Kimber 9 mm

Question
Hi,
John here in Ireland and an NRA Instructor
I own a Kimber 9mm 6 Inch Barrel and Slide which was a .45.
I had to change to a 9mm as .45 was deemed and black listed as a militry round.
Now the 9mm is being blacklisted also with most calibers in that range ie 380, 40 s&w.

However .32 ACP is acceptable.
Is there any one out there that makes a 6 inch .32 ACP Barrel that will fit the Kimber Frame.
Also if so. Is there .32 ACP Mags out there that will fit into the Kimber frame.

Maybe a long shot. But just doing my best to keep my girl.
Thanks again,
John


Answer
Wow, John. That's a dilemma. You could move to this side of the big water, and then you could carry your Kimber with you if you so wished (in most of our states, anyway).

Are you saying that you got a new barrel and magazine for the gun, but the rest of it started life as a .45 ACP? If so, I'm surprised that's working for you. The breach face is much too wide for the 9mm cartridge, and the extractor and ejector must be barely kissing the case head.

If anyone could help you out with a barrel, BarSto could (http://www.barsto.com). You'd probably have to call them and explain what you're trying to do.

The problem though, is that no matter how light a recoil spring you have, I doubt that little cartridge can generate the power to push the weight of the slide back to cycle it. And I don't think there'd be any hope of an extractor and ejector originally designed for a .45 ACP doing its job on a .32.

A few other options might be some "off" cartridges. The best would be the relative new .45 GAP developed by Glock. It's a shorter .45, and it would take only another barrel - everything else, including your .45 ACP mags should work.

Option #2 would be the .357 SIG. This is basically a .40 S&W necked down to a 9mm projectile.

Option #3 would be a 9x23 and/or 9x25 which have not had much commercial success, and are certainly not military cartridges.

None of the above are military cartridges, none are commercially successful, so unless they are including weasel words like "or cartridges similar to . . ." I doubt these would be on any list.

It would make my day if one of these worked for you, as your question put a damper on my night. I feel like the whole of Western civilization is going to hell in a handbasket.

I'm interested in your plight, so let me know how this works out for you, and good luck to you.