STI Open versus CK Arms

[phil plesetz]

is the CK worth the extra bucks? if so, why?

 

Thanks,

[molson]

Phil,

 

The best and easiest way to find out in my opinion is to shoot them both and compare them side by side.

 

i will let you take my CK for a test drive and check with Glen, but I bet he will let you try his STI.  

 

Then you you can compare them side by side.

 

FVPS match is on 10/6.  Glen and I will be there.

 

Others will come along with why one over the other.  Listen to what they have to say.  Then shoot em and decide for yourself.

 

Mike

[blacklab]

I don't own a gun built by CK but from what I've seen I would have to say CK is a little better then STI. IMHO I think STI may have gotten a little too big and have a hard time keeping up with things. The machine work from STI seems to be slipping a little and I personally haven't had very good luck with their customer service. I sent in a frame certificate to STI and it took 6 months to get it after many unreturned phone calls. I'm not trying to bash STI, the DVC's are very nice looking and given the opportunity I would gladly add one to my collection. But if a CK and STI were laying side by side and I could only have one I'd have to take the CK.

[36873687]

I’ve owned Sti an have two ck open guns. They just run day in day out. 

[S&W686]

I currently own three CK Arms handguns and they are very well built.  They are built to very tight tolerances and most need up to 600 to 800 rounds to break-in before they run well.

[fatjoe123111]

I owned a CK and it was the worst purchase I ever made. The gun had nothing but problems and CK has terrible customer service. My father owns an STI and it has been great. Personally I’m moving on to an Atlas Chaos. 

[Absocold]

I've owned and worked on both. The older STI's and CK's are similar with the nod going to CK. The newer STI's are a bit more hit and miss and every single one now needs trigger work right out of the box. Don't buy a new DVC, those are overpriced in my opinion; get a used one if those float your goat.

[Hi-Power Jack]

I bought my STI TruBor from Brazos 12 years ago, and it still runs well.

 

I have no experience with newer STI's, or with CK.

[Brooke]

Who is CK now? Apparently there has been a breakup in the business arrangement. If I'm wrong somebody correct me please. 

[Sarge]

1 hour ago, Brooke said:

Who is CK now? Apparently there has been a breakup in the business arrangement. If I'm wrong somebody correct me please. 

It’s Bobby Keegan’s. Matt still makes some parts but they are now branded CCG.

[Squishy]

I bought a lightly used CK 9mm open gun from a forum member . The original owner said it ran very well. Now on a couple of different posts he is trashing CK because he said it never ran right. I have run 8 different bullets and 3 different powders thru it. I have put almost 5000 rounds thru it not one failure. One of the supplied mags had a problem. Called Aaron at MBX and he sent me a new follower and spring. Problem went away. I like it so much I bought another one. Should be here next month. 

[RangerTrace]

My CK guns run perfectly.  

[chenault]

I don't know about the bad customer service.  I sent my gun in for a repair and Bobby both called and emailed me with updates.  Both of mine have run very well.  

 

Indid I'd have a chance to switch to a chaos this summer, but after shooting a match with it I stuck with my ck.  It was a great gun, but my ck fells like an extension of me 

[xdnok]

CK builds some awesome open guns, give them good ammo and magazines and they run very well. Have had three of them, still own two of them, very good bang for the buck. 

[Chillywig]

Get the CK. They are awesome. If there is a problem Bobby will take care of it. I recently sent him a barrel from my CK open gun to ream the chamber to accept 9mm Major rounds >1.170. He turned it about in a couple days no charge. This has been my experience and that of a few fellow shooters. STI warranty turn around times I have heard are very long. 

[fatjoe123111]

2 hours ago, Squishy said:

I bought a lightly used CK 9mm open gun from a forum member . The original owner said it ran very well. Now on a couple of different posts he is trashing CK because he said it never ran right. I have run 8 different bullets and 3 different powders thru it. I have put almost 5000 rounds thru it not one failure. One of the supplied mags had a problem. Called Aaron at MBX and he sent me a new follower and spring. Problem went away. I like it so much I bought another one. Should be here next month. 

Let let’s get something straight. I didn’t sell you a non working gun. I sent it back to CK and they said nothing was wrong but yet came back with file marks on the barrel and the guide rod. It did come back working significantly better. So they fixed the gun but won’t admit there was a problem with it. I had to pay the shipping both ways as well. I can not and will not own a gun that I can’t recommend someone else to buy. As well I won’t do business with a company that won’t admit to their mistakes. I made sure that gun ran before I sold it. But the headache that went into making it run could have been avoided. Not to mention the extra costs. I’m very happy that you haven’t had problems with the gun. But for me after the initial issues and then CK telling me that there is no problem but yet it comes back with tool marks. I will never own a CK and will never recommend anyone buy one either.

[Brooke]

5 hours ago, Sarge said:

It’s Bobby Keegan’s. Matt still makes some parts but they are now branded CCG.

 

5 hours ago, Sarge said:

It’s Bobby Keegan’s. Matt still makes some parts but they are now branded CCG.

Thanks

[chenault]

34 minutes ago, Brooke said:

 

Thanks

 

My understanding was that Bobby does the fitting on his side and Matt does the machining.  

[phil plesetz]

Not ready to buy yet, just kicking tires. My STI Limited has been good, sent it in for something i wanted done, they ate the labor and the shipping both ways along with next day UPS. I have no complaints about customer service, and my gun didn't come back with any marks on it!

[phil plesetz]

19 hours ago, molson said:

Phil,

 

The best and easiest way to find out in my opinion is to shoot them both and compare them side by side.

 

i will let you take my CK for a test drive and check with Glen, but I bet he will let you try his STI.  

 

Then you you can compare them side by side.

 

FVPS match is on 10/6.  Glen and I will be there.

 

Others will come along with why one over the other.  Listen to what they have to say.  Then shoot em and decide for yourself.

 

Mike

Mike, I will take you up on the test drive, however I will miss 10/6, I have great seats at the Milwaukee PBR, and won't have time to do both, unless I can figure something out before then.

[Fo0]

13 hours ago, Sarge said:

It’s Bobby Keegan’s. Matt still makes some parts but they are now branded CCG.

 

In the locked thread someone posted that there was a disagreement about not meeting a level of quality causing the split - anyone knows which side that was?

 

If I am looking for a bare slide to buy now - should I look at STI or CKarms on CCG site

[Sarge]

35 minutes ago, Fo0 said:

 

In the locked thread someone posted that there was a disagreement about not meeting a level of quality causing the split - anyone knows which side that was?

 

If I am looking for a bare slide to buy now - should I look at STI or CKarms on CCG site

Check with Matt at Cheely Custom Gunworks.com

[jnr88]

Don't forget Caspian or Phoenix Trinity.

[davsco]

21 hours ago, S&W686 said:

I currently own three CK Arms handguns and they are very well built.  They are built to very tight tolerances and most need up to 600 to 800 rounds to break-in before they run well.

see, i don't get this crap.  do any of us really want a gun that doesn't work out of the box,; do we really want to also pay for a case of ammo and a couple of range days to get what we paid $3k+ for, actually working?  not sure i equate 'very well built' with 'needs a case of ammo thru it before it actually works.'

 

my bil got a ck in .40 that wouldn't even cycle by hand it was so locked up tight.  not saying sti's are perfect, my dvc open worked 50% for the first couple of boxes but then has run like a top, but started way better than not even being able to manually cycle.

[chenault]

I've owned 3 CK guns.  I'm not one to become a fanboy of any brand, so I think I can give some non biased information.

 

 2 of the CK's I've owned are newer, the third is of the earlier generations.  I think that like many things the early gens had a couple issues they fixed.  These are pretty well known, short chamber, tight slide, cracked slides.  The slides I found out were an issue for several companies using STI blanks, I talked to a  gunsmith that was in contact with STI when this was happening and they were wondering if the steel which came from India wasn't of high enough quality.  Reguardless, there were a lot of cracked STI slides.  My older CK is no exception, it's slide cracked very early.  I do notice that my newer CK guns have the hole for the gas port moved further back.  That said, the new one that was put on my original one has gone 8k with 0 problems.  

 

All three of mine have had good chambers which were an issue early on.  None of the new ones that I've heard of had this problem.

 

The first slide on the older Ck gun was very tight.  It always cycled, but I wasn't a fan.  The replacement side and the newer ones were much improved.  

 

With all that said my newer ones haven't been perfect.  I broke a couple of extractors on both of them and I was getting strange wear on the slide where it met the barrel.  Turned out that KKM changed how much clearance they were taking off and CK didn't catch it so the extractors were bouncing off the barrel causing the slide to set funny thus causing the wear.  

 

Bobby did own up to the issue and replaced one of the slides.  I did have to pay for shipping to him, but he shipped them back on his coin.

 

Another thing I have noticed is that the triggers have been inconsistent.  The oldest one had a 3ish lb pull which I wasn't super impressed with.  When I shipped it back they fixed that, again free of cost.  One of the newer ones was amazing and the other between the two which I again had them work on so now they are all the bees knees.  

 

Finally, my early CK had a comp that would come lose.  I'm not sure what they changed but all of the newer ones have stayed put.  

 

I can't speak for any one else but my own experiences with Bobby have been good.  He put the FGW slide cuts on my replacement slide free of cost and has been open and communicative.  He has also taken time to explain why issues have occurred.  I do sometimes worry if they are over extended, and that does concern me, but overall my experience has been solid.  

 

My my main issue now is that I've fallen in love with carry optics, but that's a different subject entirely.  

Edited September 28, 2018 by chenault