New STi Open Gun- STI mags or SV?

[lcs]

New SVI mags and tubes are designed to run in SVI frames and grips. New SVI's will not run in STI grips or frames correctly.

You stated 38SC. STI mags or tubes are great, cheaper, and run 100%. You might want to have a brand new STI 170 tuned to hold the maximum rounds it can, but in my experience your wasting your money. 38SC is pretty forgiving when it comes to mags. I would not waste my money on have new STI tubes tuned.

STI tubes with Grams followers, Grams springs, and just about any metal basepad run 100% in SC38. People want the old style SVI mags for 9 Major because you do not have to run spaces.

[Dan Sierpina]

New SVI mags and tubes are designed to run in SVI frames and grips. New SVI's will not run in STI grips or frames correctly.

You stated 38SC. STI mags or tubes are great, cheaper, and run 100%. You might want to have a brand new STI 170 tuned to hold the maximum rounds it can, but in my experience your wasting your money. 38SC is pretty forgiving when it comes to mags. I would not waste my money on have new STI tubes tuned.

STI tubes with Grams followers, Grams springs, and just about any metal basepad run 100% in SC38. People want the old style SVI mags for 9 Major because you do not have to run spaces.

It's not the grip that is different, it's the frame itself that differs from STI. SVI frames are a bit wider in the mag area. Open it up, new SVI mags fit as well as STI.

[lcs]

New SVI mags and tubes are designed to run in SVI frames and grips. New SVI's will not run in STI grips or frames correctly.

You stated 38SC. STI mags or tubes are great, cheaper, and run 100%. You might want to have a brand new STI 170 tuned to hold the maximum rounds it can, but in my experience your wasting your money. 38SC is pretty forgiving when it comes to mags. I would not waste my money on have new STI tubes tuned.

STI tubes with Grams followers, Grams springs, and just about any metal basepad run 100% in SC38. People want the old style SVI mags for 9 Major because you do not have to run spaces.

It's not the grip that is different, it's the frame itself that differs from STI. SVI frames are a bit wider in the mag area. Open it up, new SVI mags fit as well as STI.

The SVI frame is different,metal grip and the mag release is different also. I did not say "they won't fit", I said the new SVI mags will not function correctly in STI guns.

[Ofishl1]

I shoot 9 Major exclusively.

My STI magazines were purchased as a tuned set from Brazos. They did not recommend them for 9mm (actually they were not recommended for anything loaded shorter than 1.200") but since I load long (1.195")I thought I'd give them a try. As long as I keep the springs in good order, they work excellent.

In my SVI magazines, several of the 140's were tuned and several were not. All run excellent. Of my 170's, one was tuned by Howard Smith and one was modified and semi-tuned by Freedom Gunworks. The FGW tuned magazine is one of the new style SVI magazines. Both run excellent and drop freely from my plastic gripped STI.

Back when I ran a Paraordinance Open gun, magazine problems were a common plight. When I moved to an STI, I decided that if something went wrong, it would not be the magazine.

So I decided to go with the best I could acquire and not look back. No regrets.

Bill

So, I gather either STI or even the new style SV would be solid choices, some mention of older SV tubes running good in STI frames, how would you identify those?

Thanks O1

No, the new SV tubes will only work in STI guns if they have been modified and some claim that they can't get them to work at all (feed reliably and drop free). I talked with Bobby at FGW about this one time and he told me that he could not guarantee me that new SV mags (tuned by his shop) would work for my STI unless they had the gun and mags at the same time to do the work. I have purchased at least 15 old style SV mags/tubes and everyone one of them work in all my STI guns - some tuned but most have not been tuned. BTW - FGW no longer works on mags alone, will only do this with a gun purchase.

Solid choices are STI mags - tuned or not (preferably tuned) or old style SV mags. If want to work with the new SV mags, be prepared to send your gun along with the mags to someone to work on them.

I think going with the STI mags is the safer bet for a first Open gun, one of the members in this thread offered some std and tuned STI mags for a fair price, when they come in I will try them and see what, if anything has to be done. STI, and Rob here at Ghost products helped me set up the Limited STI's and they work good, so I have some back up support here in Az if needed. So, I have 3 140's and 1 -170 coming, it was mentioned to have 2 big sticks, most of the guys I see at our club always carry one, but dont think I have seen 2 on their belts, ..is 2 common?

Thx O1,

Good choice. You should be okay but if you have feeding problems, you know where to look. Yes, on some stages, I carry 2 big sticks.

So I picked the gun up from my FFL today, and since the mags havent shipped yet, I couldnt wait too shoot it, and ran out to the Gun store and found a 9mm 140 STI mag, pulled the spacer out, loaded it up and it ran like a raped ape. So maybe I got lucky, but so far the mag locks in, feeds and drops no problem. Now, I was running factory loads not my own, not JHP's, but there seems to be some merit to the comment about these being forigiving in 38SC, so far so good,...

[Mturnbull333]

I use one big stick and three 140's, tried two big sticks but didn't like the way a big stick felt on my belt while I was moving, if you need more than 50 rounds to complete a course of fire you have bigger probs than mags, also none of my mags are tuned, just grams guys and I've never had a prob.

[Parallax3D]

STI mags seem to need tuning out of the package. Dawson sells a tuning kit....Older SV mags work great in the plastic grips. As for 9, SV's work well, I use the same mags for both 9mm and 38sc with no problems in my Infinity pistols.

I've got STI mags and I've never had them 'tuned.' I swapped out the guts with Grams springs & followers, and used Dawson +1+ SNL bases, and I've never had any problems with them.

You might want to have the tuning kit just so you can fix things that go out of whack if they get dropped/stepped on, but I personally don't buy the whole, 'professionally tuned mags' thing.