Kimber K6s Revolver

Recently, I was looking over the UnblinkingEye.com, a website with good information concerning history, photography, and some firearms. Ed Buffaloe is a featured photographer there. He is also a holster maker. Consider, where are you going to find a holster for the Colt 1903 for concealed carry? My example is getting well worn but works just fine for this classic firearm. What might be a more modern revolver that could be used instead? Ed made a shooting review of the Kimber K6s revolver.

While we engage primarily in gunsmithing projects and fixes instead of shooting reviews in this publication, Ed and I came to the same shooting conclusions: The revolver is more accurate than I can hold and kicks a lot, especially with Magnum ammunition. I decided to take a hard look at the Kimber revolver and do a pre-emptive study of it before a K6s comes into the job. The K6s is well made of good material.

It a small frame Magnum that may be fired often for mastery of personal defense shooting, so it’s likely to shoot loose at some point. At least, unless it is very different from its predecessors. I was a bit shy at first about taking the piece down for inspection. After all, the big Allen head nuts holding the side plate looks pretty darned intimidating. It turns out the Kimber K6s is well made of good material but it isn’t revolutionary.

To fire and use the revolver as issued you might have thought the internals contained roller bearings. The Kimber isn’t anything an experienced gunsmith need fear addressing. While I consider each handgun on its own merits, there are some makes that would surprise you with a truly bad firearm. Kimber has earned a good reputation with 1911 clone guns. This revolver was to be somewhat more of the same.

The Kimber K6s is based on proven operating procedure but isn’t a clone of Smith & Wesson revolvers as the Taurus and Rossi revolvers are. But then, Taurus has since invented handguns that Smith & Wesson has not. Kimber upgraded the revolver concept and how they managed to do so is interesting. I took a hard look at the K6s based on engineering and gunsmithing and found a workman-like revolver with good features.

I also found a revolver that anyone familiar with the Smith & Wesson J- Frame revolver will find easy enough to address and even modify if desired. The design goal of the K6s was to offer a six shot .357 Magnum revolver little larger than five shot revolvers and to produce a reliable, smooth action. Good sights, a snag-free frame, good

grips, and combat-oriented controls are also important. My evaluation indicates the Kimber K6s will be more robust and long lived than other small-frame .357 Magnum revolvers. I have previously covered some of the problems with these handguns. It is asking a lot for a frame originally intended for the .32 S&W Long cartridge to accept .357 Magnum momentum. The guns do not blow up but the small parts take a beating.

By the same token, physics being what they are, I am certain those valiant enough to fire the K6s to high round counts with Magnum ammunition will experience some type of wear on the small parts. Let’s look at the revolver closely so we will know what to expect. The K6s features a six-shot cylinder. It appears to have flutes but does not. These are simply polished flats on the cylinder extending almost to the rear of the cylinder, stopping short of the locking bolt cuts.

The cylinder is the same width at its narrowest point—between the flats—as most five-shot .38 Special revolvers and keeps weight to the advertised 23 ounces. There are lighter revolvers but none you would care to fire with .357 Magnums. For the most part, the K6s is an adaptation of the Smith & Wesson double-action revolver. The cylinder release is Ruger-like and powered by a plunger set in a modest recoil shield. The release is less likely to injure the thumb on firing than most small revolver designs.

There are no sharp edges. The rubber grips do a fair job of separating the hand from metal. Any larger and concealment would be affected. The sights are the best revolver sights on the market, with high visibility. My test gun sports night sights and selfluminous irons are good to have. The rear sight features a set screw allowing windage adjustment when loosened. The hammer is concealed in the frame making it a classic humpback frame. Look at the cylinder geometry.

On the J-Frame, with its five-shot cylinder, the bolt stop slot seems to be above the frame center. Six-shot revolvers have a bolt stop on each side of the median of the frame. This meant Kimber had to move the bolt stop further to the right in the frame to modify the J-Frame size to accommodate a six-shot cylinder. There are more differences internally, making for the reason the Kimber K6s is smoother than the Smith & Wesson revolvers it is based on.

I initially commented when first cycling the action that if it were a different make I would guess the revolver wouldn’t fire as it felt like toocommon butchered actions brought in for repair. Not the ones with hitches in the action, mind you, but the ones that someone has cut the springs too short, making the action impossibly light. Not so with the Kimber. It consistently breaks all primers, even the hardest Magnums. To inspect the action, disassemble the K6s with an Allen wrench to remove the grips.

The single screw is removed and a thin screwdriver slipped under the grips to remove them. They area tight press fit. On the right side of the revolver are three Allen screws. They were quite difficult to break and appeared to be sealed with red Loctite. Once the screws were removed it wasn’t difficult to tap the side plate out of its slot in the receiver. I was hoping there were no blind holes or tiny springs to spring loose as I ran into this with an early Taurus and it took three hands to place it back.

Literally three hands, or maybe four as my son

helped me. There were none of these evident with the Kimber. With the side plate removed, the K6s appears like a J-Frame variant. The hammer spring is set at a different angle. While difficult to measure with a protractor, it was angled about five degrees different. The hammer of the Kimber gets a press from the push rod at a closer point on its pivot than the Smith & Wesson does. The action is shorter and that is part of the reason why the K6s feels light.

This small difference in design makes for a short stroke and smooth action. Another reason is the action is very well polished. It looks as if someone that knew what they were doing performed a first class action job, polishing the parts but not interfering with original angles. The work is very good and part of the reason for the Kimber’s price. The example illustrated cost $840 at Dewey’s Pawn Shop, Greenville, South Carolina.

In addition to the obviously smooth machine and polish work, there is also a coating on the parts that inhibit friction. Disassembly is the same as with Smith & Wesson revolvers. It will bealong time before normal wear begins to work on these parts but the at-home gun butcher may attempt to make an already excellent action "better" so don’t hesitate to take a repair job in on the Kimber if the opportunity is presented.

It is the same basic action with a few modifications that Smith & Wesson introduced some 120-odd years ago. Smith & Wesson parts do not fit, of course, but they look the same. As for the springs, I did not have a bolt stop spring on hand to compare but a standard weight Smith & Wesson J- Frame hammer spring looks a great Although the Kimber looks similar to a J- Frame, it isn’t. Grips designed for the J-Frame will not fit, however, wooden grips may be modified.

The crescent where the grips fit into the frame must be filed down to fit the Kimber as the K6s opening is much smaller. A J-Frame grip must also have a new hole drilled to fit the stabilizing slot in the bottom where it butts into the frame. Makers are not yet up to speed on the Kimber but they should be soon. If you have a set of custom J-Frame grips around that you wish to fit to the Kimber, it can be done. The Kimber K6s is a viable revolver with many advantages over older technology.

However, nothing is perfect and we will see these in the shop sooner or later depending upon what type of treatment they are given. AG Far deal the same, with the same apparent diameter and about 5mm longer. This spring could easily be adapted to the Kimber if need be.