aalbert

If using a manual mill and trying to do one from scratch, a rotary table should be able to facilitate the features... Vibration would be a bitch, but a boring bar could probably also do them.... Or machine a square, and hand file it.

I really like the look of the old Sabertooth serrations, and I was wondering if anybody here had the magic formula for doing them (looks like a fly or shell cutter, dropped into it at X angle, X depth, with X spacing). I am in the planning stages of doing a build on a Limited Optics type build, using a NOS STI frame from 28 years ago with a custom serial, and kind of wanted to incorporate some touches from through the years. I was thinking these serrations or something a little more modernized like the Accuracy X s swoosh, or something in-between. I actually also like the old Steelmaster front lightening slots, but not sure if they would be taking too metal out of an tri-topped RDS Atlas slide. Thanks

Long term follow up -- a Steelmaster was recently added to the collection, so here is a comparison photo. Note shorter comp and 4.15" lightened slide in comparison to the Competitor, as well as blast deflector on the C-More mount (definitely needs it), and fly cut serrations that the later STIs came with (I have a soft spot for the looks of that design).

Having recently acquired a 4.25 I have been reading this thread (and the others here), thanks for the info and inspiration. At present I have stoned the hammer/sear/disconnector and am at a clean 3.5lbs -- so your note of keeping the original parts warms my heart, as I had thought about getting the Brazos kit, but I feel it is fine for now.

I believe the competition version had the longer hand guard, and no rail on the gas block.. I would be interested in seeing / documenting the gas block they used in those models - a pic would be cool. So far all of the rifles I have seen only say "Custom Rifle" with the caliber below it, on the right side of the magwell - with no additional model identification On a sad note, it appears that Darrell Bishop passed away not too long after his project came to market - RIP.

The catalog page was from archive.org, but I did poke around a bit more, and found 2 reviews linked from their page. The Shooting Illustrated article mentions Darrel Bishop was the product line manager for the AR project - if anybody is in touch with him, maybe he could offer up some additional background. (Files below are hosted at my personal site) Shooting Illustrated Guns & Weapons for LE

Well you have me beat on several levels with that serial.. I have SN 150 How has she treated you?

I have a acquired an STI AR-15 "Tactical Sporting Rifle" .. I have searched around a bit, and haven't been able to find much info other than the following, and wanted to see if anybody flesh things out, or confirm the details that exist beyond the spec sheet. Approx 1200 made, with maybe 1/2 of them going out to international clients From posts here at intro time it seems like he barrels were made by Green Mountain Although pictured in their catalog with an A2 stock, this unit was shipped with an optional CAR stock. Compensator, hand guards, and likely gas-block seem to be made by Nordic Components Rumored that Nordic Components actually made these for STI Introduced in 2010, and still in the catalog as of 2012, not in the catalog by 2015 (if anybody has catalogs from in-between I would be interested in know when it went away) Although it had some high end parts like the JP trigger, the barrel and some other components were considered a little mid to low end at time of introduction. Anyway, any confirmation or additional information, would be appreciated... Longer we get from their time on the market, the more those details will disappear. Gun I purchased had been updated, but all of the original parts were included, so I am in the process of restoring it back to factory specs. Thanks. Rifle in current state Original catalog image from 2012

I will look into the SkinnerGrams a little more.. Thanks for the suggestion. I see them as basically HTML blog URLs, so compiling them into PDFs by year might be easiest way to deal with them, without getting too crazy.

Following up with some links to the various catalogs I have found - if folks have other years, then feel free to forward them, and I will archive and link them https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STI_Catalog_2000.pdf https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STIcatalog2001.pdf https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STICatalogVol4.pdf https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STI_Catalog_2005.pdf https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STI_Catalog_2006.pdf https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/2007_sti_catalog.pdf https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STI_Catalog_2009.pdf https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STI_2010Catalog_v1.pdf (65 meg) https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STI_2010_v20_web_Complete.pdf (75 meg) https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STI_2012Catalog_A1.pdf (99meg) https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/STI-Cat2015_complete_1_13_15.pdf (62 meg) https://www.biggerhammer.net/2011/catalog/sti_2017.pdf

I received my 2nd batch from sendcutsend .. These dropped right in, and came out to $2 each (as long as you meet the rest of their min order). Here is a PNG of the dimensions, as well as the DXF file at - https://www.biggerhammer.net/cad/Safariland_014_Hanger_Bars.dxf Material is .100" in thickness (I had it done in stainless)

Needed a couple of the bars, and called up Safariland -- no dice. So I went ahead and measured things up, and added a few to a recent order with sendcutsend.com (approx $2 each). I had my hole center to center off by about .03 (seems to be 2.03 not 2.00), but threw them in the mill and opened things up, and they seem to work fine. To that end, I have placed another order with the updated specs, and once they are in, and confirmed good, will post the .dxf here so folks can order at will (unfortunately they do have a $30min order - but maybe there are some other commonly used items that folks can think of that can be drawn up, and included in the order to reach that number).

Here is a pic of the gun - serial is in the 5000 range. I don't see any signs of modification.

Out of curiosity has anybody tried welding anti-splatter spray?

I took it out last night and fired it for the first time, using Atlanta Arms ammo. 38 Super Minor, Major, and 38 Super Comp Major all fed and fired nicely though it.. As you noted, a little more flip than I expected but I am also getting used to it and to shooting a centerfire dot.... for a range toy, and a little something different for steel now and then it is fine. Getting a Steel Master is still on my list of things to do, but I respect the gun for what it is. Gun seems to have been treated well, but the inside was bone dry (particularly in the trigger area) -- lubed it up and tweaked the spring a bit after shooting, and went from 3.25lbs and a little mushy/gritty, to 2.75 and pretty clean. I contacted Staccato about the serial, and they stated

Yeah, I kinda lust for a Steel Master (or even a Steel Master top - I have a custom serial frame sitting in the wrap since the 90s), there just haven't been any popping up lately so I went with this gun to satisfy the itch for now. I will reach out to them for info -- my brother also added a 2011 Eagle in 45ACP to his collection recently, so it is becoming a family thing now to collect these. Thanks for the guidance.

A quick bleary-eyed update. Having gone through a bunch of the Front Sight issues, as well as archive.org it appears the Competitor model was introduced around 1999 (based on ads and site appearance), and discontinued sometime in 2003 (based on disappearing from their site). The Trubor Competitor (which is what I appear to have inbound), changes name around 2005 to just Trubor, but pictures still show it as the Competitor. I guess I will try running it by Staccato, but I have a feeling they want very little to do with the old days, but maybe I will get lucky.

Thank you for the research and also reminder about archive.org. - I will poke around various time points in that, to get a feel for the model years it was made in. Having cut my teeth in IPSC/USPSA around Austin, TX during the early years of the Tripp/STI development (shooting with Hill Country Practical Pistol Club, and Austin Lone Star PPC), often squadding with the Tripps, Skinners, Dawson, Benny Hill, McCords, etc. - and as I recall you as well, I find myself wanting to get back to that era gun wise (from a collecting and range toy standpoint). So from what you mentioned, it sounds like the Eagle 5.5s were mainly builds for local friends of the factory with custom features (sort of like my Eagle built to Edge specs, so I could have a custom serial), while the Competitors were built to a spec for the general public. Comp wise I guess it had one of Awesome 2 / STI S-2 comp, and the rest of the parts were in-line with their factory parts at the time. Do you recall any performance issues at the time with this series, etc? I have ordered a sampling of Atlanta Arms ammo to see what it likes, and how it performs (once it arrives). Thanks again for the info and link

I just bought a STI Competitor in 38 Super w/C-More on a factory mount, and wanted to see if anybody had any background info on the model. In my particular case it comes with 10rd magazines, which indicates it was probably originally shipped during the 1994-2004 mag ban period. The serial is one of the SAS serial number series (Shirley Skinner), and from what I gathered elsewhere the comp is threaded on, instead of being from a one piece blank, and that this preceded the Master series.. Other info I have found indicates that like the Edge, this was to be an off the shelf race-ready gun, with no customization (from a 1999 archive of the STI-Guns website). Does anybody know what years this gun was offered in, or have any additional information about it?... Info online is pretty scarce about this model. Thanks.

Besides the looks, any issues of the side mount (i.e. engaging targets R -> L? Also do you know what year your Steelmaster was produced? I do so like the form factor, old school looks, and white box ammo aspect of these guns.

Phil - is that a replacement slide? ... It has different cuts up front than I am used to seeing.

Always loved the Steelmaster ... Hope to have one at some point in the future.... Keep those Steelmaster pics (inside and out) coming .

C-More arrived more quickly than expect ... it came with the tactical spacers, so I will need to pickup some shorter screws to remove that from the equation (guessing 10-32 x 5/8).

I cycled around various color and MOA options on Amazon and noticed that price kept on changing a little for the same combo. Ended up with a 6 MOA, click switch in blue, for $170 (it fluctuated all the way to $200 for the same color / MOA combo).... Going to put it on my sons 22/45 (in place of a Burris), for his mom to try out a Steel Match or two. --- note I now see that they swapped SlideRide for Railway, so I cancelled the one below, and got the Railway for $25 more.

Can you use the Springer plate for DPP on the original X5, and then mount a Romeo 1 Pro ? If so, anything one needs to do, to make it work properly?