Posted: 6/19/2013 2:27:39 PM EDT
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Backstory. Best friend wanted a 1911 after shooting mine. Great. Set up a time to go with him (novice shooter) to shop 1911's. Fine. Got a call two days early telling me he'd bought one. STI all pimped up. I never thought I'd say this about a 1911, but I purely hate that fucker!  Day 1, the tang on the extended (pot metal) safety breaks off. They'll replace it for free if he sends it in, so there's that, but seriously? BROKE OFF? Additionally, the thing is put together with enough sharp edges that holding it is like grabbing a bundle of knives. If you have to tap or rack, be careful and wear gloves. But none of those are the real problem. While this thing runs pretty reliably with cheap factory FMJ, it will purely NOT run LRN or any kind of aggressive hollowpoint (it reliably chokes on XTP's). Stuff I've been running in my (supposedly) crapbox AutoOrdinance for twenty-five years without incident. Reloads? Forget it! He picked up a mess of .452 185gr LRN from a local caster and reloaded a mess of them. With the bullet seated as far back as I felt it was safe to do, and even with a pretty aggressive crimp, the rounds won't let the slide seat fully. They jam things up with about 1/8" of slide travel left. Drop the mag and it's a job of work to get them free of the chamber. Several of them have shiny rings in the lead just forward of the case. By and large, the majority of these rounds will then feed cheerfully through my 1911. Are we talking out of spec chamber here, or am I missing something? Is my friend doomed to feed only factory ball through his pistol (or change the barrel)? |
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Quoted:
Backstory. Best friend wanted a 1911 after shooting mine. Great. Set up a time to go with him (novice shooter) to shop 1911's. Fine. Got a call two days early telling me he'd bought one. STI all pimped up. I never thought I'd say this about a 1911, but I purely hate that fucker!
Day 1, the tang on the extended (pot metal) safety breaks off. They'll replace it for free if he sends it in, so there's that, but seriously? BROKE OFF? Additionally, the thing is put together with enough sharp edges that holding it is like grabbing a bundle of knives. If you have to tap or rack, be careful and wear gloves. But none of those are the real problem. While this thing runs pretty reliably with cheap factory FMJ, it will purely NOT run LRN or any kind of aggressive hollowpoint (it reliably chokes on XTP's). Stuff I've been running in my (supposedly) crapbox AutoOrdinance for twenty-five years without incident. Reloads? Forget it! He picked up a mess of .452 185gr LRN from a local caster and reloaded a mess of them. With the bullet seated as far back as I felt it was safe to do, and even with a pretty aggressive crimp, the rounds won't let the slide seat fully. They jam things up with about 1/8" of slide travel left. Drop the mag and it's a job of work to get them free of the chamber. Several of them have shiny rings in the lead just forward of the case. By and large, the majority of these rounds will then feed cheerfully through my 1911. Are we talking out of spec chamber here, or am I missing something? Is my friend doomed to feed only factory ball through his pistol (or change the barrel)? Wait, you're telling me he didnt buy the STI to use as a boat anchor? 
I've heard some rough stories about em. Thats why Im looking at getting a nice DW to start with. Had a buddy who had an STI and an RIA and neither would feed anything. Sold em both and bought a Kahr, which incidentally broke while he was shooting it. He also had a DB 380 or two break/blow up in his possession. I swear, hes cursed. Son of a B@#$% graduated from college and went Active Duty Infantry...Lets hope his M4 doesnt go pop gun on him. Best of luck getting your buddies boat anchor to shoot. |
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I bought two brand new STI Trojans once. One in 9mm, one in 45.
Holy shit. Those were the ugliest, shittiest 1911-ish things I ever saw. The 9mm wouldn't make it through a mag of anything without choking, the 45 ran a little better but the back end of the gun was full of sharp corners and it beat the fuck out of my hand. I DNF'd myself out of a USPSA match because the gun was just too painful to shoot. Lost my ass on those. I still wonder why they're so popular with competition shooters. Maybe it's because they're so ugly... |
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hrmm.. i just bought a STI spartan IV. but i am not too worried.. i can do basic work on my 1911s, so it's not an issue.. but for alot of newbies, i can see how this is a turn off.
i have a TRP in 4", that also had feeding issues.. i had a springfield carry-comp that also had feeding and ejection issues.. both middle quality quasi custom guns.. but i had no issues with loaded, kimber classic I and II.. colt commander.. and even my pt1911 had no issues. |
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He bought it brand new because it was only $50 more than the basic RIA that he'd have been better off with. He got it because of the racegun crap on it. High profile adjustable sight, extended beavertail, extended safety (which broke off the first day WHILE THE PISTOL WAS HOLSTERED). He's the impatient type, I guess. Yes, it has all of the sharp edges. Like they stamped that shit out and didn't do shit-all else but squirt some paint on it. It's also a bitch to reassemble. The slide will go back until it gets to the link and jam up unless you have it Juuuuuuust right and the barrel banged all the way up onto the locking lugs. Upon further contemplation, I'm starting to lean to the notion that the barrel link is a little long. Although that wouldn't explain why it'll feed factory FMJ. I think that I can honestly say that there isn't a single damned thing I like about that pistol. It doesn't even hold like a 1911. And I've held a passel of 1911's. To top it all off, the new safety they sent him is worse than the one he's got on it. At least the broken one will keep the hammer back. The new one seems undersized, and with the safety engaged, you can pull the trigger and actually feel it slip on the trigger bar, so that when you disengage the safety, the damned hammer drops. Not so much a matter of filing or smoothing as it needing material added. At the moment, we're working on the assumption that when they get back to him, he's going to send the entire pistol back to see if they can make it work. I'll loan him one of mine while he's waiting. I told him that-- after all the shit that's gone on-- that thing isn't remotely an EDC candidate. |