Kimber 2K11 Slide Disassembly
Welcome back to Jim's Armory. This one comes straight from a viewer request: a full breakdown of how to disassemble the slide on the Kimber 2K11. Rather than a complete teardown of the whole pistol, Jim keeps this one focused specifically on the slide assembly - the reverse plug, barrel, extractor, and firing pin - and walks through the process start to finish so you can follow along and do it yourself.
Safety First Before anything else, Jim clears the gun and shows the chamber and magazine well are empty. No magazine in the gun, nothing in the chamber - the pistol is confirmed safe before any tools come out.
Pro-Tip: If you're having trouble depressing the slide stop button with your finger from the outside, you can also reach in through the open ejection port while the slide is locked back and push it from the inside. Jim shows this as an alternative when the button is hard to reach.
Breaking Down the Front End: Reverse Plug and Barrel Jim starts at the front of the slide, working with what he calls the reverse plug - the piece that caps the recoil spring. To get it apart, he compresses it against the table and looks for a small concentric section on the rod. Twisting it about a quarter turn clockwise while pressing down against the table lines things up so the whole spring-and-reverse-plug assembly comes free. Once that's out, the barrel link goes forward and the barrel slides right out of the slide.
Pro-Tip: Do this compression step against a table or hard surface - it keeps the assembly under control while you make that quarter turn, rather than fighting spring pressure with your hands alone.
The Extractor: External and Pivoting With the barrel out, Jim moves to the extractor, which on this gun is an external design. Because his slide has an optic mounted, he can't fully access the retaining pin in this video, but he shows how it works: a small pin lets the extractor pivot, and pushing on it from the outside with his thumb demonstrates the motion. He notes that pushing that pin out is normally how you'd remove the extractor and its spring, and mentions he'll cover the details of that pin more fully in a future video.
The Firing Pin: No Block on This Series 70 The last piece inside the slide is the firing pin. Jim points out that because this is a Series 70 gun, there's no firing pin block present - a Series 80 gun would have that extra safety piece in this location. He says he'll do a separate video down the road covering the differences between Series 70 and Series 80 designs and how the block can affect trigger feel.
To get the firing pin out, Jim uses a punch (or any pointed tool) to push the firing pin in and bend it slightly forward. That movement slides the firing pin retainer plate out of position - it's the small piece holding everything captured in the back of the slide.
Pro-Tip: Keep a finger over the retainer as you slide it out. It's under spring pressure and will shoot across the room if you let go without controlling it - Jim warns it's a good way to lose the part or catch an eye if you're not careful.
Once the retainer clears, the firing pin comes straight out, followed by the firing pin spring.
Reassembly Notes Going back together, Jim flags a couple of orientation details worth knowing. The firing pin spring only goes on one way - one side sits noticeably tighter than the other, so pay attention when you slip it back onto the pin.
The extractor also only fits one way in practice. Jim notes the cutout on the firing pin retainer piece is there specifically to give the extractor clearance as the slide cycles, so it's difficult to install anything backwards if you're paying attention to how the parts key together.
Reinstalling the retainer means pushing the firing pin in against spring pressure until the retainer can slide back past it into place - Jim stresses not letting off the pressure early, since the same fly-across-the-room risk applies going back together as it did coming apart.
For the front end, the reverse plug and spring go back on with the same table-compression trick used for removal - press down, let the internal pin spring rotate the concentric section back out of alignment, and it locks into its ledge so it can no longer fly off. Jim reminds you there's real pressure built up here, so keep your eye and face clear.
The barrel goes back in with attention to orientation as well: the curved portion of the barrel link should face toward the front of the barrel, and Jim works the barrel forward, jiggling it as needed to seat it fully - noting it can get hung up slightly on reassembly.
Final Thoughts This slide disassembly on the Kimber 2K11 is a straightforward job once you know the small tricks - the quarter-turn on the reverse plug, the finger-over-the-retainer step, and the one-way orientation of the spring and extractor. Jim put this together specifically because a viewer asked for it, so if there's a process or teardown you want to see next, let him know in the comments. Subscribe and stay tuned for more detailed looks at the 2K11 and other builds on the channel.
