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sti spartan


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Lots of us have Spartans. Nice gun for $600 but dont expect more than that.

If shooting for fun is your goal then go ahead and get one. If you are looking for a quality piece of craftsmanship then spend the other $400 and get a Trojan (or better).

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Lots of us have Spartans. Nice gun for $600 but dont expect more than that.

If shooting for fun is your goal then go ahead and get one. If you are looking for a quality piece of craftsmanship then spend the other $400 and get a Trojan (or better).

I respectfully disagree. The Spartan I ended up with is fit better than the last Trojan I had a chance to handle. Hell of a deal for 600 bucks, best thing going. Mine did have a funky mainspring that appeared to have been cut from a long spring. My gun doctor said he was going to order one after going through mine piece by piece. YMMV but you won't be disappointed and it's exponentially better than the Springfield Armory guns in terms of correct fitting.

post-3514-1202077011.jpg

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At first I was a bit disappointed with the used one I got. After a trip to STI to get a few things straightened out and then to the range really changed my mind. The slide to frame and barrel fit is awesome on this thing. And it is very accurate. I traded an M&P for it and glad I did. ;)

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Lots of us have Spartans. Nice gun for $600 but dont expect more than that.

If shooting for fun is your goal then go ahead and get one. If you are looking for a quality piece of craftsmanship then spend the other $400 and get a Trojan (or better).

I respectfully disagree. The Spartan I ended up with is fit better than the last Trojan I had a chance to handle. Hell of a deal for 600 bucks, best thing going. Mine did have a funky mainspring that appeared to have been cut from a long spring. My gun doctor said he was going to order one after going through mine piece by piece. YMMV but you won't be disappointed and it's exponentially better than the Springfield Armory guns in terms of correct fitting.

You can disagree all you want, but the Trojan is a higher quality gun than a Spartan :) That's not to say that the Spartan is a bad gun, in any way, but the Trojan has a better frame, undercut trigger guard, stippled front strap, flat-top slide, Ti hammer strut etc. that cause it's price to be higher. It's also not made overseas like the Spartan is....that was one of the ways they've kept the price down. I don't think you could buy a Spartan and have it upgraded to match a Trojan for the same amount of money and you'd still have a frame that wasn't made as well.

It's certainly possible that you've seen one Spartan with a better fit than one Trojan, but that's a coincidence and it doesn't mean they're all like that. My Trojan is as tight as many custom built guns out there....granted, that's only one gun, but I've handled a few others that were similiarly tight. It's certainly not the tightest in the world, but you're not going to get that from any mass produced 1911. All of the Spartans I've handled were nicely fit, but none has been so good as to be surprising or better than my Trojan.

For someone looking to shoot SS only a little bit, a Spartan is a great choice. For someone who thinks maybe they'll eventually shoot SS a fair amount I think the better frame alone is worth going with the Trojan. I don't shoot SS very much, but know that in ten years I'll still be shooting it a little bit, so I went with the Trojan and had a great smith go over it and upgrade the internals along with a trigger job (Koenig hammer, EGW sear, disconnector, Ti strut, Ti MS Cap, AFTEC, M2I firing pin, etc) then I put a Techwell magwell on it and fit a set of SV safeties. If someone beats me, it sure isn't because I don't have enough gun

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Both frames, Spartan in the PI and Trojan in the US, are cast. Yes there is some more machine work on the Trojan, flat top slide, undercut trigger guard and the chain link stippling on the front strap, but does that make the frame better?

My gun doc said all the internal parts with exception of guide rod and barrel were STI. So it shares a Ti hammer strut with the Trojan.

Bottom line, spend your money on what you want but be objective. If the frame modifications are worth 300 dollars then go for it. For a lot of new shooters the Spartan is a GREAT way to get into shooting SS or USPSA in general and I think it's misleading to claim that the inherent qualities of the Trojan will make it last longer, as both are nearly the same weapon just with different levels of external finish.

Edited by chrisjohn
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I got mine from Merlin. I have been pretty happy with it. For what they cost they are worth it. Mine does not like factory length hardball. I reload a little shorter and it seems to like that better. I tried running lead bullets in it and it had some problems. Went back to fmj and moly coated and it worked fine.

Mike

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Mine eats hard cast lead bullets at an OAL of 1.250" like it's cool. And the slide to frame fit is actually tighter than alot of other 1911s I have witnessed over the years. I won't mention any Manufacturers and get into some pissing match. But suffice it to say- there is alot of gun here for the money! ;)

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Both frames, Spartan in the PI and Trojan in the US, are cast. Yes there is some more machine work on the Trojan, flat top slide, undercut trigger guard and the chain link stippling on the front strap, but does that make the frame better?

My gun doc said all the internal parts with exception of guide rod and barrel were STI. So it shares a Ti hammer strut with the Trojan.

Bottom line, spend your money on what you want but be objective. If the frame modifications are worth 300 dollars then go for it. For a lot of new shooters the Spartan is a GREAT way to get into shooting SS or USPSA in general and I think it's misleading to claim that the inherent qualities of the Trojan will make it last longer, as both are nearly the same weapon just with different levels of external finish.

As I said previously, I'm not dissing the Spartan at all and did say it's a great gun for the money. That doesn't mean it's as good as STI's own gun one rung higher on the pricing chart.

Not all castings are equal ;) If the Trojan frame didn't cost STI more than the Spartan frame there wouldn't be any reason to outsource the Spartan frame (and slide) in the first place. You generally get what you pay for. If the Trojan frame wasn't any better why wouldn't STI just use the same frame as they do on the Spartan and save some $? It wouldn't be hard to have them add the stippling and undercut trigger guard and outsource it from Armscor as well, but they don't do that.

Yes, pretty much all the internal parts are made by STI and then shipped to Phillipines, except the rear sight (if memory serves).

Take a Spartan, stipple the front strap, undercut the trigger guard, flat top the slide and you've eaten up a fair amount of the $375ish difference between the two guns....and you still take a chance that the frame isn't as high quality since we know it costs less and don't have the specs to compare between the two.

Another thing to consider between the two is that the Armscor frames tend to be a little longer and meatier in the front strap area and don't feel quite as slim...add that to the lack of undercut and it could mean more to someone with smaller hands.

If budget is the primary consideration, the Spartan is a great way to go. If someone wants something a little nicer the Trojan is a nice step up. Each certainly has their place and I'm glad STI offers both.

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I'll chime in with my thoughts on the Spartan tomorrow :D

I decided to trade in my beloved Witness Match 9mm for a 1911 - figured the M&P already makes just as good of a minor L/L10 gun, and it doubles duty in Prod, so the Wit was kinda useless (when EAA gets their $hit together, I'll be back for Limited and/or Stock2). Primary candidates were something uber-cheap (i.e. RIA or Taurus), or a bottom of the barrel Kimber Custom II... Went with the Spartan for a few reasons - STI, STI's contingency program/support of the sport, sights, STI's decision to stop CA sales, cheaper than the Kimber and better parts than the RIA's/Taurus. I wanted something that would be able to get me up and running nicely, and not be soo expensive that I was afraid to touch it or muck it up.

Already ordered up a bunch of 47D's, S&A magwell, Ergo XT's, BT Kydex holster, BT IM double pouches, and a few spare parts and a ISMI recoil springs.

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The frame-slide-barrel-bushing fit on my Spartan is tighter than ANY other out of the box 1911 that I have seen. I'll have to say the finish is Butt Ugly, but who cares? It's a shooter not a show piece. Dropped a Brazos hammer, sear and spring kit in and the trigger is SWEEEET. I'll try to get my hands on a scale tomorrow and check pull weight.

Only other thing I may change is the front sight. I prefer a thinner post.

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Yeah- I need a thinner front sight and, although the trigger is crisp and just under 4 lbs, I would prefer something more in line with my Limited gun. I am considering either trying a drop in kit or having Howard look into it, if he has time.

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Picked mine up tonight.

The frame to slide fit is pretty good, just a hint of play on the right side when you twist it. The barrel-bushing-slide fit is ridiculously tight - bushing wrench is mandatory. There are some machine/filing marks around the edges and on the inside of the frame and slide - not as spotless as it could be, but for $620, not a big deal. Grip safety is nicely blended, but the edges of the frame also show some tooling marks. I tore it down completely to check it out and give it a nice cleaning. Extractor is nice and tight, the hammer strut is Ti. The mainspring housing does protrude a tiny bit, but I'll put a S&A on it later this week anyway. Hammer hooks are around .028" tall, trigger pull measured ~4.25lbs right out of the box on my Lyman digital guage. The guide rod on mine is the standard length, not the overly long version the early ones had. The barrel is highly polished, but there are tons of really deep grooves in it making it look a bit crappy. Mine is sporting the common RIA style grips way to far rearward look with the Ergo XT's I tossed on it.

Overall, I am very pleased with the purchase, this does seem to be a VERY good value for an entry level 1911. I should have a range report tomorrow night :D

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