Tolerances too tight for combat?

[pantone354]

Hey Calgunners...I was watching this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0eXSOkF93k

...and something he said caught my attention. He said you wouldn't take a $5,000 Kimber 1911 into combat because the tolerances are too tight. I gather that to mean that if junk gets gummed up in the action, it could fail? What does this mean for milspec?

Thanks

[rcslotcar]

That is his opinion. What is yours??

[theLBC]

tight tolerances can make certain ammo unreliable in feeding.
this is why custom guns built for increased accuracy are typically used for competition only.

why is the AK so reliable? it is loose and tolerant to small differences in ammo and dirt in the mechanisms.

[pantone354]

I don't have enough information to formulate an opinion, which is why I'm hoping my fellow calgunners will help out.

[teflondog]

He said you wouldn't take a $5,000 Kimber 1911 into combat because the tolerances are too tight.

Kimber makes a $5k gun?

[pantone354]

I think he was exaggerating to make a point.

[k1dude]

I didn't watch the video, but tight tolerances are bad news when you're trying to shed dirt, grime, sand, and mud. They can grind your action to a halt. Carbon/primer fouling will also affect you quicker than with looser tolerances.

Loose tolerances are what makes the AK so reliable in battlefield conditions.

[808@515]

I wouldn't take a $5000 Kimber either. That's what I have Glocks for.

[pantone354]

Would a SA TRP be considered to have "tight tolerances"? The FBI Pro Model used in urban situations is a far different application than battlefield combat, but apparently Chris Kyle used the TRP in combat. Should he have?

[pantone354]

That is my argument as well...3 Glocks or 1 SA TRP.

[teflondog]

My 1911s are all tight and they will malfunction when they're not properly lubed. There's no play between the slide and frame so the rails have a lot of friction when they're dry. My Glocks on the other hand will still run without a drop of lube in them. The slide to frame fit is so loose that they would function even if they were dropped in the mud.

[pantone354]

My 1911s are all tight and they will malfunction when they're not properly lubed. There's no play between the slide and frame so the rails have a lot of friction when they're dry. My Glocks on the other hand will still run without a drop of lube in them. The slide to frame fit is so loose that they would function even if they were dropped in the mud.

Thanks teflondog...that is the sort of info I was looking for.

[Mystery_Milk]

This is an age-old argument. You see torture tests of people dumping sand into guns and pitting it against an AK to try to measure reliability, and the AK always loses because loose tolerances means that it's easier for outside stuff to get into the gun.

But realistically if you had your gun out in a sandstorm for half a day it'd be a lot easier to shake the sand out of the AK and get it back into action than it would be to do the same for a gun with tight tolerances.

I've seen people take their Glocks out in extreme conditions just for testing and every time they fire the gun blows chunks of snow or whatever out of almost every available opening. A Kimber 1911 might just jam up.

[therealnickb]

I think he was exaggerating to make a point.

[BarrettM99]

I wouldn't take a $5000 Kimber either. That's what I have Glocks for.

There are $5K Kimbers?

I heard of a $5000 reward for info leading to the arrest of perpetrators of a smash and grab gun store robbery where some Kimbers were left behind.