By: Friedrich Seiltgen
Copyright © 2024
ABOUT KIMBER
Kimber Manufacturing is a Troy, Alabama, company that designs, manufactures, and distributes small arms such as M1911 pistols, rifles, and revolvers. Kimber has customers with the USA Shooting Team, Marines assigned to Special Operations Command, and the LAPD SWAT team.
Kimber was founded as “Kimber of Oregon” in 1979 by Jack Warne, an Australian, and his son Greg Warne in the small town of Clackamas, Oregon.
In the late 1980s, the company began to struggle after a stock offering couldn’t cover the costs of developing their M89 BG (Big Game) Rifle. The company was sold, and the new owner went bankrupt.
In the mid-1990s, Greg Warne tried to revive Kimber, but much of Kimber of Oregon’s original tooling had ended up in a junkyard north of Portland. Warne soon found a financial backer in Les Edelman, who owned Nationwide Sports Distributors. The two purchased the original tooling and founded Kimber of America.
While Edelman was partnering with Warne, he had also invested in Yonkers-based Jerico Precision Manufacturing, which manufactured hand tools and mechanical components. Edelman decided to connect Jerico Precision’s manufacturing capabilities and Kimber’s reputation and dealer network to build a line of M1911-style handguns. He eventually moved Kimber’s production line to Jerico’s facilities in New York.
Faced with political issues in anti-gun New York and New Jersey, Kimber announced the intention to move its headquarters and manufacturing facility and operations to Troy, Alabama.
THE KIMBER R7 MAKO TACTICAL
With a solid history of producing hammer-fired 1911-style pistols, Kimber designed the R7 Mako, Kimber’s first polymer frame, striker-fired pistol, which was quite successful. Now, they’ve improved on the original design and offer two versions, one that’s optics ready and the other with a Holosun MRD optics factory installed, and it features extended 15-round magazines.
THE FRAME
It starts with a serialized steel central block. The frame is polymer with a palm swell grip, beavertail, and molded stippling on the side, front, and rear, which helps shooters get a firm grip. It has ambidextrous controls for our left-handed friends, a flat-faced trigger with blade safety, and features a Picatinny rail for lights or lasers.
THE BARREL & SLIDE
The stainless-steel low-tilt barrel has a twist rate of 1:10 LH threads per inch and is threaded ½ x 28 for suppressor mounting. The first thing you notice about the slide is that it’s not an open top like most pistols. This adds strength to the slide and helps prevent empty casings and gases from contacting the optic. The slide is made of stainless steel with an FNC finish and beveled on the front end, which makes holstering easier.
SPECIFICATIONS
Type: Striker Fired, Semi-Automatic
Caliber: 9mm
Magazine Capacity: 15 Rounds
Sights: 3-Dot Tritium TruGlo Night Sights/ Optics-installed model has Holosun 407K mounted, which will co-witness
Barrel Length: 3.92 Inches
Overall Length: 6.8 Inches
Height: 5.3 Inches
Width: 1.00 Inches
Weight: 24.2 Ounces
MSRP: $ 743 Optics ready/$951 Optics Installed
THE VERDICT
Kimber took a great EDC gun and improved it with a threaded barrel and a factory-installed Micro Red Dot sight. This latest version has more features that might help keep you safer. Look at the new Kimber R7 Mako for your next EDC pistol.
That’s all for now, folks! Please keep sending in your questions, tips, and article ideas. And as always – “Let’s Be Careful Out There.”
Friedrich Seiltgen is a retired Master Police Officer with 20 years of service with the Orlando Police Department. He conducts training in Lone Wolf Terrorism Counterstrategies, Firearms, and Active Shooter Response. His writing has appeared in RECOIL, Soldier of Fortune, The Counter Terrorist Magazine, Off Grid, American Thinker, Homeland Security Today, and The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International.
Contact him at [email protected].