Newbie looking to buy a 2011

[Seth B]

Im interested in upgrading to a 2011, (Ive been using a Glock 34). Im looking at the STI Edge .40 probably from Brazos. Will these run on factory ammo? I dont reload, but hopefully this winter I can get something done. Is there much for parts that wear out in these? How often do you need to clean them, are they pretty finicky. I see quite a few "race guns" at the range having issues. I guess Im not interested if it doesnt run 100% all the time. Also I see people at matches cleaning mags a lot and not loading mags till they get to the range. I usually load my mags a day or two before, do the springs wear out easily? Any other critisism or advise you can give would be great, Thanks

[jamautry]

Last spring I was in the same position you are in now. The first thing you need to do is decide what you want from the gun. Are you looking for a light fast handling gun or heavy soft shooting gun? Do you want 5" or 6"? What grip frame do you like, polymer or steel.? After much research, mainly on this forum and asking other shooters and trying some out I went with a lightened 6" SVI with their new steel grip. It took over a year to get built but I love it. You just need to determine what you need. All the really good gunsmiths can help guide you so don't be afraid to call a few and ask questions. All their guns will run 100%. Most of the failures you have seen are properly ammo related and have nothing to do with the gun itself. Also keep in mind the more that a person pushes the envelope the more failures you will have because you are essentially experimenting. Its not a fluke that most of the GMs stick to the same tried and true guns that have proven themselves overtime.

[calishootr]

are they finiky??? youuuu betcha, but if you takethetime to 'learn' its lil quirks it will run like nobody's business, understand you are stepping into a whole nother realm here, going from say the brady's stationwagon with the wood panels on the side to a formula 1 race car, as such it is gonna be finiky, everything from the tolerances to what it likes to eat is goingto be different, it is NOT by any means a 'plug an play' type of system, custom guns puking on the range??? normal, with the tolerances we run, ammo??? better learn to reload, most if not all do not like the shorter-factory .40 rounds because they will 'nosedive' and not feed in a fully loaded mag, so we reloadfor it, basically 70 thousanths longer than factory. parts wearing out??? not really, normal wear an tear will need springs and such just like any other gun,

as for loading mags 2 days in advance of a match??? ummm why??? for me i load em before the stage and unload em after the stage, so i know how many are in em and it keeps me from puttin a half full one in my belt

[blaster113]

You can find a nice lightly used gun set up to your liking at the same or lower amount than a new gun if you're patient and look around. Be prepared to have spare parts fit because parts will wear out and break. Brazos' website has good articles in this area. I broke the thumb and grip safeties on my Brazos HP Edge at less than 5k rounds, and my extractor lost tension. I ended up installing new parts. My gun will run on factory .40 all day long, including duty hollowpoints but it seems that its the exception. Most .40 2011's don't work too well with factory stuff. A reloader is also almost a must for this sport. You can load longer OAL ammo that will function better and softer shooting rounds that still make power factor. Most factory .40 is 180-185 pf; way too hot.

Edited August 17, 2010 by SIG shooter

[G-ManBart]

Im interested in upgrading to a 2011, (Ive been using a Glock 34). Im looking at the STI Edge .40 probably from Brazos. Will these run on factory ammo? I dont reload, but hopefully this winter I can get something done. Is there much for parts that wear out in these? How often do you need to clean them, are they pretty finicky. I see quite a few "race guns" at the range having issues. I guess Im not interested if it doesnt run 100% all the time. Also I see people at matches cleaning mags a lot and not loading mags till they get to the range. I usually load my mags a day or two before, do the springs wear out easily? Any other critisism or advise you can give would be great, Thanks

Some will, and some won't, run with factory ammo...mine does. Factory ammo is a slight disadvantage in that it's normally a good bit snappier than what you can load yourself, or buy from Atlanta Arms & Ammo. Your best bet is to buy one from either Brazos or Dawson and get their High Performance, or Super Tuned packages. I went with the Dawson Super Tuned package and it's been incredibly reliable.

The most common parts failures I see are the thumb safeties cracking (MIM parts) and the elevation screw in the rear sight failing. I fit better safeties on mine when I did a trigger job on it.

Depending on how clean your ammo is, you don't have to clean them very often. I generally don't clean mine until it's pretty dirty...1K plus, but I'm using a clean powder with jacketed bullets.

Mags need to be quickly cleaned each time they hit the ground if you want to be sure that the gun will run...hey, it's a $2K pistol, do you really want to get sand in your mags/ammo and then have that get in the chamber? Most of us are using mags with springs designed for maximum capacity, so they're not significantly longer than they need to be (like with normal factory mags) so it's not a great idea to leave them compressed for days on end (although some folks think it's cycles, not compression time that really matters). Get an Uplula mag loader and fill them when you're getting ready before the match and it won't be something to worry about. The springs don't wear out too quickly, but many of us replace them once a year, just to be safe. R,

[CocoBolo]

You are in the right place, there is a HPF Edge in the Classifieds, the guy selling it is a good guy (BigPops) and that gun has everything done to it and it runs.. I would buy it before I would buy a new one, because its ready to shoot.

My HPF Edge and my prior Edge as well as my Infinity all run 100%. I've never owned a tuned mag, but I always make sure my springs are canted correctly every time I clean the mags. My rule is if it hits the dirt I clean it and I don't shove dirt into the gun following that rule. No matter what if the mag is dropped at the very minimum it is unloaded and reloaded, bad things happen in there when they drop and impact a solid object. I change the mag springs once per year, even if they seem fine. I load mags just before the shooters meeting and unload them when I get home form the match.

A word about those folks racking their slides. 95% of jams or FTE are ammo related, they are probably not doing adequate quality control on their reloads. In about 20k rounds I have had 1 jam in my HPF Edge and that was recently in the TX State Limited and it was a MOFO, after shooting I picked the round up and when I returned from the match I had the answer. The round was short and this caused jam. The other 5% mostly goes to mags with about 1% being extractor.

I clean the gun before every match, and do a complete tearn down of the upper every 1,000 rounds and a complete tear down of the entire gun once per year.

Edited August 17, 2010 by CocoBolo

[dsmw5142]

One of my shooting buddies has an SVI Infinity. He only reloads rifle currently but keeps talking about reloading pistol ammo. Anyway, his runs just fine on factory Winchester white box from walmart (probably 2-3000 rounds of it now). He had a couple hiccups with some Federal .40 from Walmart at the last match though.

[Quack]

mine runs fine on factory ammo, but needed to tune my mags to work correctly.

other than that it's a great gun.

[ck1]

This is funny to me as I just had this same conversation the other day with a guy I know who I had no idea was a M or even was a shooter...

Anyways, I've been kicking around the thought of picking up an STI/SVI coming from a Glock too, and from what i can tell it seems the honest truth is that if the reloading set-up isn't a go then the new gun is going to disappoint... just can't snap up whatever wallymart has got on the shelf and head to a match with those guns cleaning your mags once a year like you can with a Glock.

I've been told that .45 or .38 super may run factory stuff 'cause they're longer cases, but even then it still sounds very iffy... Thinking reloading and mag maintenance goes with the territory to get those nice triggers unfortunately.

Edited August 18, 2010 by ck1

[Merlin Orr]

When I am away for home working and shoot local matches I shoot Wally World WW White Box in my Benny Built gun all the time.

Runs perfectly and there is not That much difference is the white box and my hand loads..

[G-ManBart]

This is funny to me as I just had this same conversation the other day with a guy I know who I had no idea was a M or even was a shooter...

Anyways, I've been kicking around the thought of picking up an STI/SVI coming from a Glock too, and from what i can tell it seems the honest truth is that if the reloading set-up isn't a go then the new gun is going to disappoint... just can't snap up whatever wallymart has got on the shelf and head to a match with those guns cleaning your mags once a year like you can with a Glock.

I've been told that .45 or .38 super may run factory stuff 'cause they're longer cases, but even then it still sounds very iffy... Thinking reloading and mag maintenance goes with the territory to get those nice triggers unfortunately.

I wouldn't say that they would disappoint with factory ammo, but they will be more impressive with the handloads or factory (Atlanta Arms) that most of us use.

.45 is less likely to run properly in a 2011 than .40 is...no question. A LOT of stock 2011 guns run just fine with factory OAL ammo, and most that don't will with just a little work.

Cleaning mags...yeah, price of doing business, but it takes all of maybe 30 seconds to clean a mag and it's rare you have more than two to clean. That's good time to gather your thoughts after each stage...important stuff. R,

[ck1]

This is funny to me as I just had this same conversation the other day with a guy I know who I had no idea was a M or even was a shooter...

Anyways, I've been kicking around the thought of picking up an STI/SVI coming from a Glock too, and from what i can tell it seems the honest truth is that if the reloading set-up isn't a go then the new gun is going to disappoint... just can't snap up whatever wallymart has got on the shelf and head to a match with those guns cleaning your mags once a year like you can with a Glock.

I've been told that .45 or .38 super may run factory stuff 'cause they're longer cases, but even then it still sounds very iffy... Thinking reloading and mag maintenance goes with the territory to get those nice triggers unfortunately.

I wouldn't say that they would disappoint with factory ammo, but they will be more impressive with the handloads or factory (Atlanta Arms) that most of us use.

.45 is less likely to run properly in a 2011 than .40 is...no question. A LOT of stock 2011 guns run just fine with factory OAL ammo, and most that don't will with just a little work.

Cleaning mags...yeah, price of doing business, but it takes all of maybe 30 seconds to clean a mag and it's rare you have more than two to clean. That's good time to gather your thoughts after each stage...important stuff. R,

Yeah... Didn't say I still didn't want one, just seeing that it's a more involved "relationship" is all.

Think for me my plan is to jump on a good used set-up of gun and mags that has already been worn in by another shooter for me, I'd far and away prefer that to buying brand new actually as while I'm willing to deal with the extra attention required to get the benefits of the slicker piece, I'd rather have most of the kinks already ironed out for me...

Edited August 18, 2010 by ck1

[G-ManBart]

Yeah... Didn't say I still didn't want one, just seeing that it's a more involved "relationship" is all.

Think for me my plan is to jump on a good used set-up of gun and mags that has already been worn in by another shooter for me, I'd far and away prefer that to buying brand new actually as while I'm willing to deal with the extra attention required to get the benefits of the slicker piece, I'd rather have most of the kinks already ironed out for me...

There's a lot to be said for that approach! R,

[CocoBolo]

This is funny to me as I just had this same conversation the other day with a guy I know who I had no idea was a M or even was a shooter...

Anyways, I've been kicking around the thought of picking up an STI/SVI coming from a Glock too, and from what i can tell it seems the honest truth is that if the reloading set-up isn't a go then the new gun is going to disappoint... just can't snap up whatever wallymart has got on the shelf and head to a match with those guns cleaning your mags once a year like you can with a Glock.

I've been told that .45 or .38 super may run factory stuff 'cause they're longer cases, but even then it still sounds very iffy... Thinking reloading and mag maintenance goes with the territory to get those nice triggers unfortunately.

I've shot 13 stage major matches in horrible conditions without cleaning a mag. I call that stupid, I clean mine because I don't want to have a problem, I'm smarter now. Glock mags need to be cleaned just like all the other mags used in all semi auto pistols. If you have not cleaned yours its only a matter of time till it starts choking.

Thats a smart ideam getting a good used Limited gun.

[Chris Keen]

I shot my 1st Nationals with a slightly tuned-up Edge, 4 stock STI mags (with Dawson +1s) holding only 19 rds. a piece, and 300 rounds of Wal-Mart Win White Box 165gr loads, and came in 4th in A class. I think they feel alot like my own 165gr. loads when I use N-320. I still tailor my own rounds to be the same OAL as Winchester White Box ammo.

Don't be afraid of something new, just because you've "heard" stuff. It may need some breaking in, and it may take some time figuring out WHY its finiky, but yeah it's a hi-performance pistol, and it may not work 100% right off the bat, but with some better parts in it (trigger components, and safeties) it can and it should. I would look at the Eagle if you can get one "Super-Tuned" by Brazos or the like. The Eagle is a lighter gun, with a shorter dust cover, and a bushing barrel instead of the Bull barrel of the Edge. I had a lot of lightening work done on mine, and after 3 years I got it to look how I want it, and got it chromed.

Stock magazines will work, to a point. But to gain maximum benefit from your mags, you will eventually want to get them tuned by someone who's good at that kind of stuff. Just like having a good gunsmith is important, you want someone with the right tools, and the right know-how, to make your mags run 100%.

If you get mag base pads that are easy to take off (Dawsons, and Bolens) then cleaning your mags doesnt take long at all. It's a few seconds of your time, for another flawless stage run (well the gun & mags can be flawless at least). You don't need to load your mags any earlier than the day of the match. Morning of is probably acceptable, but even a day ahead of time is silly cause it's no more than 4-5 minutes of your time. I just load up at the range, and unload when I de-gun and start cleaning up. You can replace your springs every year, or you can just wait and see. My mag springs have lasted me about 2 years now. I don't know if I'll replace them for the Nationals this year or not. I'm a big believer in "not fixing what isn't broke". My mags are tuned by the best mag-smith out there.

And you will find you will actually WANT to clean your 2011 pistol simply because it's a MUCH COOLER GUN than you used to have! I've been shooting a 2011 for over 4 years now, and I still love tearing it apart, wiping it down (chrome plating makes cleaning sooooo much easier!) and putting the whole thing back together again. Plus you'll learn the inner workings of your gun, and learn what to look for as far as potential damage areas. It's a good thing to get to know exactly how your pistol works.

[Seth B]

Thanks for all the input. I went with the HPE from Brazos. We'll see how this race gun stuff works out for me. Looks like its time to get a press.

[DocMedic]

Edge's running on Factory ammo is a toss up, Me and a buddy of mine both got are STI edges at the same time by the same Dealer. Mine will eat everything from factory to reloads and his will not shoot factory at all.