DS Warrior 9mm 1200 rounds in
Had this for about a month now and it’s been great so far. As is with most guns, there are some things I wish were done differently, but I think Kimber knocked these out of the park and it’s probably the best performing of the “budget” 2011s you can buy, especially with some pretty basic mods.
I did change it a little bit, swapping from the short GI guide rod to a full size Dawson tool less one, and I went with a TAG RMR plate instead of the factory C&H one. I had that little barrel bushing comp laying around too and ran it both on and off, and it really doesn’t do much, but it also doesn’t really get in the way either FWIW. I tested out the Harbor Freight light with this too, and it works in my T1C MSP holster for TLR-1s, so there’s that.
Shooting performance is really good and surprisingly soft for the aluminum frame. Trigger is pretty good, as in definitely not as good as the 2K11s, but perfectly shootable. I’ve seen some people complain about accuracy, and I’ve only shot indoors up to 40 feet (small range lol) so I can’t speak too much, but haven’t noticed anything with that distance. I’ve found that 11 pounds for a recoil spring with Dawson guide rod works best, and haven’t had an issue running that. Anything lower than that, I ran into some failures to go into battery, but as the gun smooths out after break in, I might be able to drop spring weight some more.
In terms of reliability, that’s again been pretty outstanding. I’ve ran all sorts of random ammo, including even my old carry ammo that cycled out and it all ran perfectly. Out of 1200 rounds, and excluding the failures caused by my recoil spring weight, I had only 1 malfunction, an FTF using PMC 147 grain and a Prodigy mag, which I’m almost leaning more towards that being the mags fault rather than the gun because those things are pretty cheap and notorious for failures. Haven’t had a problem with the Kimber/Checkmate mags that came with it, or Mec-Gar’s. Ejection seems strong and tuned correctly, so it’s been consistent. As you can see by the last pic, it’s getting DIRTY, but doesn’t seem to have affected it yet.
The only real minor nitpicking things I have are that the LCI hole is a little bit annoying because it fogs up the dot, and the mag release is pretty stiff. I understand the complaints about the Aluminum frame compared to steel, but it’s not a “dealbreaker” as some people make it out to be. It’s not as soft as a steel frame, but it’s much softer than my G17.6 or my M&P, and that’s what most people who are looking at this are probably coming from.
Overall, I think it’s a solid entry into the 2011 market. American made, and holds its own with much more expensive guns. I think it’ll make a pretty good training gun if you have a 2k11 or something else, especially with newer shooters so they can get used to handling recoil. Other than what I’ve already done, I think I might swap the mag release to something I can reach easier, and maybe a flat face Red Dirt trigger, but it doesn’t need a whole lot. I got this for $875 from my LGS doing a Kimber demo day, and for that price it’s a steal. Especially with the lifetime warranty, you can’t go wrong with this.