Kimber 2K11 Comp almost destroyed!
Welcome back to Jim's Armory. In this one, Jim shows off the brand new Kimber 2K11 Comp in black, complete with its factory magwell, but the video quickly turns into a cautionary tale. What was supposed to be a simple job of removing the rear iron sight plate to mount an optic turned into a multi-hour ordeal, and Jim wants to make sure nobody else gets caught off guard the same way he did.
First Impressions of the 2K11 Comp Jim already has the stainless 2K11 Target in his collection, running an SRO, and had documented some drama getting that optic mounted. He was excited to get his hands on the comped version in black, but as it turns out, the same sight-plate problems from the stainless gun carried right over to this new variant.
The Rear Sight Plate: Where Things Went Wrong The factory iron sights are the root of the issue. To remove them, you first pull the windage screw, which allows the rear sight to fold up and out of the way, revealing two smaller screws underneath. Those screws are surprisingly chunky for their size and are secured with red Loctite from the factory. The real problem is the hex size: it's a 5/64", which Jim found unusually small and tight. By comparison, he holds up a typical optic screw, a T10 Torx, which gives far more purchase. In his opinion, a Torx would have been a much better choice for a screw this size.
The hex socket itself was stamped into the screw while still hot during manufacturing, which left it an extremely tight fit. Jim had to tap his 5/64" bit into the socket with a brass hammer just to seat it. The rear screw came out fine. The front screw did not — the bit snapped off flush inside the screw the moment he applied torque.
Trying Everything to Save the Screw With no way to grab the broken bit with a magnet or needle-nose pliers, Jim worked through a list of recovery methods. He heated the screw with a soldering iron for half an hour to try to break the Loctite bond. He tried tapping a small center punch in a counterclockwise motion to loosen it. Nothing worked. He then attempted to drill it out, which was always a long shot since he was drilling into hardened steel with the broken bit still lodged in the center — the drill bit broke.
The Fix: Cutting a New Flathead With standard options exhausted, Jim took a cut-off wheel on a Dremel and drove the pin out of the sight piece to expose the screw. From there, he cut the mangled 5/64" hex socket into a large, crude flathead. That was enough purchase to finally back the screw out. Importantly, the gun itself came through unscathed — no damage to the slide. The only casualty was the sight piece, which was ruined in the process; the rest of the sight remained intact.
Pro-Tip: If you're planning to mount an optic on a Kimber 2K11 and need to remove the factory rear sight plate, be aware the mounting screws use an unusually small 5/64" hex that's tightly stamped and secured with red Loctite. Jim recommends being ready for the screw head to be a tight, difficult fit before you ever put a wrench to it.
Getting the Optic On Once the plate was off, mounting the optic plate and sight was straightforward. Jim installed his preferred optic, the Holosun Ronin 507 Comp, onto the 2K11 Comp with no further issues. All told, the ordeal ate up three to four hours he hadn't planned on spending just to get that sight plate off.
Final Thoughts The Kimber 2K11 Comp itself came through the process fine, but the factory sight-plate screws proved to be a real headache, one Jim had already run into on the stainless version and clearly wasn't isolated to that gun. His hope in sharing the whole mess is that anyone else planning to mount an optic on one of these goes in prepared rather than getting caught the way he did. Stay tuned for the full range review and comparisons between the stainless Target and this new Comp model — subscribe so you don't miss it.
