My Early Impressions of the Kimber Micro 9

Thanks to cdaniel76 for putting me onto a good deal on this gun at KYGunCo. The gun was on backorder for a few weeks, but my patience held up well. Now that I've shot it some, I thought I'd share my thoughts w/ the OB.

First impressions were a mixed bag. This gun looks like a miniaturized 1911 w/ a small (but adequate sized) thumb safety and no grip safety. The good--this gun is small, smooth, fits my hand like a 1911 and looks nice. I didn’t realize it, but it’s barely bigger than my Kahr CM9 (1/4” longer in length and ¼” longer in grip length w/ the extended mag of the Kimber in place vs flush mag of the Kahr). Weight is about the same for both, approx. 16 oz. The Kimber is very smooth w/ all the edges having been “melted.” The stainless steel finish looks nice. It comes w/ custom G10 grips that are fairly smooth and look ok. The rear sight is a typical “2 dot” setup while the front sight is a fiber optic high viz green. The gun comes w/ only one mag, an extended mag w/ 7 round capacity. By now you’re wondering….what was the bad—the single stage trigger measured 10#, much more than the factory specs of 7#. After cleaning the gun, it was time to shoot it.

So far I’ve made two trips to the range w/ the gun. On the first trip I put about 60 rounds through the gun. All the controls worked properly. The sight picture was nice. Like all 1911’s, it pointed naturally. Shooting w/ 2 hands at 7 yards I found accuracy was satisfactory for this type of gun, especially given my aging eyes. I shot a few rounds of Blazer 115 gr FMJ and Winchester “White Box” 115 FMJ mixed w/ 4 mags of Winchester “USA Forged” (steel case). The “USA Forged” rounds were all fired rapidly (none deliberately), mostly double and triple taps. Recoil was very manageable. The trigger broke pretty clean. Only one ejected round hit me in the forehead. All rounds fed w/o any problems. I usually put one in the chamber from a full mag, eject the mag and top it off. Using this procedure, I found out that the next round up in the mag was loose and fell out of the magazine well when I removed the mag. This didn’t happen when the magazine had 5 rounds or less in it when putting one in the chamber. On the second trip I put another 60 rounds or so of FMJ’s through it (115 gr Blazer, 124 gr Blazer and 115 gr Tulammo). The Tulammo was VERY inaccurate. Everything else has been fairly accurate. On the second trip I changed my loading procedure, charging the chamber from the mag w/ only 5 rounds in it, then removing the mag to top it off. Using this modification, there were no loose rounds from the mag. Even when I inserted a full mag, charged the chamber and then shot the mag w/o topping off, all rounds fed cleanly. Thankfully, trigger pull is now down to 6.5-7.25#.

I’m favorably impressed w/ the Kimber Micro 9. I think it’ll be a nice addition to my concealed carry rotation. I need to buy a flush mag and shoot it w/ that. I’ve not decided whether I’ll carry it IWB or OWB. Although it fits in large front pockets well, I still worry about the beavertail grip snagging on a draw from the front pocket. I think the Kahr is better suited for front pocket carry. After another 50 rounds or so of FMJ’s Ill run some HP’s through it to be sure it’ll reliably feed them before I carry it concealed.

Yes, it's small.


First 8 shots, Blazer 115 gr FMJ


32 rounds rapid fire w/ Win Steel