czzer

Photo "ts_slide2" nicely shows the area mine cracked. Along the "step" where the curved recoil spring housing meets the square upper slide. It was a long time ago, but I'm fairly sure the aft end of the recoil spring housing on the ST didn't have that nice big radius. It was completely squared off with a nice little stress raiser in the corner.

I'm not aware of any differences with the trigger or hammer...not saying there aren't any, just that I have no idea either way. To be honest, it would be hard to imagine how they could improve the ST trigger. I haven't tried a TS for comparison, but the ST was already damn good. Unfortunately I can't post any pictures...it was destroyed during the Aussie steal-back. From memory (it was about 8 years ago) the slide cracked longitudinally in the corner where the recoil spring housing meets the upper (main square) part of the slide. ie in the spot the slide impacts the frame at the end of the recoil stroke...hence the addition of the buffer to prevent it.

I used to have an ST until our government decided we couldn't have 40 cal any more. The slide on mine did crack after about 30 thousand rounds from memory. I think one of the changes they made with the TS was the addition of a shock buffer and a slight redesign of the recoil system for the 40. I don't think the 9 got a buffer.