STI considered custom?

[heidad01]

Except when shooting you have human error and mechanical deviation so we rule out as much mechanical deviation as possible to minimize the group size.


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Except for guys who shoot 10" groups at 7 yards. No matter how much mechanical deviation is removed, they will still shoot 10" groups.
One has to be passed a certain level of skills before one is steady enough to take advantage of a 1" guarantee gun. So, one of the guys from the above group will shoot much the same groups out of a stock 1911 and a 1" guaranteed super custom 1911.
Yes, 1" guaranteed is a feature for a 1911 but majority of shooters do not need it nor can tell the difference.

[IVC]

Very few race guns need 1" groups at 50 yards, and very few shooters can shoot 1" groups at 50 yards.

The standard accuracy for USPSA is 1" at 10 yards, slow fire - no need to be better than that, even if many can do the same at 20 yards. Precision pistol ten-ring at 50 meters is 2" (50mm) and the world record is not a perfect score. Just to put it into perspective.

The accuracy you need at practical shooting events is not to be able to hit a plate at intermediate distance, but to be able to hit the plate when sights are not perfectly aligned (fast) at intermediate distance - you will aim at the center of the plate (not just anywhere at the "white"), but transition speed will make you not have the front sight exactly at the center, it will also make the sights not perfectly aligned (you will have only the "acceptable sight picture"), and trigger speed will introduce a small additional disturbance of the sights as you slam it fast. Overall, the gun will end up being pointed somewhere at the bulk of the target. A mechanical inaccuracy at that point can make the shot hit or miss, not because you can't hit the plate, but because you sacrificed unnecessary accuracy for speed.

Just a thought...

[sc870]

Negative

[JTROKS]

The standard accuracy for USPSA is 1" at 10 yards, slow fire - no need to be better than that, even if many can do the same at 20 yards. Precision pistol ten-ring at 50 meters is 2" (50mm) and the world record is not a perfect score. Just to put it into perspective.

The accuracy you need at practical shooting events is not to be able to hit a plate at intermediate distance, but to be able to hit the plate when sights are not perfectly aligned (fast) at intermediate distance - you will aim at the center of the plate (not just anywhere at the "white"), but transition speed will make you not have the front sight exactly at the center, it will also make the sights not perfectly aligned (you will have only the "acceptable sight picture"), and trigger speed will introduce a small additional disturbance of the sights as you slam it fast. Overall, the gun will end up being pointed somewhere at the bulk of the target. A mechanical inaccuracy at that point can make the shot hit or miss, not because you can't hit the plate, but because you sacrificed unnecessary accuracy for speed.

Just a thought...

[whan]

As others have said, I'd consider STI a higher end production manufacturer. They do work over / add a few more manhours in production, but that wouldn't make it a custom, or semi-custom manufacturer. Production guns for the most part (including STI) means that the various parts do not start out as oversized, and only require some minor fitting. Custom and semi-custom guns often start with parts that wouldn't fit at all together, and specifically require a gunsmith to fit the parts together. There's also a lot of extra attention to fitting and blending, such as trying to make the seam between a magwell and grip seamless, etc.

To me, full custom means that you can have the gun in any configuration, with any set of a wide variety of options provided by the Shop / gunsmith. For example, I had a colt gold cup national match customized by Jim Garthwaite with my specific set of options requested http://garthwaite.com/services/1911-custom-work.php. Similarly, just ordered a custom SVI infinity with options I requested.

A semi-custom manufacturer IMO has a set list of guns that are handfit, and have a limited number of modifications you can make to those guns. The shops may put just as much focus into fitting parts together as custom guns, but your options are limited in what you can do. Because they can control the number of options, they are able to fit the parts together faster, given less variance of parts or options they need to work on. A great example of a pure semi-custom would be Ed Brown.