One is none, two is one and when you are talking Kimber Covert IIs, three is fun. Editor Dave dropped the plain brown box on my desk. I knew from the shape it most likely held guns. In this case it had three, all three sizes of the new Kimber Covert II series — full-size Custom Covert II, Pro Covert II and the Ultra Covert II were unwrapped checked for clear and fondled. When I asked Dave who was going to review them, he didn’t respond. When I looked up he had the cat-that-ate the-canary grin on his face. “You dude,” was his reply as he walked away. The results of my begging and pleading for a feature in COP were now being paid back in triplicate.  “By the way, I need it by next Tuesday.” It was Friday Damn, now I have to go the range.  Luckily, Jeff Hoffman had recently sent three different Blackhills .45 ACP loads for another test.





The Guns

All three look alike — the dimensions obviously aren’t the same. The two-tone desert tan KimPro II finish frame wrapped in the digital camo Crimson Trace lasergips, contrasted with the matt black oxide slide makes for visual sensation saying, this gun is all business.

All three are equipped with Kimber’s Tactical Wedge tritium night sights. The front straps are serrated at 30 LPI in Kimber’s new bordered base pattern. As a note, the Crimson Trace Laser grip’s activation button only covers a small portion at the top of the frontstrap. The custom shop hand fits each one and does a carry melt treatment making for a super smooth feel.

Both the Custom and the Pro have a lanyard loop. A feature no one cares about until they look down and notice their holster is empty.

The Custom is full-sized 1911 tipping the scales at 31 ounces with the empty magazine. The slide has cocking serrations — front and rear. The Pro is a commander-sized 1911 weighing in at 28 ounces — same magazine capacity as the Custom, with an inch shorter slide. The Ultra Covert is small, but very serious carry package. It weighs in at 25 ounces and is only 6.8" long and 4.75" high, making it .5" shorter in height than its full sized brother.
While doing research on the Covert IIs, I was pressed for time so I called Kimber to get the scoop on how these guns came to be.

Consumer requests drive heavily what Kimber makes. The features included on the Coverts are a collection of independently requested items summarized by the custom shop into one pistol.

They’re extremely proud of how this family of pistols turned out and added, “like all Kimber pistols, Coverts are 100 percent made in American factories.”




Red Dot

The addition of the Crimson Trace Laser Grips to the Covert family is a force multiplier. I know the debate about lasers is almost as fanatical as the Weaver versus Isosceles stance. Anything adding to the success of winning a deadly-force encounter is a good thing. However, without having a good grasp of the basic marksmanship fundamentals — like a smooth trigger press — it won’t matter what type of sights you use. If you smash the trigger causing the muzzle to be somewhere other than on your target when the bullet leaves the barrel — guess what — you miss.

The use of the laser takes practice; don’t assume it will “just work.” One of my shooting partners who helped with this review remarked “I can’t see the laser.” If you find out for the first time under fire you can’t see the red dot at high noon in a parking lot, doom on you — know your gear.
The laser really shined during diminished light conditions and when working with only the non-dominate hand. Most of the shooters took to it quickly and remarked at how easy it was to make very fast accurate hits.

Some of the local departments who’ve approved the laser for duty use have seen a dramatic increase of hits in officer-involved shootings. They’ve also had suspects give up when they see the red dot on their chest. You have choices — choose wisely.



Shoot ‘Em

All the shooters who helped during the testing process were familiar with 1911-style handguns. One stated in the beginning he wasn’t a real a fan, but the end of the day, I believe we had a convert.

Due to a very short deadline testing was going to be simple — load them and shoot them. I was concerned with functioning and functional accuracy. Functional accuracy to me is a group at 25 yards in the cardiovascular triangle covered by the palm of the hand. If these were bull’s-eye guns, we would have shot a lot of bull’s-eye targets. What we found was in the right hands the Custom and the Pro could pass as bull’s-eye guns. One of our shooters could use the Ultra and be a top shooter in any type of completion.
The day started out with approximately 1,500 rounds of Blackhills ammo. 230 gr. JHP, 230 gr. FMJ and 185gr JHP. At the end of the day all of it was empty brass. I’m no math wiz, but I would put that at 500 rounds per gun with no cleaning.

Not a single malfunction was reported during any string of fire. The guns were shot limp wrested and in awkward positions intentionally trying to induce malfunctions — nada — not a single one.

Accuracy was in the eye and hands of the shooter. The “I’m not a 1911 fan” shooter turned in the tightest slow fire groups and was super fast on the quick strings. His comment was straight out of a Bill Ingval skit. “I guess I shouldn’t bad mouth something I haven’t tried.” He told me he believed all the old hype about 1911s being inaccurate and they jam all the time. What he found was he shot all three Coverts better than he shoots his duty Sig 226 in .40.  By the time this hits print I’m sure he’ll have added a 1911 to his collection.

Favorite?

Picking a favorite would be tough. For duty, the full-size would be my top choice with the Pro coming in a close second. I have to admit I’m a big fan of commander-sized pistols. I’ve carried a Pro-Carry for almost 10 years. For ultimate concealment the surprisingly soft shooting Ultra would be the winner. Each shooter had a favorite, and none said they didn’t like a particular pistol. Coming from this group I’d say the Covert IIs received a glowing endorsement.

For More Info: www.kimberamerica.com