Hi, was looking at the differences between the Kimber Warrior and the Custom TLE/RL II
Only differences
Model: Warrior .45 ACP
Ambidextrous thumb safety
Standard military length guide rod
Sights: Tactical Wedge Tritium night sights, fixed
Grips: Kimber G-10 tactical grips
Retail Price: $1386.00 Warrior .45 ACP
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Model: Custom TLE/RL II™ .45 ACP
Full length guide rod
Frontstrap checkering
Sights: Meprolight Tritium 3-dot night sight, fixed
Grips: Black synthetic
Double diamond
Retail Price: $1114.00 Custom TLE/RL II™ .45 ACP
What is the difference between a full length guide rod and a military guide rod?
And does anyone have any expirience with the G10 Tac Grips? Do they really make that much of a difference?
How about the dot sights? Really a huge difference or just a preferential thing?
Is the Warrior really worth the extra couple hundred?
I own a Desert Warrior. It cost a pretty penny, but it is certainly my favorite handgun. As far as the guide rod goes, I have no idea. They are probably the same thing, but since the Warrior was designed for MUSOC( I think thats how you spell it, it's Marine special warfare command) they called it a military guide rod. Also I don't think the TLE has a light rail. Some might not worry about it, but I see the abilitly to mount a powerful light such as a surefire on a weapon as a great advantage in home defense. The advantage is not so much seeing your target in the darkness, but these small lights are so bright, they have a temporary blinding effect on an adversary. Just think, in a dark enviroment inside of a room, going from that to having a spotlight thrown in your face would completely blind someone for a few seconds because the eyes don't have time to adjust giving the shooter about 5 seconds to shoot before the target has time to recover. Actually I just looked after typing all that and the TLE also has an accessory rail, but will leave it up as it's good information. As far as the grips go I didn't like the grips on my desert warrior, so I replaced them with hogue wrap around grips which really makes the gun more comfortable to hold. Also I noticed the flat surface on the front on the front of the magazine well tends to slide when your hands get sweaty. The hogue grips corrected this problem and only cost me $30! The warrior is also supposed to have a near indestructable finish. I would say since your already spending over $1000 i would go ahead and just spend the extra and get the warrior, but that's just me haha. Well i've just noticed that you posted this a year ago so maybe this info will still find you before you make a decision. This is a pretty interesting topic I can't believe no one has posted on it.
lol yea I just saw my old thread back from almost last year ago lol.
I have since bought a stainless steel Kimber Classic Custom II with night sights as I got it barely used (basically the break in 500 rounds) with 3 holsters, and 7 mags and two sets of grips for $600!!! I could not pass this deal up considering a new one's MSRP is like $1,000 in of itself.
Lucky me.
Ill probably get a warrior or a Springfield operator though later on when I have the money to get one but for now its on the backburner "luxury list" of guns.
