A few months back I submitted my application for concealed weapons permit. Friday I summoned in front of the Macomb County gun board. After a couple of pro forma questions and answers, they handed me my laminated-for-all-eternity CPL, which expires on my birthday in 2015.
One of the minor benefits is that I don't have to apply ahead of time for a purchase permit, and also get ripped $10 for their new notary public fee.
So with $10 saved already, I went to my usual EBR store, and saw a real-live stainless-steel-and-aluminum Kimber Solo, one of the "micro 9s" that debuted at the SHOT Show this year. The one in the sales case belonged to the store owner, and was look-but-don't-touch.
I talked to some of the employees, and they mentioned that after hours, the boss let them try his out on the range. Everybody was geeked about it, and four of them put their names on the wait list. There was also a number of regular clients on the list already. I guess seeing one so soon after it was announced at the SHOT Show added some incentive.
But, as much as I would have liked to buy one on the spot, no luck, so I drove over to my alternate EBR store. Same story: one to look at, no idea when enough would show up to actually sell them.
Yesterday (Saturday) I was leaving Costco and decided to stop at the nearby Gander Mountain store and check out their modest gun department. They had a Solo in the display case, so I took a number (the place was swamped by firearm purchasers and browsers), and waited until my number was called.
Expecting the same answer as before, I asked if it was for show, or could someone pay for it, and take it home. The salesman said they had at least one other Solo in stock, so if I wanted one, it was mine. I pulled out my drivers license and freshly-issued CPL, and said to wrap it up.
Then came the excruciatingly slow process of filling out the state, federal, and Gander Mountain paperwork. Along the way, some salesman announced that I had just bought the one-and-only Kimber Solo in the store, because someone forgot the little tag that said "demo only, names being taken for waiting list".
By that time, the only thing left for them to do was swipe my credit card. The 4473 had been blessed, and the state registration form was completed. Normally, I despise all that bureaucracy, but everything was already set in stone, and they couldn't back out just because they didn't follow their own store instructions. I left with just a tiny smirk on my face, because nobody would believe how fate would put this item in my hands when everything pointed to a six-month wait, at minimum.
I'm sorry to bore you with the story, but, no matter how weird everything worked, I still had the item in my hot little shopping bag, and was on my way home. Without that, I couldn't offer my first peek at what the world of "micro 9s" would be.
First, Kimber spared no expense on the packaging, just like they don't skimp with their other, even more expensive, handguns.
As you can see, it's a pretty cheap-ass package, rather than one of the fitted hard cases one would expect. The theory that the salesman and I developed was that these particular handguns were a small first batch to offer as special deals to SHOT Show attendees, with enough left over to get samples out to their biggest retailers. Customer opinions and reviews by the firearms media (I can see this "new" item in the May issue of American Rifleman") would determine the size, and scheduling, of the next batch. Kimber is not churning out more Solos day and night, because they have to keep their other product pipelines filled, and keep the manufacturing schedule intact. Probably in six months they'll have an opening in their operations to pencil-in more Solos.
My first quick look (I only took possession at 6PM) tells me while it's shaped like a tiny M1911, most of the operating principle is Glock. The safety does not lock the trigger. The trigger has a full range of motion at all times. This leads me to believe that the trigger operates as a full-time DAO mechanism. The thumb safety must just physically lock the slide, and keep the Glock-type striker locked in a normal half-cocked state. If my guess is correct (none of this is mentioned one way or another in the manual), it would imply that the weapon can be used as any other DAO-only handgun, with no need to use the thumb safety, and yet be perfectly safe, as would any other DAO-only handgun.
I'm afraid it might be several days before I can get range time, but I'll continue to study the internals, and report back what I've discovered. I'll also practice some subtle gloating when I'm on the firing line.
The Solo Saga is a long explanation of how I wound up with a piece of hot merchandise through sheer dumb luck. But it also let me take this picture, which shows how the Solo fits in the size spectrum. Not only does the size compare favorably with many compact .380s, but it even provides size competition for my little Beretta .22 backup.
These "micro 9s" may mean that a 9mm in a package this size is about as wimpy as a Chevy Cruze with a 350 V8 under the hood. Only range time will tell.