Penguin Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Hi All, Here is a question that might be a little off topic for this forum as it does not have to do with competition so much as it does with relibility of the STI gun with hollow point ammo - the self defence type, not the target type. I recently purchased an .40S&W STI Edge through Brazos and it quickly became my absolute favorite pistol. Runs like a dream with all my practice ammo. Cant say enough good things about Brazos's work. The Glock has been sitting in the safe ever since. Since I am so in love with it, I am thinking of adding a 2nd STI gun for "bedside duty", the STI tactical 5.0 in .45 flavor. (internally identical to the Edge I believe...) My question is this: does anyone have experience with STI's and modern day hollowpoint ammo (especially the ones with the big cavities, like Speer Gold Dot, Federal HST, CorBon DPX, etc...) Would these feed reliably in the STI ramped barrel? I only ask as the bullet profile for these hollowpoints seems very different from the stuff we use for practice... (Come to think of it, I guess I could just go and run some of this ammo thru my current gun, see what happens...) Any reason the .45 would be less reliable feeding than the .40? Thanks in advance for your insight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shooting for M Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Most people say the 45 is what the 1911 was built for and it's much harder to get one to run in 40. As for 2011's I don't really see why there would be any difference. As for hollowpoints, my STI Tactical (in 40) will run just about any factory ammo. Federal 155s, Winchester Ranger 180s, hydra shock 180s, anything so far. Although most STI 40s seem to like long ammo, I tried to pull and reload some Federal 155 HPs and it didn't like the ones I tried loading a little longer. I don't think I can find my data, but loaded to factory length they ran fine. Just my experience with one STI. Others that have more experience will have more to add. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaster113 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 I ran some old duty Federal 180 grain Hydrashoks, Gold Dots and a mix of other hollowpoints that I had laying around through my old Brazos tuned Edge. Absolutely no jams or misfeeds. You shouldn't have any problems. If you decide to go ahead and get the Tactical just make sure it will run reliably with whatever hollowpoint load you decide to use. Nowadays virtually all of the major ammo manufacturers make quality HP loads that feed well. I'm partial to the Federal HST hollowpoints, which have a nice big cavity and cuts on the outside of the jacket from the HP cavity to the cartridge case to force expansion .45ACP makes nice big holes in bad guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Most people say the 45 is what the 1911 was built for and it's much harder to get one to run in 40. As for 2011's I don't really see why there would be any difference. As for hollowpoints, my STI Tactical (in 40) will run just about any factory ammo. Federal 155s, Winchester Ranger 180s, hydra shock 180s, anything so far. Although most STI 40s seem to like long ammo, I tried to pull and reload some Federal 155 HPs and it didn't like the ones I tried loading a little longer. I don't think I can find my data, but loaded to factory length they ran fine. Just my experience with one STI. Others that have more experience will have more to add. The difference is that the mags (biggest factor) and frame dimensions aren't the same. 2011 designs in .45 are harder to get running properly than .40s are...many smiths will tell you they are the hardest(save maybe 9 Major Open guns) of all. An Eagle style gun with 20+ Cor-Bon .38 Super+P or 9x23 might be an even hotter ticket...more energy, way more shots, and about the easiest of all to get running 100% in a 2011. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikegot38 Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 Most people say the 45 is what the 1911 was built for and it's much harder to get one to run in 40. As for 2011's I don't really see why there would be any difference. As for hollowpoints, my STI Tactical (in 40) will run just about any factory ammo. Federal 155s, Winchester Ranger 180s, hydra shock 180s, anything so far. Although most STI 40s seem to like long ammo, I tried to pull and reload some Federal 155 HPs and it didn't like the ones I tried loading a little longer. I don't think I can find my data, but loaded to factory length they ran fine. Just my experience with one STI. Others that have more experience will have more to add. The difference is that the mags (biggest factor) and frame dimensions aren't the same. 2011 designs in .45 are harder to get running properly than .40s are...many smiths will tell you they are the hardest(save maybe 9 Major Open guns) of all. An Eagle style gun with 20+ Cor-Bon .38 Super+P or 9x23 might be an even hotter ticket...more energy, way more shots, and about the easiest of all to get running 100% in a 2011. R, I agree 100%. All of my STI frame guns in 40 run flawlessly. Some are factory and some are custom. Mags are not an issue either. My STI Eagle on the other hand runs like If you have a choice, stay with a 40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory_k Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 my edge feeds and fires fed 180 factory hp just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted January 21, 2011 Author Share Posted January 21, 2011 Thank you all... did not realize .45 was considered more tricky to get running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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