is Kimber’s no-bump standard; I’ll change it out for the memory bump version. While I’m at it, I’ll replace Kimber’s ambi-thumb-safety with a smaller, smoother Wilson Combat tactical thumb-safety.
The bobtail on the Super Carry Pro HD requires a slightly different cut grip that a normal bobtail. Luckily, the folks at VZ Grips will contour their grips to fit the Super Carry Pro HD at no additional cost. My favorite grip is the Elite Tactical Carry in Black Cherry. As you can see above, it looks great on this firearm, and fits perfectly.
Fit & Finish
Super Carry Pro HD’s curved bobtail makes this gun special. The parkerized steel mainspring housing is equally appreciated. The good news: we finally have a Kimber with a metal mainspring housing. The bad news: the serrations are practically non-existant.
The deep black KimPro II finish over the Pro HD’s slide and frame is gorgeous. The finish gives the 1911 the sort of elegantly bad-ass look that you’d expect from a gun carried by James Bond’s CIA counterpart (Felix Leiter). Caution! Slippery when wet! I suspect the Pro HD’s “self-lubricating” coating has some Teflon in it.
Like all coatings, it’s not very thick. Touch ups are easy enough using a Birchwood Casey Presto Gun Blue Touch Up Pen. The stainless steel under the coating blues very nicely to a deep dark black.
The Super Carry Pro HD’s Carry Melt treatment removes all the guns sharp edges, especially around the muzzle. While gunmakers sell “de-horned” guns on their ability to minimize clothing snags—a reassuring advantage for life’s big uh-oh moments—smoothing out the rough bits also makes holstering a weapon predictable and easy. That’s a huge plus for competition.
Sights & Controls
The Super Carry Pro HD wears tritium night sights atop a well-designed cocking shoulder. (The set-up’s similar to my Custom II’s 10-8 Performance sights.)
While I applaud Kimber’s decision to offer night sights with a cocking shoulder on the Super Carry Pro HD, the white paint job leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not the most visibility-enhancing choice.
That said, if you’ve ever practiced racking your slide one-handed on your holster, shoe or blue jeans—an important self-defense skill to compensate for an injured arm—you know that a handgun’s rear site design is mission critical. The Pro HD’s will git ‘er done.
Trigger
The Super Carry Pro HD comes with a solid black aluminum trigger. It feels exactly like the triggers on my Tactical II Ultra and Custom II models. If you want to know why 1911s are the first choice for IDPA competitors, the Pro HD is a case in point. It’s as crisp as a freshly chilled head of Iceberg lettuce and cleaner than an OCD toilet seat, with a reset firm enough to shame a Sleep Number Bed showing 100 on the clock.
Range Report
The Pro HD’s recoil spring felt a little “mushy” during both initial range outings. As this example was a “floor model” from a gun show, I suspect the gun had spent much of its short life locked open (i.e. with a fully compressed recoil spring). In theory, this contributed to the felt recoil and, yes, out of battery issues.
This is my third Kimber. Each has had its own break-in issues—which smoothed out after 500 rounds of ball ammo. The Super Carry Pro HD with factory magazines proved to be no exception; I experienced a few failures to feed (FTF) shooting Winchester White Box 230gr FMJ ammo.
Specifically, an FTF on round seven in my third string, another on round eight of my sixth string and one more on seven on my tenth string. Note: in almost every “out of battery” instance I was able to hit the slide and fire the round.
Like my Custom II and Tactical II Ultra, the new Super Carry Pro HD is much more accurate than its operator—as you might expect from a Kimber with a bushingless match grade bull barrel. For an OFWG with a bad back, my groups at seven, 10 and 15 yards were more than acceptable. Thanks to the Kimber’s heft and balance, re-acquiring the sight picture is a near-instantaneous process. For self-defense, minute-of-bad guy is a done deal. For competition, confidence is high. [Report to follow.]
Super Carry Pro HD Reliability Modifications
I believe that all the failures to feed that experienced in my first two outings can be traced back to one simple design flaw: the Super Carry Pro HD simple operates too fast with the factory recoil spring, using standard magazine springs. Once I fitted Wolff’s Improved XP Recoil Spring and started using the Wilson Combat 7-Round, Heavy Duty Magazine (47C-HV) my FTF issues cleared up instantly. And completely.
After several IDPA BFFs demonstrated how one pound of additional spring force could affect the “felt recoil” of any 1911, I now use Wolff’s recoil springs in all my 1911s . Once I installed the extra power recoil spring in my Super Carry Pro HD, I immediately noticed the difference. I wish Kimber would pay attention to little details like this.
Conclusions
At $1625 msrp, you might expect the Kimber Super Carry Pro HD to be perfect straight out of the box. For some, it may be. But for 1911 aficionados, the people who have the coin for these firearms, little things are a big deal. With the Pro HD there are a few nits to pick. For example, Wilson Combat’s 47D magazines’ nylon follower is simply a better design than Kimber’s stock mags.
But then high-end 1911 buyers tend to view any pistol as a starting point. And with a few minor tweaks (recoil spring, new magazines), I wouldn’t hesitate to call this weapon Kimber’s finest dual-role 1911.
SPECIFICATIONS
Caliber: .45 ACP
Height 90° to barrel: 5.25 inches
Weight with empty magazine: 35 ounces
Length: 7.7 inches
Width: 1.28 inches
Magazine Capacity: 8 + 1 in the chamber
Recoil Spring: 22 pounds
Full-Length Guide Rod
Frame: Stainless Steel; Matte Black / KimPro II Coated;
Slide: Stainless Steel; Matte Black / KimPro II Coated;
Barrel: Steel, match grade bull barrel; Length: 4 inches; Twist Rate: 16 (Left Hand)
Sights: Fixed low profile night sights, 3-dot with cocking shoulder, Radius: 5.7 inches
Grips: G10 / Checkered with Smooth Border
Trigger: Aluminum, Match Grade; Factory setting: 4 – 5 pounds
MSRP: $1,625.00
RATINGS (Out of Five Stars)
Accuracy: * * * * *
Shooting .45 ACP ball ammo this gun is deadly accurate.
Ergonomics: * * * *
It’s a 4″ 1911 with a curved bobtail and “Carry Melt” treatment. What more could you ask for in a carry gun—other than capacity?
Ergonomics Firing: * * * *
Crisp trigger and reasonable recoil. All the controls are right where they should be. A joy to shoot.
Reliability: * * *
Like any 1911, you’ll need to break-in the Super Carry Pro HD. After 500 rounds it’s nearly perfect.
Customization: * * * * *
It’s a 1911 so (almost) everything is customizable from the grips to the barrel.
Overall Rating: * * * *
The Super Carry Pro HD is Kimber’s top of the line in 4″ 1911s. You could spend over $2800 for a “Bill Wilson Carry” or save $1200 for a few mods, a good holster and lots of ammo.
If I am not mistaken, the SIS was also an all steel gun and came in all 3 sizes as offered in the Super Carry HD. I have an SIS Ultra, no problems with the KimPro finish scuffing or wearing, and I have it going on 3 years now. I find personally the only time I seem to have feed issues, is if I do not hold the weapon tight enough aka limp wrist. I personally like the Kim Pro Tac magazines; I have about 5 of them and they seem to work just fine. Even in my SIS Ultra I really haven’t experienced any ammo feed issues that were not rectified through a more solid grip, when using HP ammo. I ‘ve read numerous reviews about feed issues in the Ultra size using HP ammo. Recently picked up an SuperCarryHD Pro, so far out of 200 rounds I have had one failure to feed and one extraction issue. My grip screws have come loose though, so it might be the cause of those. My first time out there were no issues and the grips were tight. The grip screws loosened up during the second outing and the issue popped up late in the outing as did the loose screws. I had the same loose grip screw experience with a Springfield EMP 40 a year ago. Tightened them up about a half turn and no problems since then. I hope that solves the problem with the Kimber as well. Shop around and you can find a Kimber for $200 – $250 off MSRP. Took me about 9 months of looking before I found my Super Carry Pro HD; traded in the Pro Raptor II I had bought prior to the Super Carry Pro HD being announced (that was over a year ago).
Daniel, nice review and comments. I’d be interested in hearing why you traded in your Raptor, as that was initially the pistol I liked but instead chose the Super Carry (likely because of the bobtail grip). What say you?
Why I traded the Pro Raptor II; mostly because I really wanted an SIS Pro and they quit selling them. The SCHD Pro is the closest thing there is being made by Kimber today to an SIS model. The SIS serrations leave something to be desired, but the cocking shoulder sight is actually better in my opinion and I like the KimPro somewhat metallic looking gray finish on the SIS, as well as the grips. One of the reasons I bought the Raptor was the super deal I got at Cabela’s. It was one of those employee pricing to customer sales for 10% off, which still gave me 1.5% off after sales tax. I also liked the grip feel, the serrations and I am a fan of black matte finish guns. But the SCHD Pro just said buy me all over it when I first saw it. Wasn’t really considering selling the Raptor, until the day came when I saw the SCHD Pro in the case. There are not a whole lot of these out there. Mostly I see SCHD Ultras in stores. I asked the dealer what I would get for a trade on my Pro Raptor and that pretty much sealed the deal. I researched on line and found he was giving me a fair shake in the trade and the SCHD Pro price was also good. I’ve held many Dan Wessons and Wilsons, not feeling as comfortable as the SCHD Pro or my SIS Ultra to me. The Kimbers just fit my hand nicely. Colt, Springfield and Rock Island 1911′s are nice too, as are the new S&W E Series in Scandium. If I want a higher end 1911, then I’ll invest into my Kimber being tuned further. After all, a Wilson Combat runs between $2.7 & $5 very big bills! I could make a lot of improvements for another $1000 and be at the bottom end of a Wilson. One of the reviews of the SCHD Pro mentioned the Meprolight night sights and the white ring around them. I like the Meprolight sights way better than Trijicon night sights; the white ring is part of the difference, they are also somewhat larger and brighter every time I’ve compared the two brands. Bottom line, quicker site picture.
SCHDproUpdate: 500 rounds + and no additional issues to report since the 2 reported in early March (1 FTF & 1 FTE, grip screw related possibly). I use Kimber TAC Mags; I’ve even used them in my SA TRP and my Rock Island Officer without issue. Out of all the firearms I have had and shot regularly, I’ve had more issues with a Sig Sauer P232 and Ruger MKIII (multiple issues with both). Zero Issues with S&W M&P of any size or caliber (9, 40 or 45). Next time out with the SCHDpro I will begin shooting various Hollow Point rounds and see how they feed.
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I use the same set-up with Wolf Spring and the Wilson Combat 7-Round, Heavy Duty Magazine (47C-HV). This cleared up my FTF and FTE. However, I still found that on occation I had a FTL. I now use a Tripp follower which is similar to Wilson’s but a metal insert for the slide lock and filed the small bump on the top of the follower. Getting good reliability in my Kimber Stainless Steel Pro which was manufactured in 1999. Previous to the additions I put this on the shelf as the way it is shipped from Kimber did not give me confidence for a carry gun.
Hey Matt… I really have to strongly disagree. I carry a SA Micro Compact 1911 .45 every day. I have seven 1911s in various calibers and barrel lengths and I can not accept that 1911s require a break in period. None of the 1911s I own are Kimbers and none cost more than $750 brand new out the door. (the aforementioned Springer would be an exception had I bought it new) Every one of them has worked right out of the box. I can’t even imagine paying money for a brand new gun that doesn’t run.