zombiehunter
Ultimate Member
- Jul 8, 2008
- 6,505
STI Spartan .45acp 1911 Review (I finally shot it!)
It's pretty sweet. There's no rattle whatsoever. My understanding is that that's good so if that's the case then this thing is perfect. It does not jiggle, jingle or shake or any other synonym I can come up with. Holding it in your hand and shaking is like having a solid piece of metal. That was pretty cool.
This is my first 1911 and thus my first experience cleaning one. I tried following the instructions in the book and holy crap were they terrible. I spent 10 minutes trying to get the full length guide rod out before finally searching youtube. Bam, 2 minute video of take down and assembly. Use the darn barrel wrench lol. I cleaned it, lubed it with 0w-40 Mobil 1 (thanks Chad) and grabbed some mags I had loaded to test out.
Now the bad, and no the gun's fault I do not believe.
C-PRODUCTS 1911 MAGS ARE HORRIBLE
Pros: $10 each
Cons: Worth no where near that.
~Would not lock open on last round
~Would not feed from a closed slide
I have 4 and tried repeatedly with all four several times. Not once did they lock open or feed if I sat the mag on a closed slide. That doesn't even make them useful for range duty only. I'll be calling aimsurplus.com and seeing what they'll do for me. This was quite the let down.
The supplied magazine seemed to function fine with me wracking the slide. Every round fed regardless of how the mag went in, it locked open every time and the loaded round was tossed pretty far and out of the way every time.
Actual range report expected Tuesday or Monday.
Good night everyone
(and thanks again to the Gun Shop and Rehda the French guy who lent me the locks
)
I finally shot it! I'm new to the 1911 platform, my only other experience with a 1911 is my Step Dad's Colt National Match. The trigger on my STI isn't bad. It has a set screw which I need to use to take out the slack I believe. It's not a bad trigger, it's just not as good as the Colt's. Out of the box the gun was shooting like 8" low at 7 yards (I think) and about a foot left at 25 yards (I think). I say "I think" because of my inexperience. But I'm also a decent enough shot with a pistol (MKIII and G22) and my groups with the 1911 were consistent and consistently off. So I'm inclined to believe it's the sights being off. In a few weeks I'd love to go to On-Target with someone who actually knows what the hell they're doing and help me get it sighted in.
Reliability, I put about 150 rounds through it. My buddy says he had one "jam of some kind". but I have no idea what actually happened because I was two lanes over blasted holes with my PLR-16. But for me it ran flawlessly, I lubed it with 0w40 Mobil 1 (applied with a syringe lol).
I read someone say something about how their 1911 was so great because it "could almost feed empty cases". Well, my STI Spartan does feed empty cases. Over and over and over. If that matters to anyone, I'll tell you it does.
Ammo used was Walmart Federal and some Blazer aluminium case, 230gr FMJ ball ammo. Once I find a sight that has everything I need I'm going to load up some lead truncated cones and see if it handles those.
It's pretty sweet. There's no rattle whatsoever. My understanding is that that's good so if that's the case then this thing is perfect. It does not jiggle, jingle or shake or any other synonym I can come up with. Holding it in your hand and shaking is like having a solid piece of metal. That was pretty cool.
This is my first 1911 and thus my first experience cleaning one. I tried following the instructions in the book and holy crap were they terrible. I spent 10 minutes trying to get the full length guide rod out before finally searching youtube. Bam, 2 minute video of take down and assembly. Use the darn barrel wrench lol. I cleaned it, lubed it with 0w-40 Mobil 1 (thanks Chad) and grabbed some mags I had loaded to test out.
Now the bad, and no the gun's fault I do not believe.
C-PRODUCTS 1911 MAGS ARE HORRIBLE
Pros: $10 each
Cons: Worth no where near that.
~Would not lock open on last round
~Would not feed from a closed slide
I have 4 and tried repeatedly with all four several times. Not once did they lock open or feed if I sat the mag on a closed slide. That doesn't even make them useful for range duty only. I'll be calling aimsurplus.com and seeing what they'll do for me. This was quite the let down.
The supplied magazine seemed to function fine with me wracking the slide. Every round fed regardless of how the mag went in, it locked open every time and the loaded round was tossed pretty far and out of the way every time.
Actual range report expected Tuesday or Monday.
Good night everyone
(and thanks again to the Gun Shop and Rehda the French guy who lent me the locks
)I finally shot it! I'm new to the 1911 platform, my only other experience with a 1911 is my Step Dad's Colt National Match. The trigger on my STI isn't bad. It has a set screw which I need to use to take out the slack I believe. It's not a bad trigger, it's just not as good as the Colt's. Out of the box the gun was shooting like 8" low at 7 yards (I think) and about a foot left at 25 yards (I think). I say "I think" because of my inexperience. But I'm also a decent enough shot with a pistol (MKIII and G22) and my groups with the 1911 were consistent and consistently off. So I'm inclined to believe it's the sights being off. In a few weeks I'd love to go to On-Target with someone who actually knows what the hell they're doing and help me get it sighted in.
Reliability, I put about 150 rounds through it. My buddy says he had one "jam of some kind". but I have no idea what actually happened because I was two lanes over blasted holes with my PLR-16. But for me it ran flawlessly, I lubed it with 0w40 Mobil 1 (applied with a syringe lol).
I read someone say something about how their 1911 was so great because it "could almost feed empty cases". Well, my STI Spartan does feed empty cases. Over and over and over. If that matters to anyone, I'll tell you it does.
Ammo used was Walmart Federal and some Blazer aluminium case, 230gr FMJ ball ammo. Once I find a sight that has everything I need I'm going to load up some lead truncated cones and see if it handles those.
Last edited:
at the 5gal bucket comment. You're totally right though. I bought them on a whim, added them to an order I was already placing. I had read several bad reviews but rolled the dice and came up losing. Oh well, we'll see what aimsurplus does or I'll email c-products. I'm going to order some CMC mags from midwayusa this week. The 10 rounders have good reviews and I'll get some regular 7 and 8 round mags. Damn thing is heavy enough with just the 8 rounds in it. Maybe I'll call out of work tomorrow and go shooting instead...
