Episode 336 of the Sunday Shoot-a-Round series is embedded above, and this one’s worth a watch: a day in the Tennessee woods with a Kimber 2K11 in 9mm and a Mossberg 590A1 pump gun. The shooting and the opinions in the video belong to the folks who made it. What follows is my commentary as a gunsmith who handles both of these guns regularly. I’m Lance Rankin, owner of Western Sport in Roanoke, Texas.
The Kimber in 9mm
The old argument says a 1911 should be a .45 or nothing. I’ve built and repaired enough of them to tell you the 9mm versions have earned their place. In the video, the Kimber runs soft and flat, which is exactly what you’d expect: take a heavy steel platform designed around .45 ACP recoil and feed it 9mm, and the gun barely moves. That combination makes long range sessions cheap and pleasant, and it’s a big part of why 9mm double-stack 1911-pattern guns took over competition shooting.
This particular Kimber ships optics-ready with three magazines, two of them 20-rounders, so it’s set up for exactly that kind of work out of the box. If you’re weighing the caliber question for yourself, I wrote up the honest trade-offs in my 9mm vs .45 ACP comparison. Short version: shoot what you’ll practice with, and 9mm makes practice cheaper.
One gunsmith’s note on 1911s generally: they reward good magazines and honest lubrication more than almost any other design. When one comes across my bench with feeding complaints, the magazine is the culprit more often than the gun.
The Mossberg 590A1
The 590A1 is the heavy-duty version of Mossberg’s pump line, with the thicker barrel and metal trigger group, and it’s about as close to unkillable as shotguns get. The video runs it through birdshot, buckshot, and slugs, and the part that gets people’s attention is the slug accuracy. Folks are always surprised what a smoothbore will do at distance with decent slugs, and the video bears that out. It’s not rifle accuracy, but it’s a lot better than the shotgun’s reputation suggests.
The 590 platform also takes accessories well. Receiver-mounted shell carriers, lights, different stocks, all bolt on without drama. That flexibility is why the same basic gun shows up in duty rigs, 3-gun matches, and behind bedroom doors. If a defensive scattergun is what you’re actually shopping for, my home defense shotgun guide goes deeper on what matters and what’s marketing.
Why mixed range days are good practice
The video makes a point I push on customers all the time: alternating between a pistol and a shotgun in one session does more for your shooting than another hundred rounds through the same gun. The 1911 demands trigger discipline. The 12 gauge demands stance and recoil management. Switch between them and the weak spots in each show up fast. A soft-shooting 9mm 1911 in particular is a great trigger-control teacher, because there’s no recoil punishment to hide behind.
If either gun caught your eye
We stock Kimber 1911s, Mossberg shotguns, and the ammo to feed them, with online ordering at the shop and local pickup by appointment here in Roanoke. Buy elsewhere and we’ll handle the FFL transfer for $40 plus $10 NICS. And go give the Sunday Shoot-a-Round folks a view and a thumbs up. Regular, unscripted range footage like theirs tells you more about how a gun really behaves than any spec sheet.
Lance Rankin is the owner and Chief Gunsmith of Western Sport, a family-run Type 07 FFL and Class 3/SOT dealer in Roanoke, Texas, serving shooters since 2007. Born and raised in Texas with over 50 years of experience handling firearms, Lance purchased Western Sport in 2017 and turned his lifelong passion into his profession. He specializes in AR-15 and AR-10 platform rifles, manufactures Western Sport’s own AR-15 line under the Rankin Industries brand, and runs the shop’s in-house Cerakote coating operation. When he’s not behind the counter or the workbench, you’ll find him on his ranch deep into the night, hunting coyotes with an AR-15 and thermal optics. Lance holds an MBA and personally shoots and tests the products Western Sport sells.
