$1,400 STI or $400 Tisas ?

[Mitch Dufour]

$1,400 STI or $400 Tisas ? I've had the STI about 10 years now, the Tisas 10 hours. Both 5" 9mm. Side by side review coming soon.

 

[Mitch Dufour]

As promised - a 1st glance range report.

The Tisas ate 130 rounds this morning during an on again off again misting rain. I did nothing to clean or prep the gun prior to shooting other than a field strip for the above posted photos.

There was a fail to extract around round 115. Very possibly a brass issue as I am a brass whore and will load damn near any piece of brass I find, including some with rim damage. But it was a failure to extract. Slow fire, mag dumps, limp wristing on purpose, it wanted to run.

The targets below will give you an idea of accuracy it is capable of. The targets where punched by me and a buddy. 21' standing free hand. The Tisas has a 3 dot sight set up, the STI has a small red fiber front sight and black notch on back. The sight pictures are apples/oranges.

If I was inclined to put more $$ into the Tisas, and I am not, a cleaner sight set up is how I would go.
But as is I am happy with the bang for my buck$.

 

[Fugum]

I don't own either, but I can tell you my Dan Wesson runs circles around the RIA I used to own, wasn't even close. The DW shoots better than my EMP and Colt Defender as well. The smart money would be the STI.

 

[Bolt Head]

I may still be dragging my knuckles here but quality does cost money.
"You get what you pay for" usually applies (but Glocks are always more bang for The Buck").

When you're only dealing with the 9mm Luger you can tend to have a little wiggle room with platform options, since there isn't that much force with the cartridge.

Fine pistols, nonetheless!

 

[Bam Bam]

For that kind of money the STI better make a blind man a Marksman. I find alot of times the high end products are good, but not worth the price difference of a mid priced product. But that's just my .02 cents.

 

[Richard Michael]

I have yet to "outshoot" any of my guns! Some are smoother and better triggers, but they all shoot where I aim.

 

[Mitch Dufour]

1st range report @ post #2.

 

[Fugum]

So, do you think the sights are the only reason why the STI shot much tighter?

 

[Mitch Dufour]

So, do you think the sights are the only reason why the STI shot much tighter?

No. While the Tisas is very tight compared to alot of 'low end' 1911's I have played with, it is not as tight as the STI. I can feel the side to side slack in the Tisas if try to wiggle it by grasping the grip then wiggling the end of the barrel.

The other thing I noticed about the Tisas - the mags that came with it are 'clunky' and seem to drag when loading them. They functioned fine, just did not load as smoothly as my Wilson mags do.

I will keep shooting it over the next few months to see how she does, and will take her to at least the 1k mark with weekly outings.

 

[Bam Bam]

I was pretty surprised to see such a big difference in ammo grouping on my gun last night even as such a close range. Do you think the Tisas would do better with different ammo perhaps??

 

[Mitch Dufour]

... you think the Tisas would do better with different ammo perhaps??

Every gun will have a paritcular load that will group better than other loads. One reason so many of us hand load.

 

[Mitch Dufour]

18 Oct 2023

2nd Range report.

Before I went out this morning I wiped out the chamber and ramp then oiled the slide, rails, and disconnect ramp.

200 rounds no issues, many of the mags where dumped as fast as I could at 20 yards from the steel. The 10" gong was hit about 85% of the time at 50 yards from the bench.

What really made me smile for this gun were several groups like the one below. Sitting and using a bench rest at 21'. Three mags full into that hole that measures about 2.5" at the widest.

Before the next outing I will give her a nice cleaning, color up the sights, and maybe change out the hard rubber stocks. And yes, I am still liking the value presented in this $400 1911.

 

[Mitch Dufour]

Current round count @ 330 with one fail to extract near the 115 round mark.

 

[Mitch Dufour]

Got it cleaned up, worked on the sight picture, and changed her shoes last night.

Tisas claims there are no MIM parts in these guns except the recoil spring plug. My close inspection of the small parts did not reveal any tell-tell mim injection port marks. I was pleased to see the ejector was pinned, but will note the plunger tube staking area seemed to reveal under sized studs. No way to be sure without ripping the tube out, but that is not going to happen!

 

[falshooter]

Tisas uses titanium firing pins

 

[Bam Bam]

Got it cleaned up, worked on the sight picture, and changed her shoes last night.

Tisas claims there are no MIM parts in these guns except the recoil spring plug. My close inspection of the small parts did not reveal any tell-tell mim injection port marks. I was pleased to see the ejector was pinned, but will note the plunger tube staking area seemed to reveal under sized studs. No way to be sure without ripping the tube out, but that is not going to happen!

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This is further disassembled than I would be comfortable right now, but I'm sure I will be ok later. Heck if I can disassemble $150K cars and put them back together I should be fine. I need to watch more videos on the 1911 D&A.

 

[Richard Michael]

This is further disassembled than I would be comfortable right now, but I'm sure I will be ok later. Heck if I can disassemble $150K cars and put them back together I should be fine. I need to watch more videos on the 1911 D&A.

If you have any problems, call me, I am just down the road!

 

[Mitch Dufour]

This is further disassembled than I would be comfortable right now, but I'm sure I will be ok later. Heck if I can disassemble $150K cars and put them back together I should be fine. I need to watch more videos on the 1911 D&A.

Just make sure you do all the safety checks after you put her back together.

 

[Mitch Dufour]

Another 220 rounds down range today with the Tisas 9mm Duty 1911. Nothing exciting to report, just another flawless day banging steel without any failures.


Total round count now at 550.

 

[Bam Bam]

How is the recoil with the 9mm version? I haven't shot a 9mm, but shot the 45 & 10mm versions which I loved shooting. I'm not sure I would want a 1911 in a lower powered caliber, guess I need to shoot one.