Kimber’s Micro 9 Rapide Black Ice shown with a Tops Knives Street Scalpel 2.
If you love America, 1911’s, and think plastic pistols should be melted into Tupperware, then the Kimber Micro 9 Rapide Black Ice just might be the EDC you’ve been dreaming of. It’s small, thin, light, smooth, and absolutely gorgeous.
In all seriousness though, in this review, I’m going to try to keep fluffy words to a minimum and give you hard facts with pictures to illustrate so read the captions as they are part of my review.
Kimber’s Micro9 Rapide Black Ice is essentially a miniature 1911. It’s very light but well-balanced. The frame is made from aluminum. The gun only weighs 15.6 ounces with an empty magazine. The aluminum frame is coated in a matt silver coating that Kimber calls Kim Pro 2 Silver.
The cuts on the frame are anything but plain. Check out all the cuts, and angles just on the trigger guard. The texture on the front strap resembles a honeycomb pattern, gives texture and grip, and looks amazing.The back strap has a stainless steel insert that is machined with lightening cutouts that match the slide and grip and give texture for grip. The beavertail is perfectly contoured to protect your hand from slide bite but still allows you to get high on the gun. NOTICE that unlike a traditional 1911, there is no grip safety. However, it features ambidextrous thumb safeties. You can see the right-side thumb safety pictured.Shot of the left-handed thumb safety.The trigger is also aluminum. Not only does it feature serrations down the trigger face but it also has cool-looking machined cutouts on the sides. The slide stop is stainless steel and matches the serrations on the tops of the thumb safety. The magazine release, like traditional 1911’s is set up for right-handed shooters only. The mag release is stainless and features a diamond shape texture. The grips are black G10 that is machined with a pattern that is similar to the front strap with cutouts that match the slide. It feels great and has excellent texture for gripping the gun while shooting, but it isn’t overly aggressive to the point it will hurt your hand or eat your clothing. I think the black grips with the matte-colored coating on the frame and the brushed stainless all look amazing together.Finally, at the bottom of the grip, there’s a flush-fitting magwell that ties everything together. Notice the machined lines on the sides and the funnel that makes reloading a single stack so much easier.The magazines fit perfectly with the magwell and give the gun a perfect grip length. I have fairly large hands and there’s plenty of room for my pinky.The Kimber Micro Rapide Black Ice comes with two magazines. The magazines hold 7 rounds for 7+1 in the gun. The mags feature witness holes and numbers to let you know at a glance how many rounds are in the mag. The magazine you can see pictured has two rounds in the magazine.The slide is stainless steel and I think it looks exquisite. It features Tru-Glo TFX Pro Day Night Sights that have both fiber optic inserts and tritium. The sights are extremely bright during the day and glow at night. Literally the best of both worlds. Here’s a closeup shot of the front sight and the top of the slide cutouts. Bright and easy to see is an understatement. The rear sight is robust, dovetailed in, and features a flat front edge for hooking on clothing or a belt for emergency racking. Notice the rear slide serrations that look great and give excellent texture for racking the slide. Also, notice that the rear slide cutouts match the cutouts in the G10 grip and really tie things together. I personally found the sight picture to be excellent for such a small little gun. Both sights are a little more in focus here. The front serrations and lightening cuts match the other cuts on the gun and grip. They’re both functional and pleasing to look at. You can see the top cutouts, side cutouts, and serrations here. The slide sits nearly flush with the end of the barrel. Obviously, the Kimber Micro9 doesn’t use a bushing but fits more like a bull barrel. The hammer is skeletonized and has serrations on top. I don’t find 1911’s difficult to break down because I’ve been doing it most of my life. However, traditional 1911’s and bull barrel 1911’s are much more difficult than say a Glock, SIG P320, or S&W M&P. This Kimber is almost as easy as the polymer wonder guns. It’s relatively easy to pop the slide release out. Once the slide release is out it comes apart just like the polymer wonder guns. When you put it back together you must push down the ejector as you push the slide onto the frame.Slide off but recoil assembly installed. The recoil spring is 11.5 pounds which surprised me a little. Usually, small guns have heavier recoil springs. The slide is relatively easy to rack. The barrel is 3.15 inches long, match-grade, stainless steel, polished very smooth, and coated in DLC coating, The crown as you can see is very well machined. If you hadn’t already figured out by now, the Kimber Micro9 Rapide Black Ice is chambered in 9mm. The barrel is a left hand 1-16 twist which should stabilize whatever you put in it. The barrel is ramped and very smooth and polished.
Reliability
I didn’t have a single failure of any kind. I tested several different factory loads ranging from 115 to 147gr. The majority of the shooting I did was with my own handloads using RMR 124 gr bullets and I had no issues with those either.
The Kimber Black Ice ate everything I fed it.
What would I Change?
The trigger pull weight of 7lbs advertised by Kimber is surprisingly heavy. Mine was worse than that at an average of 8.5 lbs. The Kimber Black Ice is essentially a custom machined micro 9mm 1911 with a heavy trigger. 1911 triggers can be some of the best triggers in handguns. I understand that it’s meant to be carried concealed and that it has no grip safety but I still feel like 5lbs would have been a better number.
In its favor the trigger pull is crisp and relatively short and if I had to guess I would have guessed it at about 6lbs rather than the 8.5 that the trigger pull gauge registered. If I decide to purchase this gun I will have a gunsmith buddy work over the trigger.
Accuracy
The Black Ice is only limited by its heavy trigger when it comes to accuracy. I’ll be honest, I don’t shoot guns very often that have 8.5 lb triggers and I absolutely will admit that they are hard to shoot groups with. When I did my job the Black Ice stacked them in there. I don’t generally shoot small guns at 75 yards but this one had no problem putting round after round on the steel bcc target offhand.
BCC target at 75 yards was not difficult.A typical offhand group at 15 yards with the Black Ice. The vertical stringing was all the shooter! Kimber Black Ice ready for EDC
I own several custom 2011’s and 1911’s. If I were to get a machinist to build an aluminum-framed 1911 and put the cuts, serrations, and coatings that the Black Ice features, the bill would be somewhere between $2500 and $5000 depending on specific parts. Kimber’s MSRP for the Black Ice is $910 but the street price is less. Honestly, I think that the price is fantastic considering what you’re getting. Many of the polymer wonder guns that are a similar size are $600 or more and they aren’t even half as nice as this gun. If you demand better you should take a hard look at the Kimber Micro9 Rapide Black Ice.
