Gunhead

Both guns are great IMO. I am shooting a Standard HK USP9 and 40 (conversion kit) for about five years now, and I have 20k+ rounds total through the gun. Reliability is 100%, I never had to replace, "tune" or "break-in" anything on the pistol. Same mags, same springs. Only the .40SW slide shows wear, but I shoot really hot stuff. When I last checked (somewhere after 15K rounds), accuracy was under 2 inch at 25 meters, offhand. The USP is definitely NOT a racegun and never will be, but I think it's an excellent all around, low maintenance pistol, for the average IPSC shooter. I see only three weak points, - trigger and trigger reset (could be fixed by Bruce), - control lever/decocker (unintentional decocking could be fixed by switching off the decocker), - weight (you gotta live with that, it's a polymer pistol) The recoil is not as bad as some think... In fact, I (the poor level "B" guy ) wasn't impressed by the recoil management of the stock, untuned EDGE .40 against the USP40, using the same ammo. The magazine release is extremely fast, just like on the P7, but takes some to to get used to it. Anyway, I think the P226 ST is a better choice if you only shoot Production. For Standard AND Production I would pick the HK again from this two.

Hmm, this month issue of the Visier (major german gun magazine) also pointed out this problem with the .40 (not just with the STI, but SVI and a Caspian). And as I said, reloading is unfortunately a no-no here. I think it was some part of the recoil assembly...

It happened this year on a 3-gun match. I was moving between two shooting boxes (a bit too fast perhaps) when I stumbled in the grass. To avoid a huge head on collision with mother earth I let go of my MP5SF and made a forward roll (not too elengant one ). Before the ref could have stopped me, I jumped up, grabbed the carbine and finished the stage. It was a crowd pleaser for sure. So my very first DQ happened in a rather exotic way...

Hi kidd, You know, I not the greatest fan of the 1911/2011 , but a shooting buddy and dealer is insisiting me to give it a try and he offered a really good price. And after all I am gun writer so I should be a bit more open to new things. I am not sure about the STI because I see a lot of problems with the Edge .40SW (unreliability with factory ammo [OAL too long], same part breaking third time in just one year, mags not feeding the last ammo, etc ). On the other hand the 9mm seems to work fine... I am sure that I can handle the recoil pretty well after shooting the USP40F for years. So, my main concern is reliability. I think the HKs spoiled me because I never had to replace or fix anything other than a P7 firing pin bushing in 5 years... By the way I can get 1000 rounds of .40SW for around $180-200 now. The same amount in 9x19mm is just $140. It's also an option to get more mags an just shoot the P7 in not just Steel Challenge.

Thanks for the tips! Unfortunately Production is very under-represented here, about 90% of the matches have only Open and Standard shooters...

I also need some input guys! Which STI or other 1911/2011 would you pick in this case? The 9mm or the .40? (The shooter is class "B" and competing for five years in IPSC Standard/Major) - Reloading is forbidden here, - The affordable/available .40SW ammo is hot (190 pf) and expensive, - 9x19mm is widely available and cheap, - The gun must be out-of-box 100% reliable. No "break-in" or "fine-tuning" excuses. - Majority of the regional shooters use 9x19mm pistols