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Single Stack recommendations?


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I have been out of the gun game for about 10yrs and my 16year old nephew has been bugging me to take him to a shoot. Wondering what single stack pistols currently or recently on the market are a good starting point? Looking for stuff in .45 and priced under $2k. I have a bunch of holsters and magazines for 1911's already and only load .45 anymore so I probably want to stick with that platform and caliber. 

 

I am capable of fitting some parts, are EGW and Cylinder and slide still reputable brands? I had Techwell grips and magwells on my previous pistols, what other brands should I be looking at? 

 

I appreciate any and all input, humbly sumbitted by a second time around newbie. 

 

 

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Lots of .45 options out there, but does the kid want to shoot Major 45 or would he be happier with minor 9?  Factory 9 isn't that much more expensive than reloading it these days.

  

Those brands are still good.  Not a lot of fast movement in the single stack world.  Dawson also I think still makes magwells.

 

For a nice match gun in 45, I'd look for a 5" Series 70 with a checkered frontstrap and adjustable sights or cuts that will fit Dawson sights and go from there.  You can do some tweaking on the dust cover thickness with a .45 and not go over weight but you can't go full length and there are some rules about through-holes on the slide that might punt the latest Kimbers out.

 

For 9's the pickings are a bit slimmer.  Last I was into SS, the Dan Wesson PM 9 was highly regarded out of the box and some of the Springfield models made good base platforms.  There are some new models out now from everyone from Savage to low cost Turkish imports that I've got no experience with.

 

 

 

 

 

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I am having good results with VZ grips and the new Chen SI magwell. it is kind of pricey, but has a grape shape and large funnel. I have also had great results with the Brazos tuned trigger kit and polished disconnector. Harrison Custom is another great source for slide stops, triggers, thumb safety, etc.

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Put me in the buy a rock island camp. Or spend a little more and get a Springfield. You can spend a lot more money on an ss gun with no performance gains. Ss is the most level playing field there is

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2 hours ago, Effectus Magis Per Minor said:

I am having good results with VZ grips and the new Chen SI magwell. it is kind of pricey, but has a grape shape and large funnel. I have also had great results with the Brazos tuned trigger kit and polished disconnector. Harrison Custom is another great source for slide stops, triggers, thumb safety, etc.

Stan Chens magwell is an excellent piece.

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Take a hard look at 9mm. You will find most of the shooters use a nine. I still shoot my 45 but I am one of the old style guys. 🙄

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2 hours ago, Jmob50 said:

I think I'd look for a used STI Trojan or something similar, $2k budget should be plenty

^^^^That right there, or a Spartan. You can usually find those on gunbroker.

Edited by 392heminut
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9 hours ago, Jmob50 said:

I think I'd look for a used STI Trojan or something similar, $2k budget should be plenty

 

Quality control on STI's is dicey. My 9mm Trojan broke mag releases about every 4-5K rounds but was otherwise a nice gun. I don't know where STI quality is at on the new guns but they went through a bad phase where it seemed like sop to expect to have problems and have to send the guns back in. To their credit they did eventually get guns right under warranty. 

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48 minutes ago, IHAVEGAS said:

 

Quality control on STI's is dicey. My 9mm Trojan broke mag releases about every 4-5K rounds but was otherwise a nice gun. I don't know where STI quality is at on the new guns but they went through a bad phase where it seemed like sop to expect to have problems and have to send the guns back in. To their credit they did eventually get guns right under warranty. 


I’m referring to the STI brand, not Staccato. I wouldn’t buy anything Staccato. The .45 Trojan was very popular when Single Stack division had a following

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1 hour ago, IHAVEGAS said:

 

Quality control on STI's is dicey. My 9mm Trojan broke mag releases about every 4-5K rounds but was otherwise a nice gun. I don't know where STI quality is at on the new guns but they went through a bad phase where it seemed like sop to expect to have problems and have to send the guns back in. To their credit they did eventually get guns right under warranty. 

I've never even heard of someone breaking a mag release let alone that often. Did you ever figure out the issue?

 

19 minutes ago, Jmob50 said:


I’m referring to the STI brand, not Staccato. I wouldn’t buy anything Staccato. The .45 Trojan was very popular when Single Stack division had a following

 

The current staccato's I've seen, seem to run well. But they don't make any single stack guns that I know of. 

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I considering picking up a Tisas in 9mm for Single Stack minor. Stuff I read seems like they're okay out of the box. And at about $500 bucks, I can add a magwell, grips and replace all the small parts with EGW and still be under the price of most off the shelf 1911's. 

 

Sounds like fun to me. 

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21 minutes ago, Jmob50 said:


I’m referring to the STI brand, not Staccato. I wouldn’t buy anything Staccato. The .45 Trojan was very popular when Single Stack division had a following

 

That is what I thought. Anyone interested can probably find the history of the low point in STI quality issues, I think they brought in Dave Dawson to straighten things out. One shooter got so frustrated that he had a custom license plate made "DVCFTF" as I recall. 

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18 hours ago, RJH said:

Put me in the buy a rock island camp. Or spend a little more and get a Springfield. You can spend a lot more money on an ss gun with no performance gains. Ss is the most level playing field there is

 

This kind of draws me to wanting to play in SS again. It's the most like a "production" division we've have in a long time. No matter how much money you spend your gun really isn't better then a budget option, 

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14 hours ago, Racinready300ex said:

 

This kind of draws me to wanting to play in SS again. It's the most like a "production" division we've have in a long time. No matter how much money you spend your gun really isn't better then a budget option, 

 

 

Yep. I built me a complete budgety type minor single stack gun and have been enjoying shooting it. Yesterday I shot it at a match and was the highest placing Ironsight shooter there. We even had four guys shooting single stack and I think three shooting l10. 

 

I did a thread on the pistol and the cost on Enos a while back. I called it low cap on the cheap or something like that. I think gun, mags, magwell, all together was like 550

Edited by RJH
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1 hour ago, RJH said:

 

 

Yep. I built me a complete budgety type minor single stack gun and have been enjoying shooting it. Yesterday I shot it at a match and was the highest placing Ironsight shooter there. We even had four guys shooting single stack and I think three shooting l10. 

 

I did a thread on the pistol and the cost on Enos a while back. I called it low cap on that she or something like that. I think gun, mags, magwell, all together was like 550

I'll have to look for that thread

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13 hours ago, Racinready300ex said:

I considering picking up a Tisas in 9mm for Single Stack minor. Stuff I read seems like they're okay out of the box. And at about $500 bucks, I can add a magwell, grips and replace all the small parts with EGW and still be under the price of most off the shelf 1911's. 

 

Sounds like fun to me. 

For the money, I honestly don't think you can beat it. It's a solid platform to start with, the frame to slide fit is on par with 1911's three times it's price point and the trigger isn't bad. The best part is it's series 70 internals so replacing all of the internals is easy. I think my only hesitation would be it's dovetail cut and it's only because I don't know what it's cut for but it may not be an issue at all. 

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13 hours ago, IHAVEGAS said:

 

That is what I thought. Anyone interested can probably find the history of the low point in STI quality issues, I think they brought in Dave Dawson to straighten things out. One shooter got so frustrated that he had a custom license plate made "DVCFTF" as I recall. 

Yes, I think the DVC guns were the nail in the coffin for them unfortunately. Specifically the DVC Open 9 Major gun, which I have but haven't shot it much. The other 2011's and 1911's from STI were solid though, this is the first time I've heard of a mag release issue. That's really hard for me to comprehend

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15 minutes ago, Jmob50 said:

The other 2011's and 1911's from STI were solid though,this is the first time I've heard of a mag release issue. That's really hard for me to comprehend

 

It would have been easier to comprehend if I wouldn't have written mag when I should have written slide, sorry about that chief. I've bought 3 STI's new, 9mm eagle was a good gun but not until after I bought the Dawson mag tuning kit and got the mags like they should have come from the factory, 40 Edge had the weird guide rod/spring set up they marketed for a while - that bound up tight and I had to send the gun back - that was a good gun after converting to a traditional guide rod, and the Trojan with the mag/slide/thingy release issue which was also a good gun after I sent it back in for repair. 

Edited by IHAVEGAS
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5 minutes ago, IHAVEGAS said:

 

It would have been easier to comprehend if I wouldn't have written mag when I should have written slide, sorry about that chief. I've bought 3 STI's new, 9mm eagle was a good gun but not until after I bought the Dawson mag tuning kit and got the mags like they should have come from the factory, 40 Edge had the weird guide rod/spring set up they marketed for a while - that bound up tight and I had to send the gun back - that was a good gun after converting to a traditional guide rod, and the Trojan with the mag/slide/thingy release issue which was also a good gun after I sent it back in for repair. 

Didn't mean to offend, I apologize. The RecoilMaster, I did hear of others that had problems. My Edge has one but it's always been a backup gun that has only been sighted in. I wonder if that was there design copy from Glock? Seems similar

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1 hour ago, Jmob50 said:

Didn't mean to offend, I apologize. 


I was not offended, it was polite of you to apologize though. No worries. 
 

I don’t always limit my self expression to correct use of the English language :) 

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