STI AR-15 - "Tactical Sporting Rifle" - Info Requested

[aalbert]

I have a acquired an STI AR-15 "Tactical Sporting Rifle" .. I have searched around a bit, and haven't been able to find much info other than the following, and wanted to see if anybody flesh things out, or confirm the details that exist beyond the spec sheet.

 

Approx 1200 made, with maybe 1/2 of them going out to international clients

From posts here at intro time it seems like he barrels were made by Green Mountain

Although pictured in their catalog with an A2 stock, this unit was shipped with an optional CAR stock.

Compensator, hand guards, and likely gas-block seem to be made by Nordic Components

Rumored that Nordic Components actually made these for STI

Introduced in 2010, and still in the catalog as of 2012, not in the catalog by 2015  (if anybody has catalogs from in-between I would be interested in know when it went away)

Although it had some high end parts like the JP trigger, the barrel and some other components were considered a little mid to low end at time of introduction.

 

 

Anyway, any confirmation or additional information, would be appreciated... Longer we get from their time on the market, the more those details will disappear.

 

 

Gun I purchased had been updated, but all of the original parts were included, so I am in the process of restoring it back to factory specs.

 

 

Thanks.

 

Rifle in current state

 

 

Original catalog image from 2012

Edited November 8, 2023 by aalbert

[Tom Freeman]

Mine came with an A2 stock and a JP single stage trigger straight from STI

 

More important than those details, it is serial # 69.

[aalbert]

 

Well you have me beat on several levels with that serial.. I have SN 150

 

How has she treated you?

[molson]

AAlbert,

 

Try going to this website:  https://web.archive.org/

 

Then type in:

 

stiguns.com

 

I just looked and there "Appears" to be information there concerning the rifle.

 

Full disclosure.  I looked at 2012 and navigated through the pages and found the rifle.  I did not look further.

 

Mike

 

 

[aalbert]

The catalog page was from archive.org, but I did poke around a bit more, and found 2 reviews linked from their page. The Shooting Illustrated article mentions Darrel Bishop was the product line manager for the AR project - if anybody is in touch with him, maybe he could offer up some additional background.

 

 

(Files below are hosted at my personal site)

 

Shooting Illustrated

 

Guns & Weapons for LE

 

 

[Guy Neill]

I believe mine was called the Competition rifle. I need to get it out and look it over as it has been a while. It has a fixed stock.

 

[aalbert]

I believe the competition version had the longer hand guard, and no rail on the gas block.. I would be interested in seeing / documenting the gas block they used in those models - a pic would be cool. So far all of the rifles I have seen only say "Custom Rifle"  with the caliber below it, on the right side of the magwell - with no additional model identification 

 

On a sad note, it appears that Darrell Bishop passed away not too long after his project came to market - RIP.

[Guy Neill]

I looked at the rifle. I was wrong- and right!

 

The gun itself is marked Custom Rifle, but the tag on the case it came in is marked Custom Competition.

 

I'll try to get some photos soon.